Leaving for the Weekend

[fatikamus]

So I have a pet chameleon in my classroom (I'm a Biology teacher) a student gave me because she no longer can take care of her. I have ready everything about Chams and I am sure I have everything set up correctly and my cham has been healthy and happy for a couple months now. My question is if it is ok to leave my cham in my classroom over the weekends. On Fridays I leave her with a lot of crickets roaming around the cage for her to hunt over the weekend and leave her dish with superworms to eat over the weekend. I leave a dripper on for her that drips onto the leaves (she normally doesn't like the dripper however). I also leave her lamps with a timer and I live in Southern California so I know the temperature in my classroom doesn't ever drop below 60F at night. I believe she should be ok over the weekends but I want to make sure of it with your opinions. I do not have a misting system set up so my main concern is that she wont get her cages misted over the weekends. Any help is appreciated

 

[Andee]

I would get an automatic mister before you leave her alone. Otherwise she sounds fine, just to let you know if you leave crickets roaming her cage put a slice of apple or orange down at the bottom of the cage so they don't snack on her when they get hungry.

 

[fatikamus]

I would get an automatic mister before you leave her alone. Otherwise she sounds fine, just to let you know if you leave crickets roaming her cage put a slice of apple or orange down at the bottom of the cage so they don't snack on her when they get hungry.

That is a great suggestion about the fruit slice! Will do! Any recommendations about what mister? They seem to be really expensive the ones I've seen.

 

[Andee]

All automatic misters will be near the 100 dollar mark or over if you want a good one, or unless you make your own. I use a mistking, I have used a reptirain before and when through three of them in 12 months, considering they are about 80 dollars each it's not worth it. I spent a little over 100 dollars on my mistking and it was the best decision ever.

 

[cyberlocc]

I would defiantly get a mister. they can go without food for awhile, water they cannot.

If you can get a mister I wouldn't even add crickets. Most people feed there Adult chams every other day and females only 3 times a week (so they will lay less). I would, give her her normal feeding in the morning and then before you leave at night put a few supers in the cup and thats it. That could be her super day (dont overload on supers) the rest of the time give her a mix of crickets, roaches, ect.

Even if she eats the supers when you leave on Friday (doubt she will if its semi close to lights out for her) she will be fine till Monday.

I would defiantly limit feeding and temps for a female if you dont plan to breed the goal is to get her to never lay eggs, as doing so will shorten her life span.

 

[Lathis]

Agree with the above. Invest in a mistking and a good drainage system, and weekends won't be an issue. Don't cheap out with the misting system or the timer - too many bad stories about them failing repeatedly.

 

[fatikamus]

Last weekend I left her with a dripper and some crickets/mealworms with veggies at the bottom of her cage so crickets have something to eat. When I came back Monday she seemed perfectly fine and her urate is still white so I do not think there was any dehydration issues. Will this become an issue if I continue simply using a dripper? Ive asked local petstores that leave their chams over the weekends and they simply leave a dripper on as well. Its much easier said than done to invest $150 on a good auto-mister.

However, I used a water fountain pump ($15) and some rubber tubing to create a rain system. I plan on using that this weekend on a timer so she gets water over the weekends. It obviously not as good as a mister but it does provide artificial rain over her terrarium so I do not see any issues with this. Thoughts??

 

[Andee]

Petstores are not a standard you should pay attention to at all. Most chameleons have severe health issues when coming from a petstore such at MBD. The point of a mister is that she still gets her humidity ranges and she gets a good long drink. What kind of chameleon do you have? If you have any sort of montane species a mister is a must.

 

[fatikamus]

Petstores are not a standard you should pay attention to at all. Most chameleons have severe health issues when coming from a petstore such at MBD. The point of a mister is that she still gets her humidity ranges and she gets a good long drink. What kind of chameleon do you have? If you have any sort of montane species a mister is a must.

She is a 3-5month old femail Veiled Chameleon. I never really see her drink water after a misting but I know her urate is white so she must be drinking when I am simply not looking.

 

[Rucalee]

I found that my guy doesn't drink much at all. He gets most of his water from fruit and crickets. I adjusted my dropper so I only have to fill it once every 24 hours. If it drips on to a fat enough leaf it will hold the water the where he can still drink from it. If I leave for the weekend I just use a second dropper in the same spot and slow the rate so the two will drop for 2 days. My guy seems pretty happy with it.

 

[fatikamus]

I found that my guy doesn't drink much at all. He gets most of his water from fruit and crickets. I adjusted my dropper so I only have to fill it once every 24 hours. If it drips on to a fat enough leaf it will hold the water the where he can still drink from it. If I leave for the weekend I just use a second dropper in the same spot and slow the rate so the two will drop for 2 days. My guy seems pretty happy with it.

Thanks so much! That makes me feel much better about leaving her over the weekends. WIth a dropper running and my DIY rain system I think she will be fine over the weekends. Appreciate all the help you guys and getting this chameleon beginner acclimated.

 

[Andee]

If the rain system causes the humidity to spike some then you should be perfectly fine. I imagine it should. Good luck.

