Reptile & Amphibian Forums

ok is this normal? hes been like this for a while: ok well my male veiled (only bout 14-16 inches long, not adult) always has usually dark colors whenever im near or from what i see...and hes slow to go after crix, never seems hungry... and he always gets really skinny looking wit stress colors when i show up and like hes super afraid of me and hides whenever im near...is this ok? the vet said he was fine,...not MBD or anything,..and when he does eat..he goes really close to the crick and lazily flicks his tongue out...hmm thanks

this happened to my chameleon and it was lazy because it wasn't getting enough uvb. make sure your light is positioned in a good spot for the chameleon to get a lot of it. my chameleon also DID have mbd and a couple of days after the description you gave almost died and lost all control of his muscles. i had to force feed it water with calcium mixed in and keep him almost directly under the uv lamp for a couple of hours before it could walk again. make sure all settings are where they should be. it's been probably 6 months since this incident and mine still won't flick his tongue out more than 2 inches and my chameleon is about a year old. he's gradually getting better about not sprinting after the crickets and flicking his tongue out but it's gonna take some time. make sure everything is set how it should be.

Also sounds like the temps might be low. You didn't list the specifics of your setup so it's hard to make any suggestions but a few things to check would be the light, and the temp. Veileds are from an area of the world where it can get quite warm so make sure he's getting adequate heat as well as the UVB.Your Cham should really be more active than that. If he's been doing it for a while, you need to fix the situation before it's too late. Once Chams start going down hill, it's really hard to save them. Not impossible, just very hard. Hope this helps.