Need Help with Veiled Chameleon

[J-Man]

My male Veiled chameleon is about 3 mo. old and has had both eyes closed for a little less than a week. He's currently housed with a female veiled of the same age (they won't be for long) Is he stressed because he's living with another cham and in turn is the reason for his eyes being closed? ANY help on this subject would be GREATLY appreciated

[JeffT]

You should probably post this in the Chameleon forum, they could help you more.

[dank7oo]

both eyes closed .. i would see a vet, but it could be he is overly dehydrates ... mine did tat too (with only one eye) when he needed more water
a good way to get rid of dehydration is to put your cham on a plastic tree in the shower for a half hour ... put the shower head facing the wall, so that the water make a fine mist onto the tree ... this will give your cham plenty of time to drink as he wants ... i was luck, and when i sprayed him a lot more, he drank a lot ...
just when you spray them, make sure you spray directly onto the cham
best of luck
Jason

[Trace]

Without seeing the chameleon in question, it's hard for me to give you some sound advice. It would be helpful to know what kind of set-up you've got your pair of chameleons in? Just the basics is fine. Cage? Size? Temps? Water supply? UV? etc.

It is rare for a chameleon to have their eyes closed during the day, and that is usually an indication of a serious health problem. It really could be anything from stress, to dehydration to whatever? My first piece of advice is to bring your little guy to a vet to get the proper answers you need, and the sooner the better. Chameleons are very good at hiding their symptoms until it's almost too late. Are his eyes swollen at all? Is there is mucous on his nostrils or in his mouth?

The shower trick that Jason mentioned is not going to hurt at this point. Separating them right away would be a good idea too. Maybe she's eating all of the food that you put in the cage and he's getting none and he's slowly starving?

There are many, many possibilities that I can think of at this point, and I don't want to scare you. I think a trip to the vet is your best bet, and then double check to make sure all husbandry parameters are met.

Cheers!

Trace

[dank7oo]

the only thinkg that i do not understand is why did you leave it a week before you said anything here, or saw a vet?

[J-Man]

Thanks for all the quick replies.

Dank, I probably exagerated with it being a week, it was more like a couple days... and since it was only a couple days I didn't think it was a big problem and I was trying to do it on my own.

Trace, it's an aluminum screen cage that is 3 ft high by 2 ft deep/wide. I have 3 palm plants (not sure the exact name).. one in the middle on top of an upside down plastic garbage can for better basking, the other 2 around it so they can thermo regulate. Along with those, I have many many vines and plastic plants (with very large over lapping leaves for very convenient shade) and 2 large branches that vary in width.

As for the temps, the ambient temp during the day is around high 70's with around low 70's at night.

Water Supply is mainly me misting them... I mist them a lot throughout the day... I spray directly on them to see if they're thirsty (I spray for a minute or so to see if they will drink it up), if they drink then I do this until they're done. Along with that I spray down all the plants. I also have a drip system which drips onto the "main" vine in the center of the cage where the basking takes place... neither of the chams seem to be interested at all in the drip system but I continue to use it in case I just don't see them use it.

And as for Lighting/UV I have a heat lamp which has UV and have a 5.0 UVA/UVB (I think that's it...).

I'll give the shower thing a try. And also, there is no swelling or anything... this is the weird part, he seems perfectly healthy other than the fact that he keeps his eyes closed... no mucus like you mentioned, no swelling.

I don't think it's dehydration because I haven't seen any other signs of that yet... but who knows.

Again, thank you SO much for all the quick replies.

[Collide]

Separating them right away would be a good idea too. Maybe she's eating all of the food that you put in the cage and he's getting none and he's slowly starving?


Females are pigs and I know when my female was small I had to feed her seperatly from the other males i had at the time sshe would eat everything. Just some input

[Trace]

Morning J-Man! :D

Hmmm, now you've got me stumped! LOL! Your set-up sounds fine, you obviously did your research on chameleons before you bought them, and I like that!

Here are a few minor things you could change that might bring him around:

1: Check the exact species of those Palm Plants you've got. I beleive most of those are non-toxic to reptiles, but you certainly wouldn't want your Veileds to start nibbling on any poisonous plants! Click here (http://www.anapsid.org/resources/edible.html) for a good non-toxic plant list. You can find other good lists by doing a search on Yahoo.

2: The ambient temps sound good, but try and get a basking area of 90F during the day. These guys like it hot. They also tolerate a temperature drop at night so you don't need any of those heat emitters etc.

Otherwise the way you supply water is perfect, you've got the beneficial UV that they need.

I don't know what the weather is like where you are... but it's TERRIBLY hot and humid where I am now and I'm having a hard time keeping all of my chameleons cool! I know I did mention that Veileds like it hot, but they can get too hot as well.

Is he eating well for you? How are his colours? Any crustiness on his eyes? Is he active for any parts of the day?

Cheers!

Trace

[J-Man]

Morning to you, too... though it's afternoon for me now. Sorry about my long posts.

I'll be sure to check to see if it's toxic... I probably still have the little paper thing they put in it at the store with a picture and the name of the plant... don't worry I re-potted it and washed it all down good after I bought it.

I forgot to mention, of course I have a basking are :) And it is about 90 degrees (though I'm not 100% positive)

It's been real nice and sunny out (maybe a little too warm though, so I've been watering him a lot) so I put my old 65 gallon reptarium outside with a plant, vine and branch in it and he seems to love it. I also put a bunch of crickets in because he seems to be more active outside and sometimes has his eyes a little open but squinted.

His colors are perfect, a very nice and beautiful green with some slight tan lines... no crustiness around his eyes at all... and he seems to be active while he's outside... not so much while inside.

I had a breakthrough today though... I got some advice from somebody with the same problem and they said to feed him with a syringe using mashed up bananas... I did so and he wasn't accepting it at first so I had to kind of make him mad so he would hiss and he got very mad and open his mouth and I put some in and he IMMEDIATELY calmed down and started eating. He would then open his mouth for more! It was the most amazing experience I've ever had with any animal. I also watered him like this and it also worked great. And the best part is that while I was feeding him he had both eyes open wide and was looking good... though sometimes he would have one open and the other squinted.

Again, I'm sorry about the long posts and thank you so much for your help.

BTW, when my brother gets his cord for his DC I should have some pics for you.

[Trace]

Sorry it's taken me sssoooo long to reply! My life has been crazy-busy the last little while. :/

I would love to see some pics of your little guy, that might help me to be able to give some better advice for you.

As you've probably seen, I've already answered your thread about force feeding, so I won't repeat some of that information here. I do find it interesting that he perks up when you feed him though... maybe he wasn't getting enough food when housed with the female?

I also find it interesting that he's happier when he's outside so the sun is obviously helping him a bit. How old are your UV tubes that your are using inside? All of those flourescent bulbs only give off UV for about 6 months then they have to be replaced. The chameleon also has to be within 12" of the bulb for them to be able to absorb what little UV the bulbs give off.

Again... this is only speculation on my part, so I hope this helps in some way. I'd really like to see your little guy get better.

Cheers!

Trace

[J-Man]

No problem about the wait :) I'm just glad I'm getting help on this.

I'll definitely try to get some pictures of him.

I've only owned him for about 2 months at the most and the bulbs were brand new so they should be fine.

He only perked up the first time I fed him. The second time (yesterday) he didn't lke it as much (probably because I had to open his mouth for him) I really didn't like forcing his mouth open so I decided to just put some on his nose and he'd eat it like that... takes longer but it seemed MUCH better on him.

I'm really glad I finally found a forum where I can actually get some help... I've only found deserted ones up until this one.

Thanks again!

Jeremy