Chameleon water dish?

[crapwhereaminow]

Hey everyone, I've got a little problem. My little guy is acting a bit weird. He's drinking out of the catch dish for his plant. I'm not usually home at this time, so I've never noticed it before. When I woke up he was licking the outside of the terra cotta pot, and now he's licking water out of the dish under the pot. When I misted him this morning he was licking water from the leaves like normal. Does anyone else have a chameleon that does this as well? I've put a shallow dish with a bit of clean, fresh water in it at the bottom for him so he doesn't continue drinking form the plant water.

Don't know if this is really necessary, but I'll fill it out anyway.

Chameleon Info:

* Your Chameleon - Male ambilobe panther. About five months old, I've had him for two months.
* Handling - 1-2 times a week.
* Feeding - silkworms, butterworms, superworms, waxworms, flies
* Supplements - sticky tongue farms miner-all 3-4 times a week, rep-cal calcium with D3 once every other week. Rep-cal herpivite once a month
* Watering - Misting 2-3 times a day for at least 30 sec. Dripper on during most of the day
* Fecal Description - normal, maybe a little more yellow since I changed his cage
* History - my fist chameleon so I have no clue what I'm doing.


Cage Info:

* Cage Type - screen 30x16x16
* Lighting - 65w heat lamp and reptisun 5.0 uvb
* Temperature - 85 at the basking spot. Temp never drops below 62
* Humidity - always at least 50% but usually more. He's in a room with several large fish tanks so humidity is not an issue.
* Plants - I have one live plant in his cage, schefflera
* Placement - cage is place on top of a dresser. Highest point is almost 6 ft off the ground.
* Location - so. cal

 

[pssh]

Drill holes in the bottom for drainage so he can't drink the water. Or use a screened catch dish so he can't get into it.

 

[crapwhereaminow]

Thanks, I'm going to try a screened catch dish.

But does this mean he's not getting enough water? Or is he just a bit nuts? I thought they weren't supposed to recognize standing water as a water source.

Just fyi, he's at it again, I walked into the room and he's on the floor of the cage, drinking. and he's completely ignoring the dish of clean, fresh water I put down so I picked that up and pulled it out of the cage.

 

[Julirs]

Actually, I have seen a few chameleons that actually will use a water dish. They can sometimes learn things!

 

[sandrachameleon]

It suggests to me he needs more water than you provide. Try adding a dripper that goes while you are not home.
Chameleons can recognize standing water - the drips on leaves are small points of standing water after all. bowls of water are not recommended because many chameleons wont use them and more importantly because bug poop, chameleon poop, and bacteria collect in bowls. If it continues to drink out of that catch bowl, make sure you take it out and thoroughly clean it every day.

 

[crapwhereaminow]

Actually, I have seen a few chameleons that actually will use a water dish. They can sometimes learn things!

Lol, now I just have to teach him to use the correct water dish!

It suggests to me he needs more water than you provide. Try adding a dripper that goes while you are not home.
Chameleons can recognize standing water - the drips on leaves are small points of standing water after all. bowls of water are not recommended because many chameleons wont use them and more importantly because bug poop, chameleon poop, and bacteria collect in bowls. If it continues to drink out of that catch bowl, make sure you take it out and thoroughly clean it every day.

Sorry, I guess I wasn't clear, I have a dripper that runs over the plants when I'm not home. He's been a little off lately anyway because I just bought him a bigger cage.

 

[Leilaskeeper]

I noticed that you spray for only 30 seconds when you mist. Try 3-5 minutes instead. When I first brought my cham home, her urate was yellowish but after I started doing longer mistings, she has been great! Try it out and see what happens. A drip works as well for providing water throughout the day.. but monitor the humidity levels too. With less humidity, the water droplets evaporate quicker which might not give your cham enough time to want to drink. I believe 50 - 55 is an appropriate humidity level.

 

[Leilaskeeper]

Lol, now I just have to teach him to use the correct water dish!



Sorry, I guess I wasn't clear, I have a dripper that runs over the plants when I'm not home. He's been a little off lately anyway because I just bought him a bigger cage.

Also, because you recently changed your cham to a bigger cage, give him/her time to get used to its surroundings.

 

[draetish]

Panthers are known to eat dirt. Do you see him eating dirt from the plant or is that covered? If it is covered, it could be that he is actually after the dirt in the water. If this is the case, he may be lacking in nutrients that he is looking for in the dirt. Sandrachameleon can give us more detail on that issue if that's the case.

 

[jojackson]

If your dripper runs most of the daylight hours, does it have tubing running into the cage, or just drip through the mesh above?
If it dosent have tubing, consider adding some running into the cage above a perch for easy and direct access so your lizard can drink as much as it needs without loss from slpash, evaporation and runoff.

 

[crapwhereaminow]

Panthers are known to eat dirt. Do you see him eating dirt from the plant or is that covered? If it is covered, it could be that he is actually after the dirt in the water. If this is the case, he may be lacking in nutrients that he is looking for in the dirt. Sandrachameleon can give us more detail on that issue if that's the case.

Plant's dirt is covered with large, flat rocks, and I'm going to cover the catch pan too. It's an interesting thought. I've never seen him even near the base of the plant though.

If your dripper runs most of the daylight hours, does it have tubing running into the cage, or just drip through the mesh above?
If it dosent have tubing, consider adding some running into the cage above a perch for easy and direct access so your lizard can drink as much as it needs without loss from slpash, evaporation and runoff.

Good idea, I'm going to do that.

 

[panthercham]

Just a thought....is he actually drinking the water or just tasting it?

I ask because you said he was licking the terracotta pot as well. When mine hit around the same age I thought I had the same problem as it looked like he was drinking from the plants catch dish as well. What he was actually doing was tasting his surroundings which they do when they get older to see if other chams have been in their territory.