humidity?

[Sceptilebabygirl]

My Baby girl is very sick the vet said she has bacterial infection and dehydration. She had to get a injection and she is not eating. My question is about humidity. In winter the wall heater dried out the air and I had a humidifier going 24hours she seemed happy at temp 80 and humidity around 58 the room and her cage gages agreed on this number. Now that summer has come the room temp can be 77 and humidity at 45 BUT her cage can be at temp 80 BUT humidity is at 100. Is this why she is dehydrated? With the wall heater not going I cant control the humidity with the humidifier. Ive opened windows, got fans and now thinking about at dehumidifier BUT I cant really put it in her cage. What should I do? I think she is very happy with temp 80 (she is a baby) and humidity at 58

 

[Syreptyon]

I'm a little confused. You think that the higher humidity in her cage is causing her dehydration? That doesn't make any sense. Higher humidity contributes to better dehydration. If I read you correctly, you're thinking backwards.

What species of chameleon? How do you provide water?

 

[JacksJill]

I need to know a lot more to be of any help. Her age? Species? Do you meant ambient temp or basking spot? Can you cut and paste from this link and answer the questions? https://www.chameleonforums.com/threads/how-to-ask-for-help.66/

 

[Remkon]

Why do you only mention humidifer and not mister or misting?
A humidifier alone is no suitable solution for providing hydration to your animal but should be more considered an aid to achieve a certain humidity level.

 

[Sceptilebabygirl]

I'm a little confused. You think that the higher humidity in her cage is causing her dehydration? That doesn't make any sense. Higher humidity contributes to better dehydration. If I read you correctly, you're thinking backwards.

What species of chameleon? How do you provide water?

She is a Veiled ( she is about 11 months old) and I have a dripper that goes from 8am until about 10pm at night with a bowl at the bottom to catch excess water. I'm trying to figure out how to lower the humidity in her three sided glass and front and top mesh cage from 100 to a normal rage of 40-60% range. I guess I'm freaking out that I have done something wrong to cause the dehydration or is it from the bacteria infection she has. I gave her a 20 minute shower this morning but she did not even attempt to drink any water. I'm probably latching to many things together but I think she got so sick after 2 days of very hot weather and the humidity in her cage been at 100. I could take her out of her cage because the room she is in is 78 and humidity at 45 but then she would not have access to her water. Should I turn the dripper off and only say run it for 20min 3x a day? I don't want to do anything that will make it worse.

 

[Remkon]

If you blast her cage with a humidifier you can end up with a sick chameleon.
I don't think Veileds will suffer from hot weather since they are from Yemen from areas that can be very dry and hot at times.
You should just spray the cham with am automatic mister or with a pumpsprayer don't fog to much into the enclosure.

 

[Sceptilebabygirl]

Why do you only mention humidifer and not mister or misting?
A humidifier alone is no suitable solution for providing hydration to your animal but should be more considered an aid to achieve a certain humidity level.

She has a dripper that runs from morning to night. I was not misting because I thought the dripper was a good water source but she got the eye infection were her eyes swell up so bad that she could hardly see and I learnt in one of the post that misting is important for eye care. But when the weather changed the misting sent the humidity to 100 and then she got very sick. Maybe I'm mixing up two things. I'm wrecking my brain as to why she got so sick I thought maybe its the 100 % humidity that I'm struggling to bring down to normal levels

 

[Sceptilebabygirl]

I need to know a lot more to be of any help. Her age? Species? Do you meant ambient temp or basking spot? Can you cut and paste from this link and answer the questions? https://www.chameleonforums.com/threads/how-to-ask-for-help.66/

THANK YOU SO MUCH!

Chameleon Info:

• Your Chameleon - Veiled, female, about 11 months, had her for 7 months
• Handling - How often do you handle your chameleon?=In the beginning hardly ever (she hates us bites and hisses) but the last few weeks every 3days to take her to vet.
• Feeding - I was feeding her cricket (12 a day) and then got her silkworms (2 a day) She stopped eating crickets. I try to feed her in the mornings for digestion.
• Supplements - The crickets were great for dusting until she stopped eating them. I dusted with calcium (without D3)3 times a week Repti calcium, 2 days with vitamins with D3 Rep-cal and 2 days with minerals with D3 Sticky tongue farms I also gut loaded the crickets with Flukers
• Watering - I have the dripper going from 8am to about 10pm and I never saw her drink. I did not mist
• Fecal Description - The vet just gave her worm medicine and the last 4 days the white casing has been very hard and orange. No poop because she stopped eating
• History - Any previous information about your cham that might be useful to others when trying to help you.

