Orange urate, he won't drink :(

Chameleon Info:
Your Chameleon - The species, sex, and age of your chameleon. How long has it been in your care? Panther 7-8 month have had him about 3 months
Handling - How often do you handle your chameleon? Moving him from cage to FR.
Feeding - What are you feeding your cham? What amount? What is the schedule? How are you gut-loading your feeders?He's only eating crickets now and he has only eaten 3 yesterday and 2 today. It seems like he's preferring me to hand feed him cause he hasn't been hunting or interested in cup feeding. About a month ago I ordered him silks and horns but he was bit by a horn and completely ignores them and then the silks chow molded so I threw them all away. I gutload with apples,oranges,potatoes,carrots and cricket crack.
Supplements - What brand and type of calcium and vitamin products are you dusting your feeders with and what is the schedule?Repcal herptivite 2x a month, repcal calcium with d3 2x a month and repticalium w/o d3 at every feeding. Repashy vit A 1x a month.
Watering - What kind of watering technique do you use? How often and how long to you mist? Do you see your chameleon drinking?I have a dripper and a mistking that runs 5x a day(8am-4pm) for 2minutes but I've extended it to 3 minutes lately. Havent been seeing him drink lately at all. I've tried showering him, I've tried using a hibiscus tree and a pothos tower that I made specifically for showering. When he's on the hibiscus he will just sit in the tree and not pay any attention to the water thats hitting the plant. He's usually looking at the the silver faucet and door..they seem to freak him out a bit. Using the pothos tower he will start climbing towards the water but then he will put himself directly into the water stream that bounces off the wall and completely flips out.
Fecal Description - Briefly note colors and consistency from recent droppings. Has this chameleon ever been tested for parasites?Normal poop but his urate has gone from pinkish to fully orange today. He's never been checked for parasites.
History - Any previous information about your cham that might be useful to others when trying to help you. This past week I have changed his cage around from when he was younger. It was full of bamboo and branches going from side to side, but now I took out most of the branches and I added a hanging pothos and vines. I'm starting to think that maybe he was only used to drinking from the branches and wont drink from the pothos leaves. But he's now eating much less, last week he was eating 8 crickets a day.

Cage Info:
Cage Type - Describe your cage (Glass, Screen, Combo?) What are the dimensions?screen. 24x24x48
Lighting - What brand, model, and types of lighting are you using? What is your daily lighting schedule? Dual fixture with an arcadia 6% and 6.5k growlight. And a clamp lamp for basking with a 60watt bulb.
Temperature - What temp range have you created (cage floor to basking spot)? Lowest overnight temp? How do you measure these temps?Basking is 80-85. Rest of cage around 77-78, lowest temp is 75 at night.
Humidity - What are your humidity levels? How are you creating and maintaining these levels? What do you use to measure humidity?Humidity rests around 40 and spikes when misting.
Plants - Are you using live plants? If so, what kind? Theres a hanging pothos and umbrella.
Placement - Where is your cage located? Is it near any fans, air vents, or high traffic areas? At what height is the top of the cage relative to your room floor?Cage rests on a shelving unit and almost touches the roof. It's near an air vent and is in the living room.
Location - Where are you geographically located?I'm in Florida

Current Problem - The current problem you are concerned about.
Ren just wont drink. His urates have gone from pink to orange there might have been a little red and no matter what I try to do to hydrate him he wont drink. I'm starting to think him eating dirt is not cause he's craving minerals. It's because the dirts wet. But if he's thirsty why wont he just drink. Yesterday he had a leaf blocking his eyes but I could spray water at his mouth and it looked like he would lick the water off his lips but his urate was worse today than yesterday. I'm probably going to call coastal silkworms for
 
You are going to have to take action,
1.get a syringe without a needle and fill with clean filtered water
2. Take him out of his cage
3. Try to drip water by the end of his his nose so it runs down but only do one SMALL drip at a time you don't want to over do it and frighten him
If the doesn't lick his lips and take the water -
Then take your thumb and index finger and gently grab the flap of skin under his chin and gently pull down until his mouth is slightly open. Them repeat step 3

Please please PLEASE make sure you are very gentle and one do one tiny drip at a time and allow a 5-8 seconds in between drips

Also remember if you think this is mean, it's not and its saving your Cham from dehydration.
 
You might try a drip cup on top of the cage in several locations. Poke a tiny hole in a deli cup from inside so that it drips about once a second and position it over some leaves where he can see it. If he ignores it, move it around to see what reaction you get. I have to change the drip location for most of my females and a couple of my males so they are attracted to the drip. As the plants grow they change the way the drip comes down from the automated system and they no longer have the instinctive trigger to drink by seeing the light shining through the droplets. Once you see him react to a drip you know where to have it going most of the time. It will change so check it often.

One trick I used that worked out for a few of mine was to ziptie a small plastic plant to the dripper so that it had a trickling effect causing several droplets to hang so the cham would see this and shoot the droplets.
 
There are some pictures in this thread from a couple days ago when he was having eye problems: https://www.chameleonforums.com/eye-lid-folded-back-itself-115037/

His eyes still look a little wrinkly. Here are two photos of him today.
photo (42).jpg
photo (43).jpg
And his poop and urate
photo (44).jpg

I was planning on getting another dripper so I had two going in different spots. Butthe fake plant that it drips on has been in his cage since day 1 and I've seen him drink off of it before but he still wont use it. Thankfully I found a plastic syringe and I'll try dripping some on his mouth now. Thanks for the responses
 
As you already know he may be dehydrated from the looks of the urate. Are the pictures of him from right now? Because his eyes do not look very sunken and they would be if he were dehydrated
 
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The urate to be honest doesnt look too bad at all. His eyes do not like too sunken either.

