Some qustions about my Chameleon

poopdedoop

poopdedoop

New Member
Hey everyone. I'm new here and I hope some people could help me out.

I have a vield chameleon, I've had her for about 2 weeks and she's been pretty good so far, she's got quite the personality. I have noticed recently she has been scratching her eye on one of the branches in her cage. I have been looking around online and haven't really found an answer to why she might be doing this.

I mist her cage multiple times a day and I have a drip system that she uses (after I mist the cage, she'll walk to where the dripper is, and wait for me to turn it on for her) She doesn't like it when I mist her, She turns black and runs away and then she stares at me and I know she's saying "I hate you right now"

She's eating regularly. She'll eat around 8-10 crickets a day.
Her poops look normal (as far as I can tell) and she's very active. When I let her out, she runs around wherever she wants. (she's a fast little bugger)

Everything about her seems fine. I'm just worried about her eye. I noticed today that she was rubbing both. It could just be an itch? I try and keep her area humid by misting 2-3 times a day (right now she's in a glass cage with a mesh top, yes I know it's not good for them, I'm moving her to a large er wire cage either today or tomorrow) But I'm wondering if that could be the problem? that she's in a glass cage?

Also, sometimes I'll see her one eye (left) she'll mobe it around, and it'll bulge out a bit in the front, looks as if she's moving it out of the socket, is this normal? SHe's done this every so often ever since I got her.

Any help on this would be great. She's my baby and I don't want her to get sick.

I've added some pictures of her and her current enclosure
 

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Welcome to the Chameleon Forms! Sorry to hear that your chameleon has been scratching her eye. It would be helpful for us to be able to help you if you would fill this out and more pictures too.


How to ask for help

Here is some recommended information to include when asking for help in the health clinic forum. By providing this information, you will receive more accurate and beneficial responses. It might not be necessary to answer all these questions, but the more you provide the better. Please remember that even the most knowledgeable person can only guess at what your problem may be. Only an experienced reptile veterinarian who can directly examine your animal can give a true diagnosis of your chameleon's health.


Cage Info:
Cage Type - Describe your cage (Glass, Screen, Combo?) What are the dimensions?
Lighting - What brand, model, and types of lighting are you using? What is your daily lighting schedule?
Temperature - What temp range have you created (cage floor to basking spot)? Lowest overnight temp? How do you measure these temps?
Humidity - What are your humidity levels? How are you creating and maintaining these levels? What do you use to measure humidity?
Plants - Are you using live plants? If so, what kind?
Placement - Where is your cage located? Is it near any fans, air vents, or high traffic areas? At what height is the top of the cage relative to your room floor?
Location - Where are you geographically located?

Chameleon Info:
Your Chameleon - The species, sex, and age of your chameleon. How long has it been in your care?
Handling - How often do you handle your chameleon?
Feeding - What are you feeding your cham? What amount? What is the schedule? How are you gut-loading your feeders?
Supplements - What brand and type of calcium and vitamin products are you dusting your feeders with and what is the schedule?
Watering - What kind of watering technique do you use? How often and how long to you mist? Do you see your chameleon drinking?
Fecal Description - Briefly note colors and consistency from recent droppings. Has this chameleon ever been tested for parasites?
History - Any previous information about your cham that might be useful to others when trying to help you.
Current Problem - The current problem that you are concerned about.

Pictures are helpful
 
They do make their eyes bulge and screw them up tight when you mist - it's part of their cleaning routine and completely normal, although it's really scary how far they can bulge out though! Dunno about the rubbing of the eye though - Amy only does this when she's shedding, although she did do it the other day when she was misted and got a big drop of water in her eye!
 
Okay I'll do my best for this

Cage Info:

Cage Type - Glass with Screen top. 12"W x 24"L x 12"D

Lighting - Currently I'm using a Exo Terra Pepti Glo26W 5.0UVB lamp and a 60W Zoo Med Ceramic Infrared Heat Emitter in a Fulker's Clamp Lamp ( I'm getting a new Light/heat setup today though) I turn on and off the lamps manually. Usually about 9 or 10am till about 9PM (she goes to sleeparound the same time (between 9 and 9:30pm)

Temperature - Under the heat lamp it's about 28C (uh... 82F I think) and about 20C on the other side of the cage. At night the temp will drop about 5-10C I have tempeature strips on either side of the cage.

Humidity - Humidity is about 50%-70% I mist 2-3 times a day I have a hygromometer in the middle of the cage to measure

Plants - No Live plants, Just plast ones right now, I'm still trying to find a good live plant to put in for her.