Cage Info:

• Cage Type - She has glass on 3 sides and front and top is mesh. I did not get a complete mesh cage because of the struggle to keep the humidity up in the winter.
• Lighting - I have reptisun 5.0 UVB I did have the 10. but every time she looked into it she became blinded for a few seconds. I have the Infrared basking spot I cant remember the strength but try to keep it at 80 because she is still little.
• Temperature - What temp range have you created (cage floor to basking spot)?=I have her basing spot at 80 and the bottom is about 75. Lowest overnight temp? I have been having her temp at night at 73 but with the summer I don't know how to control temp. Hence my problem with humidity. How do you measure these temps?=I have a temperature/humidity gage for the room and I have 2 temperature gages and humidity gage for her cage.
• Humidity - (this is my problem) In the winter I had the wall heater going so could set in to 75 and then have her cage reach 80 with basking light. I had the humidifier going 24hours in the winter so was able to control the humidity very well. Her humidity and the room humidity were in sink at 58 I had the humidifier across the room from her cage so it never was directly on her. BUT now in the summer I cant control the rooms heat temp. so that fluctuates all day. Hence my problem. Her cage is also fluctuating all day with her humidity levels hitting 100 at 78 heat temp. BUT the room reads at 78heat but 45 humidity
• Plants - No plants because they kept dying with the dripper running all day in the winter so she is stuck with plastic. I brought a whole bunch of plants online Hibiscus but they all died as well.
• Placement - Her cage is in a spare room on a dresser. It is her room so not a lot of people go in there. I go in many times to check on her.
• Location - located in Washington

Current Problem - The current problem you are concerned about.

 

[Sceptilebabygirl]

Well my Baby Girl is dying and I have done everything humanly possible. She has a apt with vet for another injection on Monday but I don't think she will make it!!!!!!! Ive done all the vet has asked of me. I give her 2 steam showers. I have crickets silkworm in her cage and she has not eaten for a week. I obsess over humidity numbers and temp numbers and I am mentally exhausted! Her eyes are so sunken in she looks like a skeleton

 

[Goose502]

First, at 11 months she’s an adult. Veiled chameleons rarely live past a year in the wild because their habitat turns to dust in the dry season, this results in an accelerated maturity process. Second, humidity is important, but you may have over thought how to apply proper levels. I don’t recommend a humidifier, ever. Most home humidifiers are not that, they are nebulizers. If you see mist, you are nebulizing, not humidifying. I believe URI’s become an issue when giving prolonged exposure to H2O at a nebulizer’s particle size. Much better to mist a few times a day. Low humidity isn’t much of an issue for veileds as they are from a more dry climate. Live plants should always be used, if they are dying, there is an issue with the temp, lighting, or drainage of their soil. Hopefully she makes it. If you haven’t already, she probably is looking for a place to lay eggs as well. Post some pics of the enclosure and chameleon, this may shed some light on what exactly is wrong.

 

[JacksJill]

I'm sorry she's not doing well.
It sounds like the antibiotics aren't working. What kind of infection did the vet say she had? Respiratory?

 

[JapSolum]

so it may stress her out, and seems like you dont handle much so it may stress you out too, but what i would do (and have been doing since mine has a ri right now and is on meds) is forcing some water in with a baby medicine syringe. mine hasn't shown signs of dehydration to an extreme extent but trying to keep him hydrated while recovering, maybe that could be an option. also if you're worried about high humidity you could blast the cage with a fan while you have her out giving her water, try to dry it out a bit...

 

[blue_cham]

Does her dripper fall straight into a bowl? Or does it fall on to the leaves too? I've never used a dripper personally (so dripper users feel free to correct me!), But chams in the wild drink water from the leaves, so perhapes allowing the dripper to drip onto leaves before going into the bowl would encourage drinking? Hopefully she is not to ill or weak to seek out water. I'm sorry and hope the vet is able to help your girl