Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Before I tell you about him here are the cage specs and his recent behavior:
day: 70-75, night 65-70 60 watt basking spot 8 inches from branch. 48"x24"x24" brand-new 18" exo-terra reptiglo 8.0 UVB light. Cage kept fairly clean, favourite branches rarely cleaned due to the inability to get him off of them without being bitten. Drinks not very often, about 2 times a week max. I feed him 6-8 med crix (1 or 2 superworms instead of 2-4 crix sometimes) every 2 days with cal/d3 supplementation on every 2 insects with Herptivite cal/d3.
Crickets gutloaded on oranges/baby spinach/other assorted salad green I steal from my fridge.

Corona (10 month old male veiled) has been found by me on the bottom of his enclosure, in a little nook between a pot plant and the cage frame. He was slightly dark coloured, nothing different than his normal darkish-lightish back and forth colouration over the daytime. I did notice his eyes looked kind of glazed over, but the eyes were not sunken. He was not moving as much as usual when he goes down to the bottom to look for food. He often used to come to the bottom and scratch at the cage when I was in the room, demanding more tasty insects. I would go up to him and he would sometimes get mad, be scared away, or if i put my finger up to his face, would try to eat my finger (not a violent bite, a leaf-eating kind of bite).
After I saw him on the bottom, I came back to check on him about 20 mins later ,and he was still on the lower part of the cage, but on a vine close to the ficus plant pot. He was medium-dark brown. I came back another 15-20 mins later and he was up close to his basking light, in a basking position, with the same darkish colouration. He is in a low-stress environment in my bedroom, which I go in and out of about 10-20 times daily, for very short periods of time, to say, get some change or to replace some clothes.
About a week ago, he was clawing at the screen DAILY. He clawed at the lights only, looking at them as a way out. He is right next to, but cannot see, one female chameleon whi is next to another female chameleon.

I came back today and saw him doing the same slow-moving, nooked in the corner, glazed eyes kind of thing. I moved my head up and down to see if his eyes would follow and thye did, but slowly. I cannot see any obvious signs of dehydration.

Anyone have any ideas whats happening, or am I over-reacting?!

You forgot to mention what the temp of his basking spot is.

I;m not quite sure about it, I don't have the means of measureing it. It is however, a healthy basking temp when I feel it with my hand. I would guess about 90-97ish.
Btw I just checked on him after his second "hide" and he was very well coloured on the pothos plant that sits on the floor and grows up (anyone else here do that? I attatch them to screw-hooks with elastic bands to allow for flexibility and new growth, and the stem can still grow through the elastic.)

What do you guys consider sunken, as far as eyes go? His eyes show between 40% and 60% of a sphere. His skin does not ripple very much at all, even in the most bendy positions, and it goes back to normal without problem when he straightens out. I have not been able to pinch his skin becuase of his agressive attitude.

My veiled, Dr. Gonzo, recently started doing the same thing in his cage. I think it's because he's "outgrown" his. He'd just wander around the bottom every now and then and find a spot to hang out on the floor. Or he'd claw at the screen on the ceiling under the basking light. I was worried for a while, so one day I took him out and let him hang out on ahuge pothos I hang near my window where I can watch him. I watched his behavior to see if anything was wrong. Not a thing. He just wanted out. lol

Every chance I get I let him bask in the sun that comes trough the open window and have him get a time out of the cage. He's not doing it that much anymore since I let him out. The only time he does that is when I let him hang out on the pothos by the window. He likes being out of the cage a lot. If I had the space I make him a free-range set up.

I bought a big spider plant and another long pothos for him to "play" on, since he loves being "outside."

I wish I could get him outside, but it's too cold even on the sunny days out there. That's why I keep in my room by an open window. The temperatures in here is good, the sun gets right in there, and there's no cold wind chill.

Anyway, maybe yours has the same problem? Take him out and see what happens. If you can anyway, sounds like yours might try to take off a finger so be careful. lol

Several ideas to explore...General humidity level in the cage? If he's not drinking much the air humidity should be carefully watched and it might be lower than you realize. Sunken eyes could be a sign of increasing but slow dehydration. Skin tenting is something that often happens later. Also, given his age you may be oversupplementing him a bit. It is easy to overdo, so if his size hasn't changed much lately and he looks fully developed (casque) you might start cutting back to once a week. There might be a small micronutrient missing in the gutload...using a vitamin dust once a month would help fill in the "gaps". Herptivite is a decent one. But, I agree...if weather allows it a chance to bask outdoors might really give him a boost. I had a male veiled who went through a distinctive brown phase at about 7-9 months. He was fine, just not ready to fire into his full glory yet.

Yes, taking him out of his cage to let him roam would be a hard thing to do. I have let him climb out on to the door before, and tried to get him on my hand...didn't turn out the way I hoped. He ended up in a corner as bright as the sun and hissing louder than a small snake. I didn't know he went that bright until then lol!

As far as the humidity, it is near-perfect. ALWAYS above 50%, and I turn on the humidifier to make it highger every now and then, and it goes up to 80% for a day or two, and then dries up again (I have forced air heating...not good for the humidity!)

Supplements: I was just switching his supplementation schedule today! Speak of the devil. I am starting to use sticky tongue farms' stuff now, their vitamin-loaded gutload and their mineral dust, very good system of supplemetation, and the crikets are nuts for the gutload, took them about 30 seconds to swarm the pile of the stuff that took me about 10 seconds to make! I am going to use the gutload for 2 days, throw out the leftovers, then use a small amout of fresh veggies for 2 days, then repeat the process. I am going to dust every 3rd feeding on him and on the girls as well.

I wil try my hardest to get him out of his cage and on another plant! I don't have any of them to use at the moment, i'm going away for 10 days tomorrow, and am replacing a plant in his cage and one in a female's cage (they sure do know how to rough-up a plant!) when I get back.

thanks everyone.

Rather than relying on an open roaming session to get out in the sun you could try a med or smallish Reptarium with a few perches wired to the mesh so you can move it around easily. Hold it up to the door of his cage and coax him into it. Then put the Reptarium outdoors in a sheltered spot for basking. No handling!

I will look into one of those, where do you think I can get one in Canada? How much do they go for?
thanks!

Um, can't help you too much there. Contact an online herp supply and see if they ship to Canada. A big place like Big Apple Herp or LLL Reptile probably does. I noticed LLL Reptile has Reptariums on sale now. They are not very expensive.