Placement - Right now She's on top of my dresser in my room, very low traffic area. No fans or air vents near her. Top of the cage is just under 6 feet from the floor.

Location - Southwestern Ontario, Canada

Chameleon Info:

Your Chameleon - Vield Chameleon, Female, Age between 4 and 6 months maybe?) I've had her for 2 weeks now

Handling - I take her out once ever few days, for about 10-15min

Feeding - I have Crickets and Mealworms, Her main food are crickets, and she'll eat mealworms as a snack throughout the day) I'll feed her betwen 4 and 5 in the morning, and the same in the evening. I have a cleaned out bucket with a vented top for my crickets, I am using a gut-loader (Fulker's Calcium-rich cricket feed) and for water, I give them fruit (like oranges) for drinking.

Supplements - I dust the crickets every time with calcium power before I feed her.

Watering - I have a drip system and I mist. I'll mist the area first, and she'll walk over to the drip system and wait for me to turn it on for her. she'll drink for about 5 minutes once or twice a day. I do see her drink, and it makes me happy.

Fecal Description - her poop is a solid cremey greyish/brown colour, and what I assume is her pee looks like a kind of solid yellow spiral thing in a clear yellow liquid. As far as I know, she has been tested at the pet store (all their pets are before they get them)

History - I haven't had her for too long so I don't have much of a history with her. She doesn't seem to like my girlfirend too much, she'd rather be with me then her :p

Current Problem - All in my first post in this thread.

Note: This is all temp. I'm going to be moving her to a larger area in my basement, where the temperature is more consistant, and it's wamer down there, as winter is on it's way.

Here are some more Pictures of her as well:
 

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Yellow/ish urates means its not quite getting enough water. This is probly related to feeding all those mealworms, which your lizard is trying very hard to digest.
Mealworms are really not a great thing to feed so much or so often, their shells are mostly indigestable and constant feeding of them can lead to your lizard becoming blocked up.
Try to get some other bugs and worms keeping as much food variety as possible in its diet. Feeding your insects some moist fruits aswell as fresh vegetables will go along way to ensuring your lizard gets more moisture.

Its possible your lizard is getting ready to shed and feeling itchy, resulting in the eye rubbing. You can mist any plants, branches, vines etc in the cage atleast once a day to boost ambient humidity.

Cheers :)
 
I don't feed her mealworms too often. Actually maybe once a week she'll get 2 or 3 but she'll eat them over the corse of maybe 2 or 3 days......
 
the cage you have her in now (judging from your other thread) may have too high of humidity. she may be getting an eye infection or have some kind of bacterial infection due to the stagnant water in the wet substrate. or,* she may be about to shed and she is trying to break off the old skin. in the other thread I said something about MBD. she looks good in these pictures, just keep an eye out for it. Do avoid the mealworms though. If she likes worms, try super-worms. As for the Yellow urate, she is somewhat dehydrated and it should be white.

I think moving her into a 30+" tall cage would help with a lot of the problems of misting and whatnot. To help with a basking spot, get rid of the ceramic coil. A normal incandescent house light offers a wider light spectrum as well as the necessary heat for the basking area. If your still looking for good plants, in the blogs section there is a wonderful list of plants that are good for chams. Most of them are available at home improvement warehouses. Stick to that list though because they have a tendency (especially veileds) to eat the leaves and you don't want her eating a toxic plant.
 
How many times do you feed her a week? Chams should only get calcium, powder once or twice a week as to not overdose. Also, does your calcium powder have vitamin A? If so, she may be getting too much and is coming down with an eye infection. An overdose or deficiency of vitamin A can cause serious health problems, starting with eye infections.
P.S.- I like to mix reptical and reptilife powders and coat molly's crickets (she eats canned crickets because she is almost completely blind, the consequence of starting off life at petsmart) every saturday.
 
 
justjumpit621 said:
How many times do you feed her a week? Chams should only get calcium, powder once or twice a week as to not overdose. Also, does your calcium powder have vitamin A? If so, she may be getting too much and is coming down with an eye infection. An overdose or deficiency of vitamin A can cause serious health problems, starting with eye infections.
P.S.- I like to mix reptical and reptilife powders and coat molly's crickets (she eats canned crickets because she is almost completely blind, the consequence of starting off life at petsmart) every saturday.
Click to expand...

I feed her 4 in the morning and 4 in the evening. I was told to use the calcium power when I feed her, I don't use a lot usually only in the morning, I'll cut back tho. If this is the case and she is getting an infection, is there anything I can do to help?

kinyonga said:
Is this the cricket feeder?
http://www.petco.com/product/6202/Fluker's-Laboratories-High-Calcium-Cricket-Feed.aspx

Is this the light?
http://www.wijayapetshop.biz//index...n=com_virtuemart&Itemid=64&vmcchk=1&Itemid=64

I don't use any substrate with chameleons since there is always a risk of ingestion of it resulting in impaction.
Click to expand...

