She wont drink....HELP!!

[planetluna13]

Hey guys, I'm new to the forum and new to Chameleon care. I've had my Veiled Chameleon for about a week now,and I'm not sure what to do. She hasn't been drinking. I mist the cage at least 3 to 4 times a day. I use a dripper and I gut load her crickets with fruits and veggies. Yet'm still seeing yellow in her urate. any suggestions would be great.

 

[VeiledChams]

Hey again, haha.

Fill this form out so we can get a better idea of your husbandry, thus allowing us to let you know what is working, what isn't and what needs to be changed to solve your problem


Chameleon Info:
Your Chameleon - The species, sex, and age of your chameleon. How long has it been in your care?
Handling - How often do you handle your chameleon?
Feeding - What are you feeding your cham? What amount? What is the schedule? How are you gut-loading your feeders?
Supplements - What brand and type of calcium and vitamin products are you dusting your feeders with and what is the schedule?
Watering - What kind of watering technique do you use? How often and how long to you mist? Do you see your chameleon drinking?
Fecal Description - Briefly note colors and consistency from recent droppings. Has this chameleon ever been tested for parasites?
History - Any previous information about your cham that might be useful to others when trying to help you.

Cage Info:
Cage Type - Describe your cage (Glass, Screen, Combo?) What are the dimensions?
Lighting - What brand, model, and types of lighting are you using? What is your daily lighting schedule?
Temperature - What temp range have you created (cage floor to basking spot)? Lowest overnight temp? How do you measure these temps?
Humidity - What are your humidity levels? How are you creating and maintaining these levels? What do you use to measure humidity?
Plants - Are you using live plants? If so, what kind?
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?
Location - Where are you geographically located?

Current Problem - The current problem you are concerned about.

 

[jcal]

Where do you have your dripped located. It helps if there is a lot of light near bouncing off the droplets

 

[carol5208]

Just because you do not see her drinking, does not mean she is not. She might be drinking, but just not as much as you would like if her urine is yellow. Try dripping the dripper directly on her nose through the cage if she will sit there. Also, how long are you misting for. If not long, try atleast 3-5 minutes. Some need more stimulation to get them to drink. Make sure the dripper is dripping on a vine, branch or leaf. Some will not drink directly out of the tube, some will.

 

[PeriTanz]

baby chameleon isn't drinking!

I'm new to the site as well. I have had my chameleon for about two weeks and i can tell he isn't drinking enough because his urate is orange to white. has yours started drinking/ drinking more?

to answer the questions about his enclosure:

Chameleon Info:
Your Chameleon - Panther, male, ~4 months old. 18 days in my care.
Handling - How often do you handle your chameleon? today was the first time i have actually held him, after one failed attempt where he just put his arms on me then took them off, he then climbed right onto my hand and up my arm, appearing confident of himself, it was so rad.
Feeding - 1/4 in crickets who have just eaten spinach, potatoes, pears, or cucumbers. dusted with Rep-Cal brand phosphorus-free calcium w/ vit D. and Rep-Cal Herptivite multivitamins. I'm not sure what people mean by lightly dusting tho so I'm not sure I'm doing it correctly? What amount? 5-10 a day depending on his interest level.What is the schedule? morning~9 o'clock. His light comes on at 8:30. and again feed ~4 or 5 o'clock pm. He also eats wingless fruit-fly's. How are you gut-loading your feeders? i just put it in there container and they appear to be eating it instead of each other.
Supplements - see above.
Watering - What kind of watering technique do you use? I have a mister that sprays the top of my schefflera once every hour for 60 seconds and i hand mist with a spray bottle around 6-10 times a day for about 60 seconds. Do you see your chameleon drinking? No, that is what i am worried about! I saw him drink one time about 10 days ago. I have had him for 18 days.
Fecal Description - Briefly note colors and consistency from recent droppings. Brown but too dry looking. and then white to orange. also very dry! Has this chameleon ever been tested for parasites? not since i received him. He is a baby.

Cage Info:
Cage Type - screen. 18" by 18" by 12".
Lighting - Reptisun brand 5.0 UVB, 8:30am-8:30pm. 60 wt blue light blub in a ceramic base for heat 10:00-5:00.
Temperature - 20 C on bottom to 24.5 C in basking area. ~20 C throughout at night.
Humidity - ~50-60%. How are you creating and maintaining these levels? With the mister and hand misting but i am struggling here. How do you recommend keeping it more humid?? What do you use to measure humidity? two gauges, not digital. Temp gauges are digital.
Plants - schefflera and fake vines.
Placement - Where is your cage located? Is it near any fans, no. air vents, no. or high traffic areas? Somewhat because i live in a studio but its just me my boyfriend here. He has lots of quiet time. At what height is the top of the cage relative to your room floor? ~8 feet.
Location - Where are you geographically located? Southern California.


