I cant get my cham to drink

S

stranger23

New Member
Ok he is an male yemen about a year and a half he was given a waterfall from a young age until i rescued him and he is now misted times a day for about 3 mins (this is when the water bottle runs out) he also has a dripper in the cage ive only ever seen him lick his lips a few times in the week ive had him but i noticed today his skull seemed kind of sunk in by the veil bit and near his nose, i tryed him in the shower today but after 30 mins he hadnt drank anything! he spent the whole time trying to run away and climb up my arms what can i do to help him? he is going to the vets at the end of the month but im worried that if he doesnt drink anything there wont be much they can do for him! He is now in a mesh cage with live plants the right temps, a uv light, basking light, fed crickets and locust that get dusted with calcium and twice a month with d3 every thing ive read from on here on how to care for them correctly he was in a tiny 1 foot high viv before hand with no lights, his grip is still strong and he eats fine and climbs around fine its just he is not drinking!
 
Some chameleons never drink in front of people. There are members on here that have never seen their chameleon drink, in all the years they've had them. Yours could just be shy around people.

What do his poops look like? If the urates are white then he's hydrated.
 
They are a a light brown colour with orange and a bit of white i know he is dehydrated i just dont know what to do about it im trying my best to get him to drink just doesnt seem to be working
 
Olimpia said:
Some chameleons never drink in front of people. There are members on here that have never seen their chameleon drink, in all the years they've had them. Yours could just be shy around people.

What do his poops look like? If the urates are white then he's hydrated.
Click to expand...

Olimpia hit the nail on the head. Look at his urates and if they are yellow or orange and not white then he is dehydrated. It may sound funny but if you can get a picture of his poop then post it hear and some of the experts can take a look.
 
I think it might be shyness... Up his mistings to 10-15 minutes maybe twice a day, if your cage is built to handle that much water. And then I would leave him alone while it's misting, so he has the privacy to drink.

I've noticed in my gang that the first minute of misting or so, they are like "eeek water!" and they might not realize they want to drink for a little bit, so giving them long 15 minute misting sessions first thing in the morning and at mid afternoon helps them get nice and hydrated. I also give them 3 minute showers between the two big ones to keep humidity up and such.

If you don't have a misting system, get a $15-20 pesticide pump from any Home depot/lowes. I had one from Roundup (I think) for about $20 and it worked much better than the cheaper ones for $10. Fill it up with warm water, pump it a lot, and then put it in the cage so that it sprays gently. It should last about 15 minutes by itself if you pumped a lot. If the room he's in is safe just in case he gets out, leave the door of the cage ajar and stick the nozzle through. You can always keep watch from a discrete place, as long as he doesn't know you're there.

Hope this helps!
 
Try misting for long periods of time (10+ minutes.) Some chameleons really need a 'rain' to drink. I would suggest getting a misting system also :) It's a lot easier for 10+minute mistings.
 
Try just dripping water onto his nose. You can use a syringe with no needle or a plastic eye dropper. I say plastic because I've heard stories of them grabbing the dropper and pulling to their mouth. You don't want to have a glass dropper if that's happening.

I've also had luck when one was climbing on the wall of the cage. I approached and started squeezing one drop at a time through the mesh in front of him. After a few drops he started to drink right from the dropper.

When you're misting and see him start to lick his lips, keep misting. That's sometimes the first stage of actual drinking. Make sure you get the cage dripping wet. The more drops of water there are to catch his eye, the more likely he is to go drink.

Try arranging your dripper so it drips on more than thing. Like it bounces off one leaf onto another, or first drips on a vine, runs across the vine and drips on a leaf.
 
