White substance around nose - should I be worried?

veiledRandell said:
Chameleon Info:

  • Your Chameleon - Veiled, male, around 8 months, I’ve had him for roughly 3 weeks
  • Handling - I handle him quite regularly, he’s very curious and loves wondering around, I make sure I sanitise my hands before
  • Feeding - Crickets, locusts, was worms. About 5-6 crickets/locusts each day, and occasional wax worm only once a week maybe? Feed him mainly mid-day, and just put his food in his viv
  • Supplements - Vetark calci-dust, dust a fewcrickets/locusts every 4-5 days
  • Watering - Mist his viv twice daily, use a water dish, tap water. I see him drinking, been a few times where he’s sat on my hand and I’ve held the water dish for him
  • Fecal Description - Poop is okay definitely (uses me as a toilet sometimes lol) yellow/whitish urine, normal consistency poop and normal colour, not been tested for parasites as far as I’m aware
  • History - Unsure of any history, got him from a good pet shop who are exotic specialists

Cage Info:

  • Cage Type - glass viv, 60x60x45
  • Lighting - Exo terra canopy 2x25watt daylight bulb and fluorescent light, night light 15watt, and 60watt ceramic heat lamp, ceramic on all the time. Daylight and fluorescent on 9am-9pm then night light gets turned on
  • Temperature - 26 degrees in cold spot during day, 21 at night, hot spot 34 during day, 28 at night. It goes from top corner on one side to bottom corner of other side, have thermometer in each corners
  • Humidity - 50-60% using moist substrate and misting twice daily
  • Plants - No live plants, just plastic decorations
  • Placement - It’s on the floor next to the window which makes it difficult to maintain temperature, however it has good ventilation
  • Location: England

Current Problem - white substance and gaping

--------------View attachment 229274
Click to expand...
Ok so lets go through this step by step.

So the cage needs to be upgraded. He will need a screen (60x60x120cm) enclosure and it should be placed on a table to get him higher up. Yes, you can use glass but it has to be big and you have to really monitor not only ventilation but no standing water. This is why screen cages are used and modified.

No sub-strait at all due to impaction risks if ingested. He needs tons more horizontal branches and live plants. Pothos plants and dwarf umbrella trees work great for them. Plastic plants pose a high risk to them because Veileds like to eat plants. Should he ingest a piece it could kill him.

So as far as feeding you want 10-12 medium sized feeders every other day at this age. You want to start curbing him every other day by reducing so that you are eventually on an every other day schedule. Feeding should be done in the morning to give plenty of time for digestion. You also want to make sure you are gutloading your feeders.

Supplements. He needs a multivitamin and a calcium with D3 these are each dusted 2 times a month rotating week to week to the other. And then a calcium without D3 every other dusting. You will dust all feeders for that day lightly. I do not know about the supplement you are using. I have never heard of it.

misting is fine but be sure you are misting for a 2 minute period... WHich with this current cage will be hard or it will soak everything and shoot the humidity much too high with his lights being on this is a cause of concern as they can develop Respiratory infections.

If his urate is mostly white then it is good. If it is more yellow then he is dehydrated. If he is drinking from a bowl then he is probably dehydrated because this is something they never do. They typically drink water that has been sprayed or is dripping on plants.

This is what you are aiming for with temperatures. Which is why I was concerned about the gapping. How are you measuring the temps and the humidity what kind of thermometers?
Baby/juvenile (<9 months): ambient 72-80F (22-26C), basking 85F (29C)
Adult males: ambient 75-80F (23-26C), basking 90-95F (32-35C)

Are you using a screw in UVB bulb or a long fluorescent tube? They need a T5HO fixture with a 10.0 or 12% uvb bulb. These are long tubes and fixtures.
Absolutely no light at all. 12 hours of light and 12 hours of total darkness is needed. Temp drop at night down to (10C) is perfectly fine. So remove the night light asap.

I am going to include a bunch of graphics for you. I would say to switch your water to distilled and see if that corrects the nasal crystals. I would watch the gapping very closely he may need to be seen by a vet to rule out an RI.

Supplements pic.jpeg
Gutloading 101.jpeg
UVB lighting pic.jpeg
nonUVB pic.jpeg
Basic Feeder pic.jpeg
 
Beman said:
Ok so lets go through this step by step.

So the cage needs to be upgraded. He will need a screen (60x60x120cm) enclosure and it should be placed on a table to get him higher up. Yes, you can use glass but it has to be big and you have to really monitor not only ventilation but no standing water. This is why screen cages are used and modified.

No sub-strait at all due to impaction risks if ingested. He needs tons more horizontal branches and live plants. Pothos plants and dwarf umbrella trees work great for them. Plastic plants pose a high risk to them because Veileds like to eat plants. Should he ingest a piece it could kill him.

