Sores - Unshed Skin?

jc31

jc31

Member
Hello Everyone,

Looking to get some help....

Last month my Panther did not shed the top of his knees and a spot on his body. I get him out in the sun for about 30 min 1- 3 times a week, during his shed I do a 10 min shower prior to outdoor free range.

He shed again a couple days ago but these spots remain.

He's not moody, doesn't care if I touch it and eats normal. Pic was taken today during his free range session.

Could this be too much humidity? A lack of certain supplement?

How do I cure it?
  • Your Chameleon - Male Panther Chameleon, 1.5 years old, 1 year in my care.
  • Handling - How often do you handle your chameleon? about 3-4 times a week to take him out free range outdoors.
  • Feeding - What are you feeding your cham? Crickets (staple), Superworm & Hornworms (Treats 1-2x week) What amount? 8-12 crickets couple worms. What is the schedule? Feed everyday besides WED. How are you gut-loading your feeders? Bug burger and veggie/green scraps.
  • Supplements - What brand and type of calcium and vitamin products are you dusting your feeders with and what is the schedule? Repashi Calcium Plus, RepCal Herptivite (twice a month) repcal Calcium with Vitamin D3 (twice a month)
  • Watering - What kind of watering technique do you use? How often and how long to you mist? Do you see your chameleon drinking? Mist King running, 3x a day 60 sec each. 9am, 3pm, 9pm.
  • Fecal Description - Briefly note colors and consistency from recent droppings. Has this chameleon ever been tested for parasites? white, black/brown - not parasite test
  • History - Any previous information about your cham that might be useful to others when trying to help you.

Cage Info:
  • Cage Type - Describe your cage (Glass, Screen, Combo?) What are the dimensions? XL Reptibreeze
  • Lighting - What brand, model, and types of lighting are you using? What is your daily lighting schedule? 75W heat lamp with dimer, reptisun UVB (6%) - timer set 9am - 7pm
  • Temperature - What temp range have you created (cage floor to basking spot)? Lowest overnight temp? How do you measure these temps? Kept indoors, 50-80+ degrees (basking between mid high 80's), temp gauge in enclosure and infrared therm to test basking spot.
  • Humidity - What are your humidity levels? How are you creating and maintaining these levels? What do you use to measure humidity? 40%-80% - Mist King 3x a day.
  • Plants - Are you using live plants? If so, what kind? yes live plants in separate pots. (Pothos)
  • 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? Corner of office, not directly front of window or vents. top of cage is roughly 6.5 feet from floor onto of stand.
  • Location - Where are you geographically located? Northern CA
 

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Last edited:
  • Your Chameleon - Male Panther Chameleon, 1.5 years old, 1 year in my care.
  • Handling - How often do you handle your chameleon? about 3-4 times a week to take him out free range outdoors. This is great!
  • Feeding - What are you feeding your cham? Crickets (staple), Superworm & Hornworms (Treats 1-2x week) What amount? 8-12 crickets couple worms. What is the schedule? Feed everyday besides WED. Nice variety of feeder, but you could try adding some silkworms, bsfl or roaches every now and again. You are feeding him quite a lot. You didn’t include his face/casque in the pic so I can’t tell if he is overweight. If his casque is puffed up, he is needing a diet. I feed all of my chams 3-4 feeders, 3 days a week plus treats and that maintains healthy weights. How are you gut-loading your feeders? Bug burger and veggie/green scraps. Perfect
  • Supplements - What brand and type of calcium and vitamin products are you dusting your feeders with and what is the schedule? Repashi Calcium Pulse, RepCal Herptiite (twice a month) epical Calcium with Vitamin D3 (twice a month) The Repashy calcium plus is a multivitamin with D3. The Herptivite is a multivitamin and then you are giving more D3. Plus, your guy is getting sunshine when you take him outside and he is forming natural D3 from that. He has been way overdosed with D3 and multivitamins. I’m quite surprised you haven’t seen any other issues like weakness, twitching, etc. Stop giving all of those supplements immediately. Give only a phosphorus free calcium without D3 very lightly dusted for all feedings. Give your guy at least a month with no other supplements. Since he is getting natural vitamin D, I would say to use the calcium plus for only one feeding per month. Also, use the Herptivite for one feeding per month as well. Try to space giving those two evenly apart.
  • Watering - What kind of watering technique do you use? How often and how long to you mist? Do you see your chameleon drinking? Mist King running, 3x a day 60 sec each. 9am, 3pm, 9pm. This could be improved upon by increasing misting times to 2 minutes for the 9AM and 9PM sessions.
  • Fecal Description - Briefly note colors and consistency from recent droppings. Has this chameleon ever been tested for parasites? white, black/brown - not parasite test Is always good to have a fecal check for parasites, especially if you get your crickets from any of the big box pet stores. There’s always the risk that an employee put an uneaten cricket from an animal enclosure back into the bin.
  • History - Any previous information about your cham that might be useful to others when trying to help you.