Thanks for the quick replys next time its sunny i will get him outside so i can get a pic of his poo (he only goes outside in the sun) My dripper falls onto several different leaves on its way down when he hasnt climbed in them he likes to rearrange the dripper leaves lol, ive been misting with a pump water bottle with warm water but i just used cooler water and he started licking his lips but only when i stopped misting him? he wont do it while water is hitting him if that makes sense, earlier i was getting drops on my fingers and getting it to hit his nose as he didnt like the shower and before i was using cooled boiled water that was warm so it came out room temp i just used water that has been left for a while so came out colder (i tried to spray in his mouth while he ate a cricket just used what was to hand) dont know if my cage could handle 15 mins of watering lol its home built and has a solid base looking into adapting it so i can use more water with him try and get a bucket under it to drain all the water away. if he runs away from me misting him should i still try and get him or give him a break for a while?
 
feed him silks & hornworms to help keep him hydrated. those guys are juicy & hold quite a bit of water. as said before, try to stay outta site while misting. drill holes in the bottom of your enclosure so it can handle longer misting sessions. how did you shower him? try to give him a place to get away from the water without having to climb up your arm. if he has a place to get away from the water he might feel more comfortable to seek a drink on his own while in the shower. i find, if i go light with the feeding for a couple days, my chams take more interest in water as well. also make your crix juicy as possible with a good wet gutload so they burst with juice in his mouth. you could even inject your feeders with water. if you cup feed try putting a tiny bit of water in the bottom of the cup if hes one to snatch his feeders up right away. his tounge will more than likely splash in the water & he could get a little drink that way. can you tell ive had issues with this before? haha! good luck, hope some of this helps.
 
Ive just got some silk worms will give him some tomorrow do i just take them out the fridge and dust them as normal? also do i need to feed them anything to gut load them? staying out of sight is quite easy he hides behind all the plants so i cant get him lol, he had a plant and a branch in the shower and only a bit of the plant was in the water so he had room to get out of the water but he kept trying to jump over to me and i didnt want him to hurt himself so i caught him even when i hid behind the shower curtain to see if he would stop trying to jump he carried on trying to escape, ive been offering him warm water that goes to room temp when sprayed but did get him to take a little bit when it was cold water sprayed should i start misting with cooler water to entice him to drink? Also how fast do you have your drippers? mine does a drip per second is this fast enough?
 
i dont dust my silks or keep them in the fridge. to gutload my crix i use kale, collard greens, sweet potato, carrot, papaya, apples & strawberries. a drip a second sounds good. just mist, mist, mist. i would assume its coincidence that he drank the cooler water. room temp is good for a dripper & hot is good for misting imo. when one of my chams urate turns up a bit yellow, i give them access to dripping water for pretty much thhe whole day & increase the mistings. extended misting does help a lot.
 
Until he is drinking properly i leave the dripper on all day so he always has a drink if he wants it and mist a least 3 times a day will do more misting, i will keep offering the warmer water then only gave him the cooler as had a thought of squirting some in when he had a cricket and the spray bottle had a bit in and was to hand, do i need to gut load the silk worms? i already gut load my crickets with fruit and veg
 
My view on the dripper is that if you can keep it going all day at 1 drop per second, do that...mine drip a bit faster, but I have people in the house who will refill the drippers as needed. I just think it's good to have a drip going the entire time the lights are on.

That's just my opinion. It does not mean that's the only right way to keep your chameleon.

There's a lot of disagreement on the right temps for misting. I can find you posts from long time members saying "hot" "warm" and "cool"...my choice is "comfortably warm"...I go with a temperature I wouldn't mind being misted with. I view it as a compromise.
 
Im wondering if he responded better to the cooler water as this is what he had in the waterfall? i feel a bit happier ive managed to get him to drink now only a tiny bit but its a start
 
Maybe mist his feeders just before he eats, at least it will be a little moisture. And as someone mentioned waxworms and silkworms look nice and juicy. He may have adapted to drinking from the waterfall.
 
iv seen my cham drink about 4 or 5 times since i got him in march but i know he is drinking by the color of his poop so that as others might of said is a way to tell :)
 
I know the colour of his poop is the way to tell, its half yellow/orange half white today so its getting better was completely yellow/orange when i first got him. I think he got used to the waterfall so the drips are strange to him but he is slowly learning
 
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