Veiled chameleon has one eye closed

[Badilleo]

Hello everyone. New here. I don't really know how old my chemeleon is, I've had him about a month or so but I'm assuming he's a juvenile and maybe like 4 or 6 months old. He's been doing great, misting twice a day with spring water, 12 hours of uvb light (reptizoo 5uvb) I dust crickets with calcium without vitamin D almost every feeding and with vitamin D once a week of not once every two weeks. Have reptivitamins too once a month. he was a little close to his heat lamp before leaving work. When I came home, he had one eye closed. He seems to be babying it and scratching at it sometimes. I've rinsed it out with saline for sensitive eyes, two days later he's still keeping it closed. When he wants to hunt for crickets or I come close he opens both but will shortly close the one after a few. It doesn't seem to be discolored or anything, any advice will be great. I have an appointment for him (or her) the 29th...he still eats and is active.

 

[kinyonga]

Please post photos of the containers (front and back) of the supplements you are using.

What SPECIFICALLY do you feed to the insects?

 

[Badilleo]

Please post photos of the containers (front and back) of the supplements you are using.

What SPECIFICALLY do you feed to the insects?

 

[Badilleo]

Here is the husbandry

 

[Badilleo]

I also reread your comment. I feed them fresh watermelon, potatoes, and spinach to gutload.

 

[Gloriawood]

i just want to say hi and welcome. You’ve got a cutie there! Does he have a name? You’ve got one of the best people possible helping you here, so I’ll let @kinyonga give you advice.

 

[Badilleo]

i just want to say hi and welcome. You’ve got a cutie there! Does he have a name? You’ve got one of the best people possible helping you here, so I’ll let @kinyonga give you advice

Thank you so much. I think he is a he.. Lol. His name is captain!

 

[Gloriawood]

Thank you so much. I think he is a he.. Lol. His name is captain!

If you post a pic of the back of his rear feet, we can confirm for you. Males will have a little nub called a tarsal spur

 

[Badilleo]

If you post a pic of the back of his rear feet, we can confirm for you. Males will have a little nub called a tarsal spur

Best I can do for now!

 

[Gloriawood]

Best I can do for now!

I think Captain may be a little lady

 

[Badilleo]

Who ever said women can't be captains? that is awesome to hear. I have a friend that has a male veiled and it has white patches all over, like mine on its feet! Hope to hear help soon, it's been 2 days with the eye being weird. If needed, I will up the date for the vet visit.

 

[Gloriawood]

Who ever said women can't be captains? that is awesome to hear. I have a friend that has a male veiled and it has white patches all over, like mine on its feet! Hope to hear help soon, it's been 2 days with the eye being weird. If needed, I will up the date for the vet visit.

I’m not a vet, nor as knowledgeable as others, but to me it seems like a vitamin issue. The reptivite is a combo multivitamin and d3. You should be using it twice a month and plain no d3 calcium at all other feedings. If it is simply just supplement issues, she will need to work it out of her system and that can take time.

Of course, it may be something else so let others give their opinions before you settle on it being that.

 

[kinyonga]

I’m not a vet but I think the vitamin D3 and vitamin A are out of balance.

 

[Badilleo]

Thank you guys. Any recommendations on vitamins then besides the multivitamin?

And by out of balance, are yoh meaning I'm over doing it? Or not enough? I have an appointment for the 29th to get her seen..jusr don't want her to die on me. She hasn't gotten better, but not worse either. Will continue to monitor.

 

[Beman]

Hey there welcome to the forum. Supplements are not quite right. So drop the calcium with D3. You will use the reptivite with D3 two times a month only say the 1st and the 15th then all other feedings you will use the calcium without D3.

Per gutload for the insects you want to correct this. No spinach as it is calcium binding. See gutload image.

This is a female Veiled. She will need a lay bin and temps and feeding changes for her.
As she matures you will have to start cutting back her food. By about 6-7 months she should be getting about 5-8 small feeders each day. At about 7-8 months you want to slowly reduce by cutting down feeder amounts so that she is on a feeding schedule of 3 days a week with 3 feeders. You want them to be on this schedule by the time they are 9-10 months old.


You will not ever want basking to be over 78-80 for her. Very important for females because as she ages she needs this temp no higher at basking to help control the amount of eggs she produces. The hotter the temp the more their metabolism speeds up so we have to keep the temp lower since we are doing lower food intake.

A lay bin should be added as a permanent fixture by the time they are 6 months old so they get used to it and it does not cause stress.
https://www.chameleonforums.com/threads/laying-bin-set-up-educational-video.77225/
https://www.chameleonforums.com/blogs/veiled-chameleon-laying-101.2488/

All plastic plants should be removed. These are dangerous with veileds as they eat their plants. Choose from the veiled tested plants on the image. Lowes or home depot indoor nursery have many of these options.

For the UVB you want to switch out the UVB bulb. Reptizoo bulbs do not put out the UVI needed like arcadia or reptisun. You want to replace the bulb with either a 5.0 or 6% bulb. https://www.chameleonforums.com/threads/anybody-have-one-of-these-lights.192188/post-1794637

I have a feeling the eye is bothering her. If you are handmisting this tends to be a harder mist and people do not typically mist long enough to trigger an eye cleaning response. It may very well be that she has something stuck that she is trying to clear.

