Baskden a warm den for reptile folk

🩺 Your free vet-prep sheet

Your Veiled Chameleon Vet-Prep Sheet

Reptile vets are rare, and it is easy to freeze in a crisis. This is the one page to have ready — how to find a vet, what to bring, what to tell them, and the questions to ask. This helps you prepare for a visit — it is not a way to treat at home. Print it and keep it with your care notes.

Black & white saves ink and prints cleanly on any printer.

Not sure it’s a vet trip yet? Try the Is this normal? triage first — many worries turn out to be a husbandry fix.

Baskden a warm den for reptile folk · baskden.com
Veiled Chameleon — Vet-Prep Sheet

🔍 Find a reptile / exotics vet — before you need one

  • Search the ARAV Find-a-Vet directory (the Association of Reptilian & Amphibian Veterinarians), or in the UK the RCVS Find-a-Vet — or search "reptile / exotics vet near me".
  • Call ahead and ask the key question: "Do you see reptiles?" Not every practice does.
  • Ask the exam fee when you call. Knowing the cost up front removes the money-panic in a crisis.
  • Find and save one now, while things are calm — not in the middle of an emergency.

📇 Fill this in now — before the crisis

Two minutes now saves ten in a panic. Print it and keep it with your care notes.

My reptile vet
My veiled chameleon
What I'm seeing

🚨 Is this an emergency now?

See a reptile vet promptly if you notice any of these:

  • Sunken eyes, eyes closed during the day, or dry/orange stringy urate (dehydration — the No. 1 chameleon problem).
  • A rubbery jaw, bowed limbs, or a curled/kinked tail (signs pointing to metabolic bone disease).
  • A female who goes off food, digs restlessly, then becomes weak and straining (egg-binding — an emergency).
  • Gaping with mucus, or puffing/whistling (possible respiratory infection).
  • Persistent dark, stressed colouration with lethargy, or swollen, gritty joints (gout, often from over-supplementation).

When in doubt, a vet call is never wrong — most issues are reversible if caught early.

🚗 On the way / while you wait

✅ Do

  • Keep it warm at a safe transport temperature — a cold reptile crashes fast (a warm car or a covered container with a warm, not hot, pack helps).
  • Keep it calm, dark and quiet in a secure, ventilated container — stress makes almost everything worse.
  • Bring it in its own container so the vet sees it as it lives.

⛔ Don't

  • Don’t offer food, or any OTC, aquarium-shop or online-forum remedy — many are useless or harmful and can mask the signs.
  • Don’t let it get cold on the way in.
  • Don’t handle it more than you must.

🎒 What to bring

  • A short video and a couple of clear photos of the behaviour or sign — it may not show it in the clinic.
  • A note of your setup (basking, cool-side and night temperatures, UVB, humidity, substrate) and exactly what — and how often — you feed.
  • Your reptile, transported safely in its own secure, ventilated container — kept warm (see below), not in a cold car.

🗣️ What to tell the vet

A general vet may not know this species. Come ready to explain its correct care:

Temperature
A gentle basking spot of 85°F (29°C) — the heat lamp only needs to be on for about 3 hours in the morning. They do NOT want a hot all-day basking zone. General temperature 72–78°F (22–25°C), with a vertical gradient (warmer at the top, cooler below) so it can thermoregulate by climbing. Night 55–65°F (13–18°C) — a genuine night-time drop is healthy.
UVB & lighting
UVB is essential (diurnal, arboreal): a T5 HO bulb (Arcadia Forest 6% or Zoo Med ReptiSun 5.0) giving UVI ~3.0 at basking height (Ferguson Zone 3), plus a bright 6500K daylight LED for wellbeing. 12-hour photoperiod; replace the UVB bulb yearly.
Humidity
Low by day, high at night: 40–50% during the day and 80–100% at night. Crucially, they drink DROPLETS, not standing water — provide water by misting morning and evening, a dripper in the afternoon, and ideally a fogger before “sunrise”. A water bowl will be ignored.
Enclosure
A front-opening 24×24×48 in mesh cage minimum, larger preferred — they’re arboreal, so height and dense planting matter. Full-mesh suits humid climates; in a very dry home a partly solid (glass/PVC) enclosure holds humidity better. House ONE per cage — chameleons are solitary and stressed by company.
Substrate
Because so much water passes through daily, most keepers run a bare floor with a drainage system rather than loose substrate (which saturates and poses an impaction risk). Live potted plants add cover and humidity.
Diet
Insectivore — a varied, gut-loaded insect menu (crickets, dubia, hornworms, silkworms, black soldier fly larvae): juveniles daily, adults every 1–2 days. Veiled chameleons also nibble non-toxic live plants (pothos, hibiscus), which is normal.
Supplements
Dust insects with plain calcium at most feedings, a little calcium + D3 lightly (alongside UVB), and a multivitamin about every 2 weeks. Getting the supplement schedule right matters — too much D3 or vitamin A causes its own problems.

⚕️ Reptiles are ectotherms kept at species-specific temperatures — a cold reptile can’t metabolise medicines properly, so tell the vet your exact temperatures and keep it warm for transport. Reptiles are prey animals and hide illness until it is advanced, so early changes matter. Mention your UVB/lighting and any supplements or remedies you’ve already used, and ask for reptile-safe products and doses.

Then note which of the warning signs (above) you are seeing, when they started, and whether they are getting worse.

❓ Questions to ask

  • Do you routinely see reptiles? If not, can you refer me to a vet who does?
  • What are the likely causes — and could my setup or diet be contributing?
  • What is the treatment plan, the likely cost, and what should I watch for at home?
  • How do I prevent this from happening again?