Concerned Carly isn't drinking enough

[Codycooper82]

I just purchased a new setup for carly so it looks a little baren. She is about 5 months old now and was purchased and lives in Fairbanks Alaska where it is very dry and can get very cold. Anyways I mist her enclosure twice a day once before work when I wake up, and again when I get home. I just threw away my old hydrometer so I'm not quite sure what the humidity is although I do also have a humidifier running 24/7 in the same room with the door shut you can definitely feel the humidity when walking in. The bottom of the cage is around 76 degrees while her favorite basking spot runs around 89 degrees. I use a 5.0 uvb bulb 13 hours a day and a 75W basking bulb 12 hours a day. I give her 4-5 calcium covered super worms every other day and I never really count but I would assume I let about 10 crickets in there and then repeating anytime I can't find any in her enclosure other than that here are some pictures of her after me attempting to keep her in the shower. Every so often she will close her eyes and then do some sort of blink I'm just wondering if that's normal or if she's not getting enough water. I'd also like to hear any other concerns anyone else has as well.

 

[Classy]

Her eyes don't look that sunken in, but maybe a more experienced chameleon owner may spot something else.

 

[Graves923]

How long are you misting each time you do mist?

Adding more foliage will help collect water droplets for her to drink off the leaves.

As I read through your post you said you feed calcium dusted superworms every other day and 10 or so crickets. Are you dusting the crickets as well? What does your supplementation schedule look like?

 

[Graves923]

Also, check her urates. If they are yellowish to orange, then she is most likely dehydrated. Her eyes dont look sunken in which is good. The eye turrets usually start to look sunken when they are extremely dehydrated or sick.

 

[Codycooper82]

How long are you misting each time you do mist?

Adding more foliage will help collect water droplets for her to drink off the leaves.

As I read through your post you said you feed calcium dusted superworms every other day and 10 or so crickets. Are you dusting the crickets as well? What does your supplementation schedule look like?

I'm not dusting the crickets just the super worms. I've got calcium with and without D3 I give her the D3 twice a month. When I mist her I usually try to use up an entire 8 oz misting bottle on her and around her enclosure

 

[Codycooper82]

Also, check her urates. If they are yellowish to orange, then she is most likely dehydrated. Her eyes dont look sunken in which is good. The eye turrets usually start to look sunken when they are extremely dehydrated or sick.

Her urates are also a really milky yellowish white

 

[kinyonga]

Being that it's a female I would dust the crickets with calcium too.
By blink...do you mean rolling her eye around inside the turret or sort of squishing then eye shut then opening it agwin.?

 

[Codycooper82]

Being that it's a female I would dust the crickets with calcium too.
By blink...do you mean rolling her eye around inside the turret or sort of squishing then eye shut then opening it agwin.?

Ok I'll start dusting them as well, and yeah! She'll close her eye and then it'll squish a little bit and then she'll open it again. She doesn't do it very often but she's done it enough for me to question it.

 

[kinyonga]

The squishing of the eye is just cleaning it as long as it's only once in a while...if she's doing it constantly/frequently then it could be an infection or something stuck in it. A good very very fine misting might help.

 

[Codycooper82]

The squishing of the eye is just cleaning it as long as it's only once in a while...if she's doing it constantly/frequently then it could be an infection or something stuck in it. A good very very fine misting might help.

Yeah she is going through another shed at the moment so maybe a piece of skin is stuck

 

[kinyonga]

How are you providing water for her? Does she have a dripper?

One comment..female veileds can lay eggs without having been mated. If they are constantly overfed once they are sexually mature (get mustardy yellow splotches on them) then they can have egglaying issues, prolapse, develop MBD, etc.

 

[Codycooper82]

How are you providing water for her? Does she have a dripper?

One comment..female veileds can lay eggs without having been mated. If they are constantly overfed once they are sexually mature (get mustardy yellow splotches on them) then they can have egglaying issues, prolapse, develop MBD, etc.

I have a dripper but I stopped using it because she didn't seem to drink from it at all. She's more interested when I spray the sides of the enclosure or drinking from her vines or leaves

 

[kinyonga]

The dripper needs to drip long enough to get them started (and they can be slow) and slow enough to attract them (one or two drips per second).

 

[iSliceDice]

Try dripping the water from the dripper at about a drop per second, onto the tip of her mouth. I'm certainly not an expert or anything, but I did recently have a problem with my male veiled of the same age not drinking. After doing that, I ended up seeing him drinking a lot more.