So as far as feeding you want 10-12 medium sized feeders every other day at this age. You want to start curbing him every other day by reducing so that you are eventually on an every other day schedule. Feeding should be done in the morning to give plenty of time for digestion. You also want to make sure you are gutloading your feeders.

Supplements. He needs a multivitamin and a calcium with D3 these are each dusted 2 times a month rotating week to week to the other. And then a calcium without D3 every other dusting. You will dust all feeders for that day lightly. I do not know about the supplement you are using. I have never heard of it.

misting is fine but be sure you are misting for a 2 minute period... WHich with this current cage will be hard or it will soak everything and shoot the humidity much too high with his lights being on this is a cause of concern as they can develop Respiratory infections.

If his urate is mostly white then it is good. If it is more yellow then he is dehydrated. If he is drinking from a bowl then he is probably dehydrated because this is something they never do. They typically drink water that has been sprayed or is dripping on plants.

This is what you are aiming for with temperatures. Which is why I was concerned about the gapping. How are you measuring the temps and the humidity what kind of thermometers?
Baby/juvenile (<9 months): ambient 72-80F (22-26C), basking 85F (29C)
Adult males: ambient 75-80F (23-26C), basking 90-95F (32-35C)

Are you using a screw in UVB bulb or a long fluorescent tube? They need a T5HO fixture with a 10.0 or 12% uvb bulb. These are long tubes and fixtures.
Absolutely no light at all. 12 hours of light and 12 hours of total darkness is needed. Temp drop at night down to (10C) is perfectly fine. So remove the night light asap.

I am going to include a bunch of graphics for you. I would say to switch your water to distilled and see if that corrects the nasal crystals. I would watch the gapping very closely he may need to be seen by a vet to rule out an RI.

View attachment 229302View attachment 229303View attachment 229304View attachment 229305View attachment 229306
Click to expand...
This is really good advice. Thank you :) Will definitely start making some changes! As for the substrate, it does help keep the humidity high and he has grabbed it a few times but has spat it out. Anything else you recommend, carpet maybe? Or just leave it?
He has a screw in UVB bulb, it was recommended when we got him. So will change this. The thermometers are like separate ones so one for temp, one for humidity. I keep them in the corners where there is a hot spot and cold spot.

I will change the water immediately and monitor him. I’m worried about the gaping but will make some changes to see what happens, thank you again for the advice :) I have a water dragon which seems crazy easy to look after compared to chameleon! Hopefully I won’t have to take him to the vet, but will definitely be an option if this carries on with changes. He’s such a quirky little dude!!
 
veiledRandell said:
This is really good advice. Thank you :) Will definitely start making some changes! As for the substrate, it does help keep the humidity high and he has grabbed it a few times but has spat it out. Anything else you recommend, carpet maybe? Or just leave it?
He has a screw in UVB bulb, it was recommended when we got him. So will change this. The thermometers are like separate ones so one for temp, one for humidity. I keep them in the corners where there is a hot spot and cold spot.

I will change the water immediately and monitor him. I’m worried about the gaping but will make some changes to see what happens, thank you again for the advice :) I have a water dragon which seems crazy easy to look after compared to chameleon! Hopefully I won’t have to take him to the vet, but will definitely be an option if this carries on with changes. He’s such a quirky little dude!!
Click to expand...
Honestly the best way to fix issues is doing the cage upgrade to screen and get a drip pan for any water run off. If you have issues with humidity we can offer solutions for the new cage. I would remove the substrate asap. It is really not good if he does ingest it and since you free feed he is going to continue to grab it with the feeders.

Let me know what questions you have. I am tagging in one of our knowledgeable members that lives in the UK. He may be able to give you additional advice on certain products as I do not know what you have available to you there :) @SharpShooter can you advice on where to buy the products needed and look over his help form to see if I missed anything? This member is in England.
 
Beman said:
Honestly the best way to fix issues is doing the cage upgrade to screen and get a drip pan for any water run off. If you have issues with humidity we can offer solutions for the new cage. I would remove the substrate asap. It is really not good if he does ingest it and since you free feed he is going to continue to grab it with the feeders.

Let me know what questions you have. I am tagging in one of our knowledgeable members that lives in the UK. He may be able to give you additional advice on certain products as I do not know what you have available to you there :) @SharpShooter can you advice on where to buy the products needed and look over his help form to see if I missed anything? This member is in England.
Click to expand...
Let me have a read through the post in the morning guys. I'm on late shift right now.
 
I use double filtered water... run it through fridge carbon filter then thru brita...
Also I live in NY so my water is very decent on it's own. It's not "hard" water
 
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