Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Jade, our new cham, seems to be adjusting quite well. She's eating great and has been drinking. Even have her eating silkies and blueberries.
my problem: She gaps all the time. We have a 75 watt basking lamp over her enclosure, the same one we had for roan when he was in there. But she gaps all the time. So, we moved it up about half a foot. She still was gapping. Right now we have the basking lamp turned off, for about 5 minutes now, and she is still gaping. The temps under the basking spot are about 80, I can't see how it would be to hot.
I haven't heard any popping, or any noise at all. She doesn't seem to be panting.....
I did a search on the old forum (new one is to hard to search on) and it said that she could be scared and trying to ward us off, but I have seen Roan get mad and 'roar' at us, so that is not it.
I did read ONE post that said that it could be a sign that she could be gravid. Not sure how true this is, but I guess anything is possible.
We're going to take her to the vet, but it could be a week before we can go. We have alot on our plate right now, and the vet is a 45 minute drive (in good traffic). If it was just down the road, it would no problem at all. We can take a feces down to the local vet college. It's a really great vet college, but the other one is a herp specialist. Can they tell URI or gavidness ina feces sample?
Anyway, any help would be great!

just to make sure - the humidity in the cage is correct, yes?

Try to move things around in the cage..make it different..see if her behavior changes.

I find that when mine acts odd and such..if I take his ficus out and replace it with another plant and move his climbing highway..he seems to have more fun and not act odd...

A couple of other signs of URI for you. Is she sleeping with her head tipped straight up? Is she puffing out her throat over and over as if gulping? If she is sick enough to be gaping constantly she would probably not be eating or drinking and spending all her time crouched under her heat light. Is she a pale color? That is a sign that she is too hot. If she is showing stress markings she needs more privacy and is still stressed from her move.

I hate to be the first one to think it, but it sounds like it could possibly be some sort of respiratory infection or respiratory problem.... I know that before I had a veiled that constantly had his mouth open and when I was at a reptile vet for something else I asked her and she said it often is a sign of that. Before I even got him into the vet, though, he had stopped doing it. Just try to keep the ground from having too much water on it (if it does) and maybe try to get to the vet. I think that these problems can become pretty serious.
-Tyler Stewart

I hate to be the first one to think it, but it sounds like it could possibly be some sort of respiratory infection or respiratory problem.... I know that before I had a veiled that constantly had his mouth open and when I was at a reptile vet for something else I asked her and she said it often is a sign of that. Before I even got him into the vet, though, he had stopped doing it. Just try to keep the ground from having too much water on it (if it does) and maybe try to get to the vet. I think that these problems can become pretty serious.
-Tyler Stewart