Reptile & Amphibian Forums

day was going great for me today on my day off, my chameleon was just getting the last bits of her first shed since i've had her off. then i went to hang out with some friends and have basically just a lazy day, watched a couple of great movies then came home about 1:00 am. walked up to my baby chameleon's cage to see where she was sleeping for the night and as i get closer i see her lying on the ground... yea she was dead.
i dont know how it happened, she was fine when i left.. the only conclusion i can come to from where she was laying, is that she had somehow gotten on the top of her enclosure and gotten next to her heat lamp upside down and overheated until she fell dead.
this sucks so much, i have enough experience with herps to have kept this from happening, i honestly have no idea how she got to the top of her cage being that i had her in a glass terrarium at the moment. but i was always crucial about the environment in there and made sure she was in a good state... man.. i'm kinda in shock that this happened. and very saddened.

*sigh*

others out there that have experienced probably similar tragedies more then likely understand how... stunned.. it makes you feel.

guess i will try again sometime soon. being careful to keep all possible ways to the top of the cage very impossible.....
i feel like some inexperienced idiot now, even tho i have kept, and keep other reptiles... still seems like something i carelessly did somehow.

Hi "grymlyn,"

I am so sorry to hear about your loss. I definitely understand how you feel. My husband and I have also been keeping herps for quite a while and we still manage to make mistakes.

When we built a new cage for Frasier, our veiled chameleon, we ended up putting the heat lamp too close to the screen of the cage. We did consider that the lamp would be very hot and thought we put it at a safe distance, but found out the hard way as Frasier burned the top of his casque. We were very lucky that's *all* that happened and we were able to correct the mistake before Frasier could really hurt himself.

Our thoughts are with you. Hang in there and try not to beat yourself up too much about it.

Julie, Justin and Frasier

My veiled Eclipse learned how to open her reptarium. (I guess she just pushed with her nose at the point where the two zippers met, little bugger...) And she climbed out and up the top. I had her heat lamp up off the top of the cage so her basking spot was not too hot. But I guess she was cold, so she sat under the light, a 75 watt bulb, and she burned the top of her casque and the top ridge of her back. When i returned home from shcool, she was extremly hot, and was just lying limp on top of her cage. I quickly gave her some re-hydrant mix and she was okay, but she has part of her casque gone, and is missing about an inch and a half of spikes off her back.
Mistakes happen, and i am very sorry about your baby. Being that small probibliy caused him/her to overheat to quickly. Again, I'm sorry and know how you feel.

Kaitlyn try to cheer up

A good thing to come from this...it reminds everybody to check their setups and make sure it does not happen to thiers. I know that comes as little comfort though. I for one moved my bulb a bit further away.

Will you be getting another? or take some time off?

i went browsing at my local pet store today, was not intending on buying anything, just looking, but i saw a new male veiled they had gotten, he's about the same age mine was, which was maybe 5 months old max... anyhow, i am going to be real careful this time, i re evaluated my setup and now it is literally impossible for him to get too close, unless he learns how to twist the latch to undo the top of his cage.. wish me more luck with this one then i had with my other

that is great. Im sure he will be very happy!

got any pictures yet? I would be curious as to how you resolved the issue.

no pictures, but basically i made it where he can get up close to the top, and has plenty of different pathways off the top, and distanced the basking light further back to where he can't get close enough even if he does decide to go upside down on the screen. he will just get warm, the temp is a little bit lower than what it was before in the basking spot, now only around 87 degrees where before for my other it was around 93 degrees, which isnt too awful big a difference, and he seems to like it, has not left the basking area yet, he basks one side a while then flips on his other side and basks some more.... he is happy as hell considering the pet store had no basking light on the set up they had basically just put him in this morning...

np