couple questions

P

pudge

New Member
So I've had my female veiled for about 2 weeks now and she is almost 8 months. Fyi she is really me. She hisses whenever I get close to her. I took her out for the 1st time yester, and it was a chore. She was fine once she was out but turned to her old self when she was in her cage.
Anyways will she ever calm down or it just her personality?
Do you guys actually grab your chems? How do you do it? My male cup feeds so when I show him his cup he will climb right on my have, so I use that trick when I need to remove him.

My other question is when I got my female her urates were yellow. Now they are orange. I run a dripper for about 6 hrs a day. I also mist for a few min about 3 times a day. She actually doesn't mind to be misted so I usually will spray her directly with warm water.
Is there any other signs she is really dehydrated aside for urates and sunkin eyes?
Also what else can I do? I was thinkin about a shower but I'm just nervous b/c its in the shower and we use bleech and soap in there. I also don't think a syringe will work b.c like I said she freaks out whenever I get close and she really won't eat if I'm close to her cage.
 
As you have already found with your male - chams are easily bribed with food, lol! Try offering your female food on your palm and see if she'll hand feed.

With regard to hydrating her you could try misting for longer each time. Do you see her drinking at all when you mist? Pics are really helpful - do you have any of her and her urates that you could post? You could try showering her - do you have a spare plant (cham safe!) that she could sit on in there? The shower should be directed at the wall so that a heavy mist bounces off onto the plant she is on - don't aim the shower head directly at her. You could also sit her in the bath on a plant and give her a really long misting session, but be careful that she doesn't get cold.
 
You could order some hornworms, they are super juicy and will help hydrate and feed. Silkworms are also good.
 
Like I said I've had her for only about 2 weeks. I give cal every feeding and gave her vitimens once.

I plan on getting hornworms. I'm in CO and being so cold I figured I would have 2 wait till spring. Right now all I have is cricks and roaches.
 
RE grabbing: unless it's a life or death situation and grabbing it is the only way to prevent the lizard from plummeting or some other such dire scenario, you should never be engulfing a chameleon in your hands, wrapping a hand around it (especially from the top), etc. I second Miss Lily's recommendation. I "trained" my guy to be picked up by holding one arm fully extended out to him, and holding a treat in the other hand, at about the elbow of the extended arm, where he could see it but had to walk on me to get it. He quickly learned to associate "climbing on human" with "getting food".

Hydration: how long are you misting her? My own chameleon and several others I've read about on here seem to need about five minutes of being misted with warm water before they even start to think about drinking; ten minutes is better. Do you have a dripper in addition? - Sometimes once they've been "primed" by the misting, they'll then start drinking from the dripper. You can try the shower if you've got a relatively gentle showerhead - like Miss Lily said, put her in with a plant - she doesn't want to be scrabbling about on a smooth, slippery surface, and she can hide in the leave and drink the water that accumulates on them.

Good luck with her!
 
The grabbing was more curiosity then anything. My male george has never hissed at me then again I have never tried to pick him up. Its pretyy funny when he sees his cup though. He moves pretty fast when he sees somthin he wants. He will climb right on my arm to get it with no prob. The guy I got the female from had 3 chems and would keep putting his finger under them like you would a bird untill they would walk on his hand. All 3 would hiss like crazy but he said he has never been bit. I wonder if that is wwhy she hates when my hand is in her cage.

As far as misting I only do a few min. I will try to do more like 10min. Ill try it for a week and see if she improves. If not I will give the shower a try.
I use a dripper and it runs for almost 2 hours twice a day, b4 I go to work and when I get home. It drips about 2 drops a second.
 
The grabbing was more curiosity then anything. My male george has never hissed at me then again I have never tried to pick him up. Its pretyy funny when he sees his cup though. He moves pretty fast when he sees somthin he wants. He will climb right on my arm to get it with no prob. The guy I got the female from had 3 chems and would keep putting his finger under them like you would a bird untill they would walk on his hand. All 3 would hiss like crazy but he said he has never been bit. I wonder if that is wwhy she hates when my hand is in her cage.

As far as misting I only do a few min. I will try to do more like 10min. Ill try it for a week and see if she improves. If not I will give the shower a try.
I use a dripper and it runs for almost 2 hours twice a day, b4 I go to work and when I get home. It drips about 2 drops a second.
 
pudge said:
Is there any other signs she is really dehydrated aside for urates and sunkin eyes?
Also what else can I do?
Click to expand...

She is probably dehydrating faster between sprayings than you realize because the cage air is too dry (especially CO in winter!) If you keep the general cage air more humid she will do better. To raise the humidity increase the live plants so there are more surfaces to hold water droplets and slow down evaporation, cover the back and sides of the cage with shower curtains or plastic sheeting to hold in moisture, and consider using a room humidifier aimed at the cage. If you don't have a good digital humidity gauge get one. You won't know what the level actually is without it.

Another sign of dehydration is skin tenting...but you have to pick up a fold of skin in your fingers so she may not let you do that. Difficulty shedding, white crust around her nostrils, a hollow looking casque (rather than full and bulging) are also signs.
 
The tank she is in is an acrylic fish tank. It stands str8 up and has a screen front door and the top is cet off and screened, that's so the uv light will pass through the screen. I put her in here when I 1st got her b/ I knew she was a little dehydrated and this holds the humidity way better then all screen. I have a digital temp and hydometer. Humidity is around 60% all day and up to about 85% during mistings. Its funny too b/c she will sit under the dripper and let it soak her, I can't seem to figure out why she won't drink it and is so dehydrated.
 
Not all chams use drippers to drink. Do the droplets fall on a leaf surface? Sometimes it helps to position leaves under the dripper so the moving water running down them attracts her attention. She may start licking the water off the leaf. When you start spraying the cage does she start licking her lips or swallowing? If she does, you can try gently squirting (and I mean gently spritzing, not a heavy shower) warm water above her head so it drips down her face. She may start sucking the water in through her lips and swallowing it that way.
 
Yea it hits about 6 leaves b4 it hits the ground.
When I mist her she will just sit there, close her eyes and let me spray her. I've never seen her lick her lips or anything.
 
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