New Giant Meller's

[chams1]

Well, this morning he doesn't seem to want to move around very much. I'm hoping it's just because he's stressed from whatever he went through with the man who sold him to us and not something worse. I've already called the vet so they are aware of us bringing in a fecal sample next week. We figured it's best to allow him to become acclimated before we take a sample. If it comes out positive for anything, we'll be bringing him it to get him checked out. Our vet LOVES seeing our chameleons, which makes me feel so happy that we were able to find him.

Agreed. Any W/C that I get (of any species), I tend not to give them anything right away like some people do. I have actually had some (melleri) that were free of parasites. IMO, I prefer to let them acclimate for a little while and then check fecal samples to know better what, if anything, you are dealing with. I do not agree with what many importers/exporters do with pumping them full of meds right away assuming they are riddled with parasites. I think that actually does more harm than good.

 

[Carlton]

I've given him two nice mistings (just with the hand mister for now, until his new cage comes in and our mister is set up for him) and the plant is nice and wet with lots of droplets for him to drink from

Melleri drink a huge amount of water and they do it slowly and deliberately in my experience. I found the best way to make sure mine were hydrated enough was to teach them to drink from a syringe or the nozzle of the hand sprayer, instead of trusting that they drink from enough foliage. Basically, I would stimulate them to start drinking by misting their cage until I saw them start licking their lips and swallowing. Then dribble the warm water on their heads so it ran down their faces and along their lips. Once they started drinking I would either keep dribbling the sprayer water over their face or substitute a large plastic feeder syringe full of warm water. They would usually start taking the water right from the tip and drink until full. It made watering them so much easier. Once they were really well hydrated and stable they didn't even drink heavily every day.

 

[Mr Wilson]

Just a quick update. I clipped away a little of the foliage because it really had a lot of branches, this way the light actually reached more of his temporary cage and he got right up and moved up towards the top. I gave him another mist and I'm going to check on him again in a couple of minutes. I don't want to keep bothering him and stressing him out. I'll definitely try the drips from the nozzle though, and set up one of our drippers we have.

Like I said, we're definitely waiting the week to get him acclimated before bringing in a fecal sample. So far he really hasn't shown interest in eating but I have a feeling he's been through quite a lot and is probably not really in the mood to eat. I've put a horn worm in his cage this way if he does decide to eat, it's in there for him. He's just so handsome, it's hard to stay away!

EDIT - I really wanted to make sure I saw him drink, so I filled the spray bottle with nice warm water (I checked the temperature on the inside of my wrist before spraying) and gave him a nice warm mist and completely covered the leaves with water. I stopped for about 15 seconds and VOILA! He starts drinking from the leaves right away! I'm going to go ahead and assume he's insanely thirsty seeing how the man who sold him to us said they like it drier than panthers. I'm VERY happy to see him drinking!

 

[chams1]

Melleri drink a huge amount of water and they do it slowly and deliberately in my experience. I found the best way to make sure mine were hydrated enough was to teach them to drink from a syringe or the nozzle of the hand sprayer, instead of trusting that they drink from enough foliage. Basically, I would stimulate them to start drinking by misting their cage until I saw them start licking their lips and swallowing. Then dribble the warm water on their heads so it ran down their faces and along their lips. Once they started drinking I would either keep dribbling the sprayer water over their face or substitute a large plastic feeder syringe full of warm water. They would usually start taking the water right from the tip and drink until full. It made watering them so much easier. Once they were really well hydrated and stable they didn't even drink heavily every day.

Agreed on this as well. All of my melleri drink directly from me via syringe or nozzle.

 

[Mr Wilson]

Is it OK that he is drinking water from right off of the leaves though? I figure if I see him doing this with no issues, that should be fine, right?

 

[chams1]

Is it OK that he is drinking water from right off of the leaves though? I figure if I see him doing this with no issues, that should be fine, right?

Yes, but I find it is best with these guys to monitor their intake (or lack thereof) if you just do it yourself. The leaves will not hold as much water as they will want. Even for the little ones. I have a couple that size (or smaller) and they drink way more than the adults. Let me rephrase: they drink more often. They seem to always be thirsty.

 

[Carlton]

Is it OK that he is drinking water from right off of the leaves though? I figure if I see him doing this with no issues, that should be fine, right?

Consider this a bonus, and no, nothing's wrong with it. But, I found that to spray the whole cage and foliage gently long enough for a big melleri to drink off leaves until full I would have to stand there for 20-30 minutes every time (and possibly have to do this twice a day). If I knew they got at least one full drink from the nozzle each day I could spend less time drenching the cage itself. Believe me, your sprayer hand will thank you for it! One thing I also noticed about melleri...a dehydrated one can produce amazingly long strings of clear saliva while it is actively drinking. I had one rescue who was probably in early stages of kidney problems due to neglect. He was constantly voraciously thirsty and the drool was impressive. My other rescue who was a lot more stable never did this.

 

[melric]

he is a beautiful creature....you shall call him Eddie Vedder

Whoa! He's not the only beautiful creature.

 

[summoner12]

I monitor water intake by looking at urate color. I don't pay too much attention to how much they actually drink. I am a very strong believer that if you keep melleri you need a misting system AND a drainage system. If you have drainage you'll never dehydrate your chameleons, or at least not have any excuse. I mist my melleri for a total of 60 minutes a day. They drink when they want or need it. In my free range that is 6 gallons of water per day, yikes! Lol

 

[Mr Wilson]

Once he gets a little more comfortable in his new home i'll try giving him a few syringe's of water and see how he does. His new, bigger cage, should be arriving by next week and we will have the mister set up for him. Right now he is in temporary housing so for now, I don't mind dealing with hand misting him for long periods of time. It's Spring break so I have no work right now... perfect timing.

 

[Jimturner]

I agree with all that has been said concerning hydration. I have found my melleri to take their time deciding to drink, then drink a lot for a long time. The easiest way for me to overcome this is with long mist sessions and drainage able to handle a considerable amount of water. I mist for about an hour through the day and pick a couple of random days a week and mist for a couple of hours straight. During these longer sessions I usually see all my chams sitting directly in the mist and drips drinking and enjoying their showers. If I had to do this by hand without a mist system it would take all day! lol Cheers.

 

[Mr Wilson]

I know it may take all day, but if that's what I have to do for the time being to make him happy, that's what I'll do I know it's not the ideal situation, but he was a very spur of the moment purchase (He only cost us $85 and we had always wanted a Melleri). He seems pretty happy as of right now, just hanging out in his cage. I've been misting him every hour or so.

 

[pssh]

I agree with long mistings as well as dripper/syringe watering. I think it's super important to give really long mistings while acclimating as well as having a dripper going all day. Better safe than sorry. Once he's acclimated, misting a little less and using drippers/syringes more is more practical if you don't have a misting system. Either way, they still need tons of water regardless of if they are acclimated or not.

Btw, you may never figure out 'his' gender.