Cage Info:
  • Cage Type - Describe your cage (Glass, Screen, Combo?) What are the dimensions? XL Reptibreeze Very good
  • Lighting - What brand, model, and types of lighting are you using? What is your daily lighting schedule? 75W heat lamp with dimer, reptisun UVB (6%) - timer set 9am - 7pm Has your uvb bulb been changed? The Arcadia bulbs are good for one year and then output is too reduced.
  • Temperature - What temp range have you created (cage floor to basking spot)? Lowest overnight temp? How do you measure these temps? Kept indoors, 50-80+ degrees (basking between mid high 80's), temp gauge in enclosure and infrared therm to test basking spot.
  • Humidity - What are your humidity levels? How are you creating and maintaining these levels? What do you use to measure humidity? 40%-80% - Mist King 3x a day. If your night temp is consistently below 68, you could run a cool mist humidifier for a few hours at night and boost humidity all the way. That’s a way to simulate the hydration they get in the wild thru fog.
    All the rest is great!
  • Plants - Are you using live plants? If so, what kind? yes live plants in separate pots. (Pothos)
  • 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? Corner of office, not directly front of window or vents. top of cage is roughly 6.5 feet from floor onto of stand.
  • Location - Where are you geographically located? Northern CA
You need to correct your supplements asap before your guy develops any other and serious problems. Vitamin D3 is fat soluble and the supplement form of it takes time to be metabolized and eliminated by the body. It very easily can build up to toxic levels. The Repashy supplement has preformed vitamin A, which is also fat soluble and the same as D3. While both of these are great vitamins and needed by chameleons, we need to be careful in how much we provide. The D3 obtained by sunshine is different and does not build up. I believe our body only produces as much of it as we need. To further risk confusion, the Herptivite contains proformed vitamin A, which is not fat soluble, but it’s questionable if chams are able to utilize it. Supplements have no doubt contributed to poor shedding.
 
Now, regarding your guy’s knees. They look kind of odd, with the circles at the joint. I’d like to see more pics of him which are of all of him. I almost wonder if those circular areas are burns or something, but that is a strange place and would expect his back to be burned. Another suspect would be a fungal infection, but again, why just confined to those two symmetrical areas? Have you noticed if he doesn’t move out of the way of the spray from the mister? It took me a while to figure out that was why my chams were having irregular shedding. Chams are dry shedders, so water will make the shed skin adhere more. Is it just one layer of shed skin on his knees, or multiple layers? If multiple, I would advise a good vet who’s experienced with chameleons to help. Otherwise, the skin should hopefully come off on its own in time.
 
