How to Identify Sick Veiled Chameleons

Video Transcript

"NICOLE BRAGG: On behalf of Expert Village, I'm Nicole and I'm here to tell you about Veiled Chameleons. Now, when you own your Veiled Chameleon, you want to be aware that they are prone to several different sicknesses. One problem with chameleons is bone disease. Because chameleons require a high calcium intake, they often will not receive that from their owners. And in response, their bones tend to become very thin and brittle. They tend to break very easily, especially if the chameleon is prone to falling which is common in some chameleons that have certain ailments, permanent damage. You also want to be aware that mites and ticks love the lizard's armpits. I mean, almost any lizard that you can purchase from a pet store has a possibility of being infested with mites or ticks and lizards are one of the favorites of mites and ticks. So, they have lots of different flaps and folds in their skin, lots of loose skin in specific areas that allow good hiding places for mites and ticks and this is something you want to be aware of because an infestation can lead to death in your chameleon. You want to look in the armpits and underneath the tail, underneath the throat. Sometimes, the chameleon will have some loose skin there in which the mites collect. And this is something that is not very easily treated, so you might want to make sure that your chameleon is not infested before you purchase him. Now, if your chameleon does become infested with mites or ticks, you can purchase an anti-mite medication from your local pet store. These are often safe, pretty easy to use. One problem with mites and ticks is that you will need to disinfect and clean the entire cage more than once. Mites are egg layers, as well as ticks and their eggs take about a week to hatch. Now, if you do have a mite infestation, you need to treat your animal along with the cage and everything in it, wait a week and then do it again to make sure that you kill anything that's hatched from the new eggs."