Reptile & Amphibian Forums

My new chameleon has been gaping today, when he is all alone. I have a bearded dragon, so i am not unfamilier with gaping as a way to cool down. My bearded will gape if he is too lazy to move out from under his basking light, and its not uncommon among them at all. I was just wondering if this is common for chameleons as well.

Thing is, he does it under his UVB light, and not his basking light. The temp there with my digital thermometer hits 85-86 at that perch, so that seemed abit low to me for him to be over heating.

Since im still new to chameleons, so i thought i would ask. I took the best pic of it i could, but the screen is in the way, and if i take the screen off, he will stop gaping. Thanks for any advice.

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0.0.1 Ball Python
1.0.0 Bearded Dragon
1.0.0 Veiled Chameleon

what is your husbandry tactics?

mainly, what type of inclosure is he in, and how old is he?
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From Sunny Florida
Jovana's kids listed below
1.1 Ambanja Panther
1.1 Tamatave Panther
1.1 Ambilobe Panther

From the picture it looks like he's in a glass tank. Unless he is very young, he should be in an all screen cage. Please post how old the cham is, watering method, feeding, how long the lights are on, and how big his cage is at the moment.

Screen is cage/glass. Plant at bottom is Pothos. Temp under the UVB hits 84-85, there is a basking light that sits on the top left of the enclosure with a 100 watt bulb that makes the temp 95 at the top of the vine on the left. Mist twice a day, keep dripper on for about 4 hours a day. Clean and dry the bottom of the enclosure at night before bed. Feeding small crickets dusted with calcium.

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0.0.1 Ball Python
1.0.0 Bearded Dragon
1.0.0 Veiled Chameleon

it looks like your cage has only one screened side. thats no good. should be at least 3 screened sides.

The top is screen too. He is pretty young still, and i was going to just use a 20g aquaruim with screen top untill he is big enough for me to get a all screen cage, but this set up looked better. Here are a few pics of him so you can get a better idea of his size to cage size.

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0.0.1 Ball Python
1.0.0 Bearded Dragon
1.0.0 Veiled Chameleon

And here he is zoomed out. He doesnt look very old at all... could he be "Displaying" at his refelction in the glass? If so, im guessing he is still too young for me to get his adult cage. Does anyone know where i could maybe get an all screen cage that is small enough for him?

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0.0.1 Ball Python
1.0.0 Bearded Dragon
1.0.0 Veiled Chameleon

IMO, it's still too hot, and that's why he's gaping. Chams as young a he is don't tolerate heat as well as adults. I would switch to a 60w bulb or even less and try to get your ambient temp down to around 80. The glass traps a lot of heat. If he gets cold, which probably won't happen, he will bask under the light.

The first image you sent looked to me as if he's stressed and gaping AT something. I suspect he's seeing reflections off the plexi. You can get a screen cage big enough for an adult and put a temporary partition in it to confine his food etc. until he's bigger.

My veiled did that under his basking light only for a while. This happened about 3 weeks ago. He would gape really wide and I just assumed he was just cooling off. Anyway, one day I went to feed him and noticed him doing it. I saw this as an oppurtunity to check out the inside of his mouth just in case. Turns out there was some very mild mucus build up in the back of the mouth. He had a terribly minor upper respiratory problem. Nothing major at all, but I caught it early.

Took him to my vet and told him what was up. He weighed him and all that stuff. 2 minutes later he had work out some baytril formula. I was there for not even 10 minutes. My vet's so awesome. He only charged me for the medicine. $14.65. I had to give it to my cham orally once a day and 10 days later everything was all clear.

So anyway, what may seem like nothing may turn out to be a minor problem. The earlier you catch it, the better. The next time your cham gapes, just check the back of the throat and see if you could see any mucu build up. It's really easy to spot. Or you could just take him to the vet if you're not sure what to look for. Better safe than sorry.