Yes that is the like and the cricket feeder.

RSGriff said:
the cage you have her in now (judging from your other thread) may have too high of humidity. she may be getting an eye infection or have some kind of bacterial infection due to the stagnant water in the wet substrate. or,* she may be about to shed and she is trying to break off the old skin. in the other thread I said something about MBD. she looks good in these pictures, just keep an eye out for it. Do avoid the mealworms though. If she likes worms, try super-worms. As for the Yellow urate, she is somewhat dehydrated and it should be white.

I think moving her into a 30+" tall cage would help with a lot of the problems of misting and whatnot. To help with a basking spot, get rid of the ceramic coil. A normal incandescent house light offers a wider light spectrum as well as the necessary heat for the basking area. If your still looking for good plants, in the blogs section there is a wonderful list of plants that are good for chams. Most of them are available at home improvement warehouses. Stick to that list though because they have a tendency (especially veileds) to eat the leaves and you don't want her eating a toxic plant.
Click to expand...

That's what I was thinking originally (about the cage she's in) I am going to be moving her tomorrow. I have noticed that she is getting some flakey skin, so it cold very well be that she's scratching. It's just kinda scary seeing her go at it how she is. I have lots of fake plants right now for her new cage (to put along the sides) I am going to add a live plant as soon as I can.
 
Some compact lights can cause eye problems. You can read about it here....
http://www.uvguide.co.uk/

I dust with calcium at almost every feeding and its never been a problem. My veiled females, for example usually live to be 6+ years old. Calcium is particularly important to growing chameleons and gravid females.
Here's a good article about calcium...
http://chameleonnews.com/?page=article&id=102
And two about vitamin A and vitamin D/calcium...
http://web.archive.org/web/20060502...rnals.com/vet/index.php?show=5.Vitamin.A.html
http://web.archive.org/web/20060421.../index.php?show=6.Vitamin.D3.and.Calcium.html

To the best of my knowledge its lack of vitamin A that can cause swollen eyes, not too much of it.
"It is a well-known fact that vitamin A deficiency can cause swollen eyes in chameleons"...
http://www.reptilechannel.com/reptile-health/lizard-health/chameleon-eyes-bleeding.aspx
 
kinyonga said:
Is this the cricket feeder?
http://www.petco.com/product/6202/Fluker's-Laboratories-High-Calcium-Cricket-Feed.aspx

Is this the light?
http://www.wijayapetshop.biz//index...n=com_virtuemart&Itemid=64&vmcchk=1&Itemid=64

I don't use any substrate with chameleons since there is always a risk of ingestion of it resulting in impaction.

Here are some good sites that talk about supplements...
http://web.archive.org/web/20060502...rnals.com/vet/index.php?show=5.Vitamin.A.html
http://web.archive.org/web/20060421.../index.php?show=6.Vitamin.D3.and.Calcium.html
http://chameleonnews.com/?page=article&id=102
Click to expand...

I do not believe forum rules are set in stone...we all try to do our best to serve our loved Chams...and some of us (including me) do things less orthodox, but I have to say you deserve Rep points for always giving a library of information. Rep points added. :)
 
Take a good long look at this site to learn about how you can give your cham a better life.... Link

You need to get her a screen cage. What is your misting like? how often... stuff like that...

You should ditch the ceramic heater. Just use a normal household lamp. She needs the UVA from it. And also you might wanna change over to a linear UVB lamp. The zoo med reptisun 5.0 is the perfect lamp. the screw in style lamps aka: CFL, are not good.
 
Zoo Med Ceramic Infrared Heat Emitter
Click to expand...

Remove, Buy a regular house bulb... maybe 60W

Glass with Screen top. 12"W x 24"L x 12"D
Click to expand...

First off, you need screen. second, chameleons are aboreal, which means they liv in TREES. so remove the substrate, and get a TALL cage. 3 feet at LEAST.

20C on the other side
Click to expand...

Too cold IMO

No Live plants,
Click to expand...

Get some

Mealworms,
Click to expand...

Mealworms often cause impaction. you shoul use them only once a week, or less.

I dust the crickets every time with calcium power before I feed her.
Click to expand...

Remember to use calcium With vitamin D3 twice a month,
Without vitamin D3 almost every time
Multivitamin twice a month

-Steve
 
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