 

[Chachi]

Last weekend I left her with a dripper and some crickets/mealworms with veggies at the bottom of her cage so crickets have something to eat. When I came back Monday she seemed perfectly fine and her urate is still white so I do not think there was any dehydration issues. Will this become an issue if I continue simply using a dripper? Ive asked local petstores that leave their chams over the weekends and they simply leave a dripper on as well. Its much easier said than done to invest $150 on a good auto-mister.

However, I used a water fountain pump ($15) and some rubber tubing to create a rain system. I plan on using that this weekend on a timer so she gets water over the weekends. It obviously not as good as a mister but it does provide artificial rain over her terrarium so I do not see any issues with this. Thoughts??

I love your rain system idea. I have 5 chams, please take a picture of this ingenious set up. Also, I agree with no roaming crickets. They are so icky when they pick at your chameleon all night.

 

[cyberlocc]

Last weekend I left her with a dripper and some crickets/mealworms with veggies at the bottom of her cage so crickets have something to eat. When I came back Monday she seemed perfectly fine and her urate is still white so I do not think there was any dehydration issues. Will this become an issue if I continue simply using a dripper? Ive asked local petstores that leave their chams over the weekends and they simply leave a dripper on as well. Its much easier said than done to invest $150 on a good auto-mister.

However, I used a water fountain pump ($15) and some rubber tubing to create a rain system. I plan on using that this weekend on a timer so she gets water over the weekends. It obviously not as good as a mister but it does provide artificial rain over her terrarium so I do not see any issues with this. Thoughts??

You could build a rain system with a Mistking.

Without seeing the rain system and how well it performs no one could tell you if its enough or not.

However going to have to be the voice of concern here. There is a reason people pay 150 for a mist king, it isn't because a pond pump cant do the job. It is because a pond pump doesn't last, and is far far from reliable.

Mistkings can and do fail, however a 15 dollar pond pump is much much more prone to failure. Then you have to look at temps, if on a semi hot weekend that pond pump fails and you are not there for 2+ days, that could easily become a death sentence.

Let say you leave on friday at 2, and its a warm day, the pump fails before the night mist, then you return on Monday morning. That is 3 days without water, that could prove fatal at worst, at best will cause some serious dehydration issues.

In a case of a house, where you can watch the pump all the time and make sure it is working is one thing. When you are gone for weekends its a major issue, you need that reliability and that comes with a price.

Let me be clear I am not saying you cant build a pond pump system that will work well and be reliable. I am saying that a reliable good pond pump is going to cost more than a Mist King (or about the same). Reliable high end pumps you can trust cost money it is that simple, if you cant afford a reliable pump then I would suggest you take the cham home on the weekends or go there on the weekends to water.

A failure is just too risky. I see this all the time in my other hobby, which is PC watercooling. There is some great pumps in that hobby, they cost 100+. People all the time go to home depot and buy a pond pump or some Chinese version of our pumps. 2-3 months later, they end up with a 2-3k dollar brick they're computer is trashed because they bought a crap pump(worst case, mostly the PC shuts itself off, and they keep replacing pumps).

In your case, I would go further than 150, because honestly in your case I would buy a mist king and a second mistking pump and run 2 pumps in parallel. You can not afford a failure.

At the very least, if you insit on using your pump setup. I would setup a shelf above the cage and make a dripper that holds a few gallons. That way when the pond pump fails (this isnt an if, this is a when) the dripper will still be dripping. You need to make sure the dripper has enough storage to make it till monday.

Edit: just saw you plan to use a dropper with it. In that case, I think it will be okay. However if temps get really hot one Saturday I would urge you to check the system that day. As temps play a vital role. Providing enough water when the ambient is 70 and when ambient is 90 are totally different.

 

[Chachi]

You could build a rain system with a Mistking.

Without seeing the rain system and how well it performs no one could tell you if its enough or not.

However going to have to be the voice of concern here. There is a reason people pay 150 for a mist king, it isn't because a pond pump cant do the job. It is because a pond pump doesn't last, and is far far from reliable.

Mistkings can and do fail, however a 15 dollar pond pump is much much more prone to failure. Then you have to look at temps, if on a semi hot weekend that pond pump fails and you are not there for 2+ days, that could easily become a death sentence.

Let say you leave on friday at 2, and its a warm day, the pump fails before the night mist, then you return on Monday morning. That is 3 days without water, that could prove fatal at worst, at best will cause some serious dehydration issues.

In a case of a house, where you can watch the pump all the time and make sure it is working is one thing. When you are gone for weekends its a major issue, you need that reliability and that comes with a price.

Let me be clear I am not saying you cant build a pond pump system that will work well and be reliable. I am saying that a reliable good pond pump is going to cost more than a Mist King (or about the same). Reliable high end pumps you can trust cost money it is that simple, if you cant afford a reliable pump then I would suggest you take the cham home on the weekends or go there on the weekends to water.

A failure is just too risky. I see this all the time in my other hobby, which is PC watercooling. There is some great pumps in that hobby, they cost 100+. People all the time go to home depot and buy a pond pump or some Chinese version of our pumps. 2-3 months later, they end up with a 2-3k dollar brick they're computer is trashed because they bought a crap pump.

You are absolutely right. I'm home all the time, but she is totally gone. Plus, what seems to work once may, gradually, not be enough. So, we'll said.

 

[Andee]

I agree with Cyberlocc, I still prefer Mistkings because even when I do run low on water they don't break. Love them.