Dehydrated or just stupid?

Ok...so my Colin isn't the brightest chameleon in the world....

His urates are white, and have been for the last few weeks (he v. was dehydrated when I got him) and he has a dripper and is misted 2-3 times a day...yet he is sitting with his mouth open near the wet leaves....

I'm fairly sure he's not mouth breathing, he's not doing the mouth opening often enough for it to be a resp infection.

This evening I've misted him for a good 10 mins, and had the dripper going, and even put the spray onto more of a jet and he had his face in it and was drinking from it...

Yet he is STILL sitting with his mouth open, and seems unable to comprehend drinking the drops from the leaves?

Any ideas?

Obv. if it does continue he'll be going to the vet on suspicion of a respiratory infection, but at the moment, it doesnt look as though it is an infection.

What are the temperatures in the cage? He may be too hot.

Olimpia said:

What are the temperatures in the cage? She may be too hot.

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Hottest part is around 70F at the moment, he came to me with a far too powerful heat lamp and was opening his mouth a lot as a result of being too hot - changing the bulb for a lower wattage immediately solved this problem

Do not shoot a jet of water into your chams mouth or face. This could cause it to aspirate and be the reason it is holding its mouth open. Is its head tilted up? Could be a respiratory infection also. He should have a good basking spot and needs to warm up higher than 70 degrees every day. This can also cause digestion problems, hunger strikes, respiratory infections and so on.

Cainschams said:

Do not shoot a jet of water into your chams mouth or face. This could cause it to aspirate and be the reason it is holding its mouth open. Is its head tilted up? Could be a respiratory infection also. He should have a good basking spot and needs to warm up higher than 70 degrees every day. This can also cause digestion problems, hunger strikes, respiratory infections and so on.

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It's gone down to 70F at the moment cos its 7pm here. His highest spot during the day is 80-85F should he choose to go up that high.

He's acting completely normally apart from the open mouth - eating well, very active, bright and alert, he's now sat directly under his dripper with his mouth open....but not actually making any attempt to drink, its like hes expecting the water to jump in his mouth

Edit: he is now drinking

Don't be sure it's not a respiratory infection by how often he breathes through his mouth. I am currently treating a young panther for a RI and he really never breathed through his mouth. In fact, I didn't notice it until he gaped and I spotted some bubbles. He did a lot of coughing like "pfft pfft." Here are some photos of what mine looked like, so just make sure if you look in his mouth/throat you can't see absolutely anything like bubbles or gunk.

Olimpia said:

Don't be sure it's not a respiratory infection by how often he breathes through his mouth. I am currently treating a young panther for a RI and he really never breathed through his mouth. In fact, I didn't notice it until he gaped and I spotted some bubbles. He did a lot of coughing like "pfft pfft." Here are some photos of what mine looked like, so just make sure if you look in his mouth/throat you can't see absolutely anything like bubbles or gunk.

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Thanks for the photos, how do you get yours to open its mouth? Colin was at the vets on friday (yesterday) for another check up (joys of working at a vets ) and my vet had a good look in his mouth and such then, but he used a...thing...almost like a very thin, clear ATM card....to open his mouth and examine him. He didn't seem concerned about anything, infact was very pleased with how hes doing and improving

These are great photos Olimpia!!

If you notice, her fingers are on either side of the animal's shoulder area. When chameleons are confined like this they often gape, even the 'friendliest' of chameleons are likely to gape when held like this. It also helps if a stranger to the animal does it as it scares the poop out of them.

Careful though. If you aren't watchful/mindful of the chameleon it may wiggle it's way out of your fingers just enough to turn around and take a chunk of your skin off. Not kidding.

pssh said:

If you notice, her fingers are on either side of the animal's shoulder area. When chameleons are confined like this they often gape, even the 'friendliest' of chameleons are likely to gape when held like this. It also helps if a stranger to the animal does it as it scares the poop out of them.

Careful though. If you aren't watchful/mindful of the chameleon it may wiggle it's way out of your fingers just enough to turn around and take a chunk of your skin off. Not kidding.

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Thanks My flatmate (and also trainee vet) can do this! He already bites her at every available opportunity! Never bitten me though Might wait before I try it on colin though, dunno where his bones are at yet

Cainschams said:

Do not shoot a jet of water into your chams mouth or face. This could cause it to aspirate and be the reason it is holding its mouth open. Is its head tilted up?

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What does the tilted-up head indicate?

Yep, Pssh is right. He's good at wiggling out, and since he's so small I don't press very hard. But he hasn't bitten me yet! This has been the only way to get him to gape and take his meds, because he just never gapes otherwise.

Olimpia said:

Yep, Pssh is right. He's good at wiggling out, and since he's so small I don't press very hard. But he hasn't bitten me yet! This has been the only way to get him to gape and take his meds, because he just never gapes otherwise.

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I have to daily inject a wax worm (although have discovered silk worms also work great!) with colins medication - works well and minimal stress for him

Amanda1801 said:

I have to daily inject a wax worm (although have discovered silk worms also work great!) with colins medication - works well and minimal stress for him

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That's what I did at first with mine, but he won't hand/tweezer feed, so I was worried that the injected cricket/worm was just hiding to die somewhere and he wasn't getting his meds. But that's definitely the better method if you are certain he's eating the meds.

Olimpia said:

That's what I did at first with mine, but he won't hand/tweezer feed, so I was worried that the injected cricket/worm was just hiding to die somewhere and he wasn't getting his meds. But that's definitely the better method if you are certain he's eating the meds.

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yep - he has one wax worm a day - so i know when its gone - i tend to give that one to him first, then the rest of his food when its gone (I'm the queen of medicating animals - comes with the job!)