How often does he go between going to the toilet?

Even the most hydrated chameleon will have orange urates if the urate has been in the body a long while.

I wouldnt worry too much, just try moving the dripper about. If he is dehydrated it is only slightly.

Juicy feeders such as silk and hornworms will give him more fluid.
 
Yeah I took those pictures about 5minutes before posting.I agree by the looks of the urate I'd think his eyes would be sunken in much more. He does poop everyday. And after doing some searching I have come across posts about people believing orange urates do not relate to dehydration but it seems that the topic is debatable.
I just picked up another dripper. I've also read that some peoples chameleons will drink straight from the dripper hose. So I think I'm gonna try placing it near his basking spot and see if he'll drink straight from that
 
How often do you see his urates ?
If its rare and it looks like that when you see iy he's not getting enough water, they wont always have a long white urate when they poop. Some times they have already excreted the urate and the next excretion may not have it.
 
How often do you see his urates ?
If its rare and it looks like that when you see iy he's not getting enough water, they wont always have a long white urate when they poop. Some times they have already excreted the urate and the next excretion may not have it.

Okay that makes sense. He poops on the umbrella 90% of the time and I always have to look through all of the rocks that cover the soil to find it and sometimes I don't find the urate. But like I said his urate has gone from pinkish to orange like in the picture so this has been a reoccurring problem.

I'm also going to stop his current supplements and start using repashy calcium plus
 
OK you have a VERY spoiled boy. I have one too so no judgememt here... A syringe will give him immediate H20 but not train him. I say only give him water with a syringe outdoors and make him use a dripper indoors.
 
Syringe's give them immediate water but you are looking for a long term solution. Use a combo of mist and dripping.
 
Haha yeah I wanted the best for my boy..This morning I watched Ren checking out his new dripper spot and he drank from it a couple times.. I'm worried though today his left eye looks a little strange. I'm thinking it looks like the start of a tear duct infection.

photo (45).jpg
photo (46).jpg
 
To be honest stick with the three powder routine for supplementation. Calcium plus has caused quite a few problems. If you are going to us it only do it about three times a week, not everyday as stated on the packet.
 
Well I wanted to try switching the supplements because he's still eating dirt and I want to see if the repashy will cause him to stop. What kind of problems does it cause? And yeah I was not planning on using it every day.

His poop and urate looked the same today and his left eye is very wrinkly
 
first I'd say don't panic. I wouldn't resort to desperate measure yet.

He has to settle into the new cage - allow that to happen.

moving him to the shower may be added to the stress rather than helping with the dehydration. moving him to a free-range should wait until he's settled into the new cage. I have some panthers that take a week just to get over a single new branch placed in the existing cage. Give him time.

Add another dripper, such that it drips (at a different rate - faster - than the one you have now) onto a branch like he used to get, it might help.

next time instead of tossing the silkworms, just feed them something else (like dandelion leaves or thin shaved carrot) until you get more chow or until he eats them all. If he likes silkworms, get him more of those - they will help with hydration

temporarily reduce use of supplements. its hard for organs to process excess if he's not getting enough water right now
If you replace your old supplement routine to use Repashy Calcium Plus, I agree to use once a week max and use your vitamin free calcium the rest of the time as needed. (assuming you have the regular original calcium plus not the new low level one)

Ensure the crickets are well hydrated.
remove potatoe from your normal gutload rotation. add in some leafy greens from time to time, like dandelion, rocket/arugula, romaine lettuce, kale, basil, mint.
 
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first I'd say don't panic. I wouldn't resort to desperate measure yet.

He has to settle into the new cage - allow that to happen.

moving him to the shower may be added to the stress rather than helping with the dehydration. moving him to a free-range should wait until he's settled into the new cage. I have some panthers that take a week just to get over a single new branch placed in the existing cage. Give him time.

Add another dripper, such that it drips (at a different rate - faster - than the one you have now) onto a branch like he used to get, it might help.

next time instead of tossing the silkworms, just feed them something else (like dandelion leaves or thin shaved carrot) until you get more chow or until he eats them all. If he likes silkworms, get him more of those - they will help with hydration

temporarily reduce use of supplements. its hard for organs to process excess if he's not getting enough water right now
If you replace your old supplement routine to use Repashy Calcium Plus, I agree to use once a week max and use your vitamin free calcium the rest of the time as needed. (assuming you have the regular original calcium plus not the new low level one)

Ensure the crickets are well hydrated.
remove potatoe from your normal gutload rotation. add in some leafy greens from time to time, like dandelion, rocket/arugula, romaine lettuce, kale, basil, mint.
Thanks for responding Sandra, I plan on using all of your advice. The repashy calcium plus I have is this one:http://www.amazon.com/Repashy-Calci...75718489&sr=8-1&keywords=repashy+calcium+plus
I'm not sure whether it's the new one or old one..
Does anyone have any info on tear duct infections?
 
that's the original/medium.

how long has the urate been orange?

did you know you can inject a few drops of water into the bellies of crickets?

You should start a new thread related to the eyes.
 
His urate has been orange like this for the past 2 days, before this it was only pinkish. I didn't know that..that's pretty interesting. I'd need a real syringe.
 
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