MissSkittles said:
  • Your Chameleon - Male Panther Chameleon, 1.5 years old, 1 year in my care.
  • Handling - How often do you handle your chameleon? about 3-4 times a week to take him out free range outdoors. This is great!
  • Feeding - What are you feeding your cham? Crickets (staple), Superworm & Hornworms (Treats 1-2x week) What amount? 8-12 crickets couple worms. What is the schedule? Feed everyday besides WED. Nice variety of feeder, but you could try adding some silkworms, bsfl or roaches every now and again. You are feeding him quite a lot. You didn’t include his face/casque in the pic so I can’t tell if he is overweight. If his casque is puffed up, he is needing a diet. I feed all of my chams 3-4 feeders, 3 days a week plus treats and that maintains healthy weights. How are you gut-loading your feeders? Bug burger and veggie/green scraps. Perfect
  • Supplements - What brand and type of calcium and vitamin products are you dusting your feeders with and what is the schedule? Repashi Calcium Pulse, RepCal Herptiite (twice a month) epical Calcium with Vitamin D3 (twice a month) The Repashy calcium plus is a multivitamin with D3. The Herptivite is a multivitamin and then you are giving more D3. Plus, your guy is getting sunshine when you take him outside and he is forming natural D3 from that. He has been way overdosed with D3 and multivitamins. I’m quite surprised you haven’t seen any other issues like weakness, twitching, etc. Stop giving all of those supplements immediately. Give only a phosphorus free calcium without D3 very lightly dusted for all feedings. Give your guy at least a month with no other supplements. Since he is getting natural vitamin D, I would say to use the calcium plus for only one feeding per month. Also, use the Herptivite for one feeding per month as well. Try to space giving those two evenly apart.
  • Watering - What kind of watering technique do you use? How often and how long to you mist? Do you see your chameleon drinking? Mist King running, 3x a day 60 sec each. 9am, 3pm, 9pm. This could be improved upon by increasing misting times to 2 minutes for the 9AM and 9PM sessions.
  • Fecal Description - Briefly note colors and consistency from recent droppings. Has this chameleon ever been tested for parasites? white, black/brown - not parasite test Is always good to have a fecal check for parasites, especially if you get your crickets from any of the big box pet stores. There’s always the risk that an employee put an uneaten cricket from an animal enclosure back into the bin.
  • History - Any previous information about your cham that might be useful to others when trying to help you.

Cage Info:
  • Cage Type - Describe your cage (Glass, Screen, Combo?) What are the dimensions? XL Reptibreeze Very good
  • Lighting - What brand, model, and types of lighting are you using? What is your daily lighting schedule? 75W heat lamp with dimer, reptisun UVB (6%) - timer set 9am - 7pm Has your uvb bulb been changed? The Arcadia bulbs are good for one year and then output is too reduced.
  • Temperature - What temp range have you created (cage floor to basking spot)? Lowest overnight temp? How do you measure these temps? Kept indoors, 50-80+ degrees (basking between mid high 80's), temp gauge in enclosure and infrared therm to test basking spot.
  • Humidity - What are your humidity levels? How are you creating and maintaining these levels? What do you use to measure humidity? 40%-80% - Mist King 3x a day. If your night temp is consistently below 68, you could run a cool mist humidifier for a few hours at night and boost humidity all the way. That’s a way to simulate the hydration they get in the wild thru fog.
    All the rest is great!
  • Plants - Are you using live plants? If so, what kind? yes live plants in separate pots. (Pothos)
  • 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? Corner of office, not directly front of window or vents. top of cage is roughly 6.5 feet from floor onto of stand.
  • Location - Where are you geographically located? Northern CA
You need to correct your supplements asap before your guy develops any other and serious problems. Vitamin D3 is fat soluble and the supplement form of it takes time to be metabolized and eliminated by the body. It very easily can build up to toxic levels. The Repashy supplement has preformed vitamin A, which is also fat soluble and the same as D3. While both of these are great vitamins and needed by chameleons, we need to be careful in how much we provide. The D3 obtained by sunshine is different and does not build up. I believe our body only produces as much of it as we need. To further risk confusion, the Herptivite contains proformed vitamin A, which is not fat soluble, but it’s questionable if chams are able to utilize it. Supplements have no doubt contributed to poor shedding.
Click to expand...

Appreciate the insight, I'll adjust the supplements based on your input. My Acradia bulb is actually coming up on a year next month so I'll just replace it now. His casque isn't overly fat so I don't think he's over weight.
 
MissSkittles said:
Now, regarding your guy’s knees. They look kind of odd, with the circles at the joint. I’d like to see more pics of him which are of all of him. I almost wonder if those circular areas are burns or something, but that is a strange place and would expect his back to be burned. Another suspect would be a fungal infection, but again, why just confined to those two symmetrical areas? Have you noticed if he doesn’t move out of the way of the spray from the mister? It took me a while to figure out that was why my chams were having irregular shedding. Chams are dry shedders, so water will make the shed skin adhere more. Is it just one layer of shed skin on his knees, or multiple layers? If multiple, I would advise a good vet who’s experienced with chameleons to help. Otherwise, the skin should hopefully come off on its own in time.
Click to expand...
I was actually thinking about the amount of water/humidity being a contributing factor. He doesn't care for the misting, frankly he reacts how anyone would react getting sprayed. Doesn't run to it, or from it.

First shed was last month, now this one - I'll try to locate a good local rep vet in my area.
 
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