Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Today while misting Bender he did something that REALLY freaked me out. I've seen him rub his eyes and all that stuff but this was different. When he would "blink" it was like when you squeeze a water ballon and it makes a bubble pop out. That was happening to his eye where it meets his head. It wasn't very big but enough to scare me. Seemed like he was just blinking really really hard. He seems to have something in it, kept rubbing it really really hard on a branch. But it stays open and other wise looks normal. And was only rubbing/blinking when I was near by. He is in the middle of a shed, more at the end of it really. Temp and humidity are right on. Haven't added anything to his cage. Eating and drinking really well. This really has me worried. Anyone else seen this sort of thing? Normal? Please help!! (If unknown, will take to vet)

my veileds eyes get funky like that when he drinks alot..it goes down in about 10 min. he does not scratch or rub it though.
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From Sunny Florida
Jovana's kids listed below
1.0 Veileds
1.1 Ambanja Panther
1.1 Tamatave Panther

I believe the eye rubbing and blinking thing to be fairly normal. Its just their way of cleaning their eye out and they seem to do what your chams doing when they haven't been able to flush their eye out in a while. Make sure to spray him a lot. What would really help as well is to put him on a ficus in the shower and turn it on luke warm aimed at a quarter of the tree. Leave him on it for fifteen, thirty minutes. This will give him a chance to get fully hydrated and clean out his eye thoroughly. I would do this before taking him to the vet and coming away with a costly bill for no reason. If it persists however take him to the vet by all means. Let me know if this works.
Stevie

Thanks!!! It just looked extra scary. He gets very well misted with warm water (warm when it hits him, hot in the bottle) every day. He'll sit in the spray for a good 4 minutes. I've tried the shower thing but he just gets really really stressed out. In the morning I think I'll put him in there but use my misting bottle. It's like those ones used to spray pesticides in gardens but hand held. Holds 45 oz I think. Thank you very much for the advice. I can rest a bit easier tonight!

If you do use the shower make sure it's a warm mist and do NOT aim the shower at 1/4 of the tree as suggested earler. Aim the spray at the wall so that the mist from the water bouncinng off the wall hits 1/2 of the plant.
Ed

Yep, perfectly normal. This is an eyeball cleaning routine.
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Joe
- www.silkwormfarm.com-

We call it the eye bubble thing. LoL But it sared the crap out of all of us the first time we saw it.
Living with a chameleon is like living with a little alien in the house. We never know what weird thing they will do next and each thing looks weirder than the last.
Have you seen the jut out your chin, gape your mouth open, clamp your jaw shut, swell up and spasm thing yet!
That one is pretty freaky and usually starts at around puberty.
Sometimes sooner.
Sonia

Whew! Very glad to hear that it's normal. The little brat seems to only do it when I'm near. lol He's starting to do the jut out the chin thing. Today he's esp. pissy. Doing the whole open mouth, lunge, and wiggle thing. He only does that once and then calms down once I produce his food. lol Thanks again! Saved me a stressful and useless trip to the vet.