 

[MzLaurie]

Hello and welcome. Eye issues are tough. The good thing is that it’s only one eye. For whatever reason it may be painful to keep it open. Other reasons could be burn to either eye lid or eyeball, abcess forming behind eye lid. A vet visit is definitely warranted. As for supplement regiment, dust with calcium without d3 daily and on the 1st and 15th of the month dust with reptivite only. Now since you have a female and you are not sure of her age, you are going to have to research egg laying and get a lay in for her. At the vet visit, as the vet if she has eggs yet. MissSkittles here has some great blogs on this site about the ladies that I suggest you read. They are like chickens and will lay without having been fertilized. Once she is full grown, you can alter feeding and diet to limit egg production. Veileds lay a crazy number of eggs! Anyway, I am so glad you came here for advice and please keep us posted with this issue. We all learn from each other here. Oh if she got too close to the light by screen walking, you need to prop the basking light up so it’s not sitting directly on the screen. Make sure there is an eight inch space between the light and the basking branch too. If you can post some full pics of her we might be able to figure out her age. Best of luck to you and Captain

 

[Badilleo]

Just wanted to give an update. Captain hasn't gotten any worse. Unfortunately not better either. She is active using both eyes but still rests the one. I took captain to the vet and had her inspected for anything in her eye. Vet said there was nothing in there and to monitor it. I was told cut back on the vitamin D calcium and use the multivitamin only twice per the regimen you guys have given me. I didn't know about a nesting box, and I will be following the guide you posted. I am getting a 5 gallon bucket and will be transferring my center plant (smaller Pachira tree) with topsoil etc so she can start laying eggs comfortably. I am also working on getting the reptisun 5 uvb replacement for my reptizoo one, as I want the best for her. Thank you guys for all the hell and helping me along with making sure captain is comfortable and healthy. I raised my basking light too, I installed a tall branch that comes about a foot out of the top of the cage, have the light hanging off that so the basking temp for her will be significantly lower (not 82-85 anymore.) I am also still currently working on getting more plants(they're expensive honestly! For a good vine plant they're like 20 dollars!)

 

[Badilleo]

Also can someone recommend a led light for my plants to stay healthy. (I didn't have one and my spotted begonia died in there and had to pull it out. Also any recommendations on plants or how to hang them and keep the husbandry right for the screens would be helpful too. Thank you! Also do you recommend and actual lay bin to be in there separate from the actual center plant? Or will the 5gallpn bucket with plant in there work just fine and better? I wanna use the half sand and half soil mix but idk if that would be good for my plant. Let me know!

 

[Gloriawood]

Just wanted to give an update. Captain hasn't gotten any worse. Unfortunately not better either. She is active using both eyes but still rests the one. I took captain to the vet and had her inspected for anything in her eye. Vet said there was nothing in there and to monitor it. I was told cut back on the vitamin D calcium and use the multivitamin only twice per the regimen you guys have given me. I didn't know about a nesting box, and I will be following the guide you posted. I am getting a 5 gallon bucket and will be transferring my center plant (smaller Pachira tree) with topsoil etc so she can start laying eggs comfortably. I am also working on getting the reptisun 5 uvb replacement for my reptizoo one, as I want the best for her. Thank you guys for all the hell and helping me along with making sure captain is comfortable and healthy. I raised my basking light too, I installed a tall branch that comes about a foot out of the top of the cage, have the light hanging off that so the basking temp for her will be significantly lower (not 82-85 anymore.) I am also still currently working on getting more plants(they're expensive honestly! For a good vine plant they're like 20 dollars!)

So with supplement issues, they just have to work it out of their system. It can take a few weeks. So long as she isn’t getting worse, then you are good. Just monitor very closely for now. I’ll let others answer about the lay bin.

 

[MzLaurie]

Thank you for the update. If your girl will use a lay bin, that would be easier to remove the eggs. But in the wild they will try to lay their eggs in the root systems of plants. That way when it rains they wont wash away and the hatchlings can crawl up the roots to get out. I had the biggest problem with getting my little panther cham to use a lay bin. She thought the floor of the cage was the ground and would lay them there! I spoke to about five different breeders about this. general consensus was that will continue to happen. so i got a bin that was the same width as the screen with the length being bigger and cut in half and overlapped the two sections so it would fit then sealed it with glue then chalking and tape on top of that then i removed the floor of the cage and bolted it to the new base but four inches of rocks sand on that then a 50/50 mix planted all my plants in the base with a richer soil around the plants and a 50/50 around them and it worked like a charm! She loved digging. Also the plants stayed healthy without a plant light. Now i had a sansi for my other cage. Problem was it is expensive and gives off a lot of heat then burnt out after two years. Since i had an extra 24" uvb hood for a 22" bulb, i got Grow bulb that works for that for about $12 and its not bright white but light pink maybe and its working good. Some peope have trade out plants and they swap them out each month. I live inan apartment so i dont have access to outside lighting. Oh you can place a piece of wood or sonething accross top of cage on the outside and use heavy gaged fishing line so it doesnt tear the screen to hang plants from. I put a large stick angled from one cover to the next then hang things from that. Also i keep a roll of screen repair tape on hand for any tears and yes there have been many, lol! if your girls basking branch isnt warm enough you may have to raise it a bit higher till she stops screen walking. In your five gallon bucket put rocks in first as there are no drainage holes. I do this with most of my plants even if there is drainage. It keeps that heavy mud from forming and cauaing root rot. This is a new world and they require a lot but you have to think outside the box. Run your ideas by us and see what feedback you get. Most of us have spent a fortune trying to find out what works but once you get there, it gets much easier to manage.