Dehydrated?

lil lito

New Member
Chameleon Info:
Your Chameleon - Male Ambilobe panther. Hes about 6 months old. I've had him for 5 months.

Handling - He's handled almost daily to take him out of his cage to let him roam my house and then to put him back. He always walks onto my hand on his own. I leave him alone otherwise.

Feeding - Crickets, about 1/2 inch in size. He usually eats 15 or more. Until about a month ago i was giving him smaller ones and he would eat about 30 every day. He has been eating more like 6-8 a day for about a week now. They are gut loaded with water, oranges, carrots, kale, and zoo med cricket care.

Supplements - I use rep-cal supplements. I dust with calcium daily. Calcium with d3 twice/month. And multivitamin twice/month.

Watering - I have a mister that mists for 2 minutes every 2 hours 6 times a day. I also soak his cage with warm water in a spray bottle when his mister first comes on. And there is a dripper going all day. I see him drink for 2 or 3 minutes almost every morning.

Fecal Description - I see him poop almost daily. The actual stool seems normal. It's brown, semi-moist and uniform in shape. His urate is what im worries about. Lately it seems to be moving toward yellow to light orange colored. Not that chalky white it used to be. Ive never had it tested.

History - I don't really know any history. He was bought at a reptile store when he was about 1 month old. Said to be captive bred.

Cage Info:

Cage Type - Extra large reptibreeze (2'x2'x4')

Lighting - I use 2 5.0 tube style UV lights. One is Reptisun, the other is Reptiglo. I also use a basking light. They are on from 8am-9pm

Temperature - His cage has a gradient from about 76-88. At night it drops to around the low 70s. i measure this with a digital probe thermometer.

Humidity - The humidity goes from about 60% to a peak of 80+%. besides misting and the dripper, there is also a humidifier near his cage. its a warm mist humidifier but i cant find info on that being a bad thing.

Plants - I have one live pothos and a live ficus. There are also a couple types of fake plants and vines.

Placement - his cage is in my bedroom witch i only go in to sleep or occasionally clean :). There is a ceiling fan but i never turn it on. there is also an AC vent on the opposite side of the room. the top of his cage is probably about 8 feet from the floor. As high as possible.

Location - I'm in Fresno CA. It's regularly pretty dry.

Current Problem - My concern is that he isn't hydrated enough. i see him drink almost every morning but his urates seem to be getting less white. They always used to be very white. Ive seen pictures of much worse looking samples but i know this isn't normal. His last shed also took longer than usual. Up until this last time, he would shed in a couple of hours. this last one took a little over 24 hours and came about a week later than usual. His skin doesn't really feel dry but he seems to have some small wrinkles along the length of his body when he moves a certain way. Is there anything else that could be dehydrating him? if not how do i get him back to normal? Im going to pick up something tonight for him to stand on so i can shower him tomorrow. how should i go about that? i know not to spray him directly but how long should he be in there? What is the actual benefit? Is it the steam or is he supposed to drink a lot while he's in there? I'm sorry for the long post. Any advice would be greatly appreciated, even if it's something else that you notice in my set up.
 
Do you have any current picture of the little guy? Sounds funny but do you also have any pictures of his stood.

If you are misting through out the day and you seem him drinking every morning I would think he is getting the water he needs. Why don't you pick up some silkworms or hornworms and try feeding him some of those as well. They can help a lot with giving him extra fluids as they are packed full with liquid goodness lol.
 
To give him a shower, place him on a plant, place it in shower with warm water bouncing off the walls. Don't shower direct but let the splashes land around him. Keep him there supervised for 20-30 mins. The constant water around him should stimulate him to drink.
 
here are a couple of the most recent pictures I have of him. They were taken last weekend. The one where he is more red shows the little wrinkle i was talking about. It's not always visible but when he moves a certain way it looks like that. The other one is just him looking handsome. no stool pictures, sorry :). I will get one next time I see it though.
 

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Thanks for the shower advice. I'll give it a try. one concern I have is that im not sure he'll just sit on a plant. it seems no matter where he is, he wants to go somewhere else. Hes a wanderer for sure. I was thinking about putting the plants inside of a smaller cage i have and put that in the shower. is that a bad idea?
 
He is a really cool looking panther. Awesome colors.

I see what you mean about the wrinkle going along his back, my panther have that same wrinkle once in awhile. I have a feeling it is just how they are standing at that time.

From the pictures he looks to be healthy, nothing is sunken in and he looks to be doing great.
 
Sorry for the grossness of this image but here is a picture of the stool. The actual stool is a little less normal shaped than it usually is but urate is why I'm worried. I've been trying the shower method the past couple of days but it doesn't seem to be doing much. He smacks his lips like he's thirsty but seems to focused on getting away.
 

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It does have a little bit of yellow/orange in it. I can't believe he is dehydrate if he is drinking that much.

Did you ever take him to the vet or have a fecal test performed? Might be a good time to at least get a fecal test done and make sure there isn't any parasite in the little guy that could be causing the discoloration in his urate.
 
I haven't yet but I guess that's the next step. I'll have a test done and see what the vet had to say. Probably about time to have one done anyway. Thanks
 
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