My new vieldes are not drinking

[rpgamer97]

Chameleon Info:
[*]Your Chameleon - vieled, 1 male 1 female, How long has it been in your care? 2ND day
[*]Handling - How often do you handle your chameleon? Only to put in the shower while I clean the cage
[*]Feeding - What are you feeding your cham? Small Crickets. What amount? 10 in feeding dish. What is the schedule? Put feeding dish in a few hours before lights on, due to work. How are you gut-loading your feeders? veggies
[*]Supplements - What brand and type of calcium and vitamin products are you dusting your feeders with and what is the schedule? Herptavite once a week, flukers calcium with D3 every feeding
[*]Watering - What kind of watering technique do you use? Habba mist and manual mister. How often and how long to you mist? Auto: every 3 hours during day for 60 sec, manual: about 3 to 4 min at 5 am and 5 pm. Do you see your chameleon drinking? No
[*]Fecal Description - Briefly note colors and consistency from recent droppings: solid brown and solid white with a lil yellow. Has this chameleon ever been tested for parasites? No
[*]History - Any previous information about your cham that might be useful to others when trying to help you. Only a few months old, not 100% sure tho. Breeder didn't really say


Cage Info:
[*]Cage Type - 2 x 2 x 4 screen cage
[*]Lighting - What brand, model, and types of lighting are you using? reptisun 5.0 18 inch. What is your daily lighting schedule? 8 am to 8 pm
[*]Temperature - What temp range have you created (cage floor to basking spot)? 68 - 72 cage, 90 basking. Lowest overnight temp? 60 How do you measure these temps? Digital thermometer for basking, reg bulb thermometer and hygrometer for cage
[*]Humidity - What are your humidity levels? 60-70% How are you creating and maintaining these levels? Mister and manual mistings. What do you use to measure humidity? Small bulb hygrometer
[*]Plants - Are you using live plants? Not yet, plan to soon. If so, what kind?
[*]Placement - Where is your cage located? Spare room with door shut. Is it near any fans, air vents, or high traffic areas? Opposite side of the room from the air vent. At what height is the top of the cage relative to your room floor? 4 feet
[*]Location - Where are you geographically located? Fort Hood Texas


Current Problem - not drinking


Pictures are helpful
Edited to finish filling out the form

 

[Kate]

Chaneleons are often closet drinkers. The fact there urates are white shows they are well hydrated. If the urates are yellow they need to drink more. I am a little concerned about your supplements. They should have feeders dusted with plain calcium daily, calcium with d3 twice a month and a multivitamin twice a month. Are you planing to keep them together or separate them when older?

 

[ReptileLove18]

many keepers do not see their chameleons drink very often if at all. the way to monitor if they are staying hydrated is checking out their feces/urates every time they go. the urate should be white, this means they are hydrated. if it is a little yellow, they need to drink more. if it is completely yellow or orange they are dehydrated and need to be hyrdrated quickly!

there are a few things in your husbandry that need to be adjusted: and here is a great caresheet for veileds https://www.chameleonforums.com/care/caresheets/veiled/

i know that at this point they are sharing a cage, because of this, ten crickets between the two of them a day is not nearly enough. they could eat 15+ small crickets a day by themselves so i recommend putting at least 20 in every morning. since she is bout 3 months old and growing a lot she will eat like a horse when she settles in. and he is about 6 months old your said in your other post he should have quite an appetite too! a varied diet is also a good thing so here is a blog with lots of different feeders and how much they can make of your chams diet https://www.chameleonforums.com/blogs/sandrachameleon/74-feeders.html

also, just veggies is not an ideal gutload for your feeders. some grains and fruits are also good! this blog has a great and easy gutload recipe that will give lots of nutrition to your feeders and therefore to your chams https://www.chameleonforums.com/blogs/sandrachameleon/75-feeder-nutrition-gutloading.html

for your supplements, using calcium with d3 everyfeeding will lead to d3 poisoning, so the recommended supplement schedule for veileds is: calcium without d3 or phosphorous at nearly every feeding(since they are still growing so much you can use it every feeding), calcium with d3 twice a month, and a multivitamin twice a month.

i also recommend raising the amount of time the habba mists for to 2-3minutes at least because this will stimulate them to drink

also, what is the info on the cage, lighting, temp, humidity?

 

[rpgamer97]

Alright I will pick up a regular calcium supplement tomorrow and adjust fire from there. I would like to be able to keep them together if I can, but if not I need at least a month or two to get together another setup.

Here is a pic of the makes poop

 

[Kate]

You can keep them together when they are babies but you often find that one becomes more dominant and you may have problems. You also run the risk of the female having fertile eggs. I would avoid that until you gain more knowledge.

 

[rpgamer97]

I edited the original post above. The age of the chameleons I'm not sure about. Pretty sure the breeder said 3 and 6 months tho.
Sadly I can't increase the time of the Habba mist to more then 60 seconds, no setting above that.
This was all in a set up I bought from someone else. So naturally I need to upgrade part of it lol

 

[pssh]

How old are they? If they are under 3 months old, about the same size, and they don't seem to be too competitive, they might be able to be kept together for a few weeks. If one starts to steal the food, intimidate/bully the other, one is bigger, or one just seems like it isn't doing as well as the other, you will have to separate them immediately.

EDIT: 3-6 months? How is the gap that big? Post some photos of the animals so we can see how big they are and if they might be able to stay together for a little while. Try to take pictures of them with something as a size reference (preferably a ruler.)

 

[rpgamer97]

I didn't mean to say 10 crickets total, I do 10 per. Have a colony of 1k to pull from

 

[ReptileLove18]

I edited the original post above. The age of the chameleons I'm not sure about. Pretty sure the breeder said 3 and 6 months tho.
Sadly I can't increase the time of the Habba mist to more then 60 seconds, no setting above that.
This was all in a set up I bought from someone else. So naturally I need to upgrade part of it lol

the set up sounds fine. bummer you cant increase the misting time! some live plants would be great

How old are they? If they are under 3 months old, about the same size, and they don't seem to be too competitive, they might be able to be kept together for a few weeks. If one starts to steal the food, intimidate/bully the other, one is bigger, or one just seems like it isn't doing as well as the other, you will have to separate them immediately.

EDIT: 3-6 months? How is the gap that big? Post some photos of the animals so we can see how big they are and if they might be able to stay together for a little while. Try to take pictures of them with something as a size reference (preferably a ruler.)

theres a couple pics of them on this thread https://www.chameleonforums.com/todays-success-107536/

 

[pssh]

Oh, it looks like there is too much of a size difference for them to stay together without any kind of intimidation or food stealing to me. I would get a make shift cage made or put a divider in the cage you have. A divider will allow you to keep them in the same cage for a while until you can get a second cage for them. You can try turning it on it's side and using some plastic sheeting (like opaque acrylic sheet or some corrugated plastic) down the middle. Have the UVB half on one side and half on the other, then just get a second basking bulb. You might need some extra vines/branches and plants but those shouldn't be difficult to get.

 

[rpgamer97]

I just came home to both of them bright green! Still in the same cage for now. Gonna give em till this weekend to decide if I want to separate them