JGuinan007, in general, I haven't seen parasites show up as anything dramatic at all, and I've dealt with a LOT of parasites. Go look at the pictures of this female:
https://www.chameleonforums.com/threads/my-newest-gracilior.146416/
She looks the picture of health, doesn't she? She has hookworm and, as the vet put it, "tadpole-sized flagellates." She's a long-term wild caught (a year) and probably brought these parasites with her from Africa.
So please, JGuinan007, be very careful of what you offer as truths to someone who is a novice and worried about their new chameleon. Novice people have enough trouble sorting out fact from fiction.
Noahtb54, I read through this thread and more information and better pictures would help a lot.
First off, get rid of a that infrared heat lamp. He does not need to be warm at night. Light at night is a big stressor. I wouldn't add heat
for a healthy veiled unless your temps got down into the 40s. Sixties is fine. If you do need to add heat at night, use a ceramic bulb heater. They do best with a decent temperature drop.
You can use an ordinary incandescent light bulb for a basking bulb. The purpose of a basking bulb it two fold. First, it increases the temperatures of the cage; and secondly, it heats the skin, which is critical for the whole UVB/Vitamin D synthesis.
Your complaint is that he is suddenly sleeping in the afternoon. Mine often pretty much settle in for the night around 3:00 p.m., hours before either the sun goes down (there are lots of windows in their room) or the lights go off. Is this what you are talking about or is he actually closing his eyes? If he is closing his eyes, that's a problem and I would recommend you take him to a vet who is experienced with reptiles.
Are you sure he is a captive bred? Do you know his history? Where did you get him from? I think--but am not sure--that wild-caught veileds taken from the feral Florida populations are coming on the market in increasing numbers. Captive bred veileds in pet shops tend to be little babies, not big ones like yours.
There's a few reasons he might be inactive, one being the temps a bit too low. In cold houses in winter, it is hard to get the rest of the cage warm enough at the same time not cook them with the basking bulb. If they are not hungry, a lot of chameleons will just sit around in one spot. Dehydration--and it isn't all that easy for a novice to recognize dehydration--in and of itself can be the cause of a decline, so I would be really working to hydrate him. I hate screen cages for a lot of reasons, but one is the problem of being able to get humidity up and have water droplets stay as water droplets on the leaves of plants, especially fake plants. (I saw what looked like a water bowl in his cage--ditch that, they drink from water droplets on leaves.) Another reason they can become inactive is that the light is just not bright enough. Looking at your lights, I bet your cage is really quite dark. (I use Arcadia lights from Light Your Reptiles, a site sponsor. They aren't more expensive than the ZooMed lights and throw a LOT more UVB as well as just plain light. I noticed a HUGE difference when I switched my veiled from ZooMed lighting--tube UVB and LED--to the Arcadia lights. He just woke up and came alive.)
Supplementation won't have any impact on his health in the week you've had him. Neither will incorrect UVB lighting. Both are slow developing problems, so don't get sidetracked with whether or not the supplements/lights are right. You want to know if he is behaving like a normal, healthy chameleon. More pictures, and of course, the filling out the "how to ask for help" form everyone is asking for would be a big help.