Thanks for reading it all, please let me know any advice you have to rehydrate/ get him drinking.

 

[ChameleonNerd]

if you do not get this problem resolved soon, there is a temporary solution, although it can be used permanently, it is extremely tedious. if she/he is still eating you can wait until she snags her prey, then take a syringe with room temp water and squirt it in to her mouth, but NOT down her throat. this will hydrate her/him without stress. however, it is only a temporary solution until you get the drip problem resolved. if you water too much their cells can literally explode resulting in death - the same way as humans

 

[Tandra Lee]

i had some issues with my chams as well in the beginning,i tried literally everything,what i found to work was trying different size plant leaves for the water to drip on..i have real plants in my cham homes but i use a faux plant that has only two large bowl shaped leaves on it(faux defenbachia leaves),the water from the dripper drips fast and into the leaves where it bounces and splatters everywhere while leaving a small puddle in the center,this has worked so well for me..my chams fecal matter and urates are awesome(as far as poop is concerned lol) the fecal matter is a dark brown with a mucous like stuff on it and the urates are white as white can be..i would sugest trying different(large bowl shaped) faux leaves only for the dripper water to collect in and splatter and increase the drips fr the dripper into that plant leaf..good luck..sometimes they can be picky and stubborn too!

 

[Stanly]

your best clue is the color of the urates, white is good, yellow is some what dehyrated and orange is very dehyrated.

I don't think the "wettness" of the poop is a very good indicator or hyration (tho runny, or overly dry "fresh" poop may indicate other issues). for one thing if you don't see it "fresh" it maybe wet or dry depeneding on where it fell.

one thing I've noticed with my panther if i mist him directly he will just close his eyes and rarely starts drinking, but if i shoot a stream (not high pressure just sort of arcing) a few inches in front of him he's more likely to start drinking (if he's thristy). I've just started doing this (along with mistings va mistking) and now he has learned the spray bottle is a source of water and will drink from the nozzle after I get his attention with the stream (I just make it barely drip and he will lick it off)

 

[carol5208]

PeriTanz, Definitely get yourself a dripper and try dripping that about 1 drop per second for a good portion of the day on a leaf, vine, branch etc. My cham does not drink from mistings but only from the dripper. Another things I noticed that I would change for the future heatlh of your chameleon. Leave your basking or heat light on the same schedule as your uvb, especially if you are feeding your chameleon at 4-5 pm. You are turning out your heat source too early in the day and that leaves your chameleon no where to bask to digest the food you have just given it. The UVB light does not give off any heat so it cannot use that for digestio.

 

[kinyonga]

Don't squirt water into the chameleon's mouth...ease it in so it has time to deal with it.

PeriTanz...Your supplementing and gutloading IMHO need to be changed....see below...

Here is some information that I hope will help....
Appropriate cage temperatures aid in digestion and thus play a part indirectly in nutrient absorption.

Exposure to UVB from either direct sunlight or a proper UVB light allows the chameleon to produce D3 so that it can use the calcium in its system to make/keep the bones strong and be used in other systems in the chameleon as well. The UVB should not pass through glass or plastic no matter whether its from the sun or the UVB light. The most often recommended UVB light is the long linear fluorescent Repti-sun 5.0 tube light. Some of the compacts, spirals and tube lights have caused health issues, but so far there have been no bad reports against this one.

Since many of the feeder insects have a poor ratio of calcium to phosphorus in them, its important to dust the insects just before you feed them to the chameleon at most feedings with a phos.-free calcium powder to help make up for it. (I use Rep-cal phosphorus-free calcium).

If you also dust twice a month with a phos.-free calcium/D3 powder it will ensure that your chameleon gets some D3 without overdoing it. It leaves the chameleon to produce the rest of what it needs through its exposure to the UVB light. D3 from supplements can build up in the system but D3 produced from exposure to UVB shouldn't as long as the chameleon can move in and out of it. (I use Rep-cal phos.-free calcium/D3).

Dusting twice a month as well with a vitamin powder that contains a beta carotene (prOformed) source of vitamin A will ensure that the chameleon gets some vitamins without the danger of overdosing the vitamin A. PrEformed sources of vitamin A can build up in the system and may prevent the D3 from doing its job and push the chameleon towards MBD. However, there is controversy as to whether all/any chameleons can convert the beta carotene and so some people give some prEformed vitamin A once in a while. (I use herptivite which has beta carotene.)

Gutloading/feeding the insects well helps to provide what the chameleon needs. I gutload crickets, roaches, locusts, superworms, etc. with an assortment of greens (dandelions, kale, collards, endive, escarole, mustard greens, etc.) and veggies (carrots, squash, sweet potato, sweet red pepper, zucchini, etc.)

Calcium, phos., D3 and vitamin A are important players in bone health and other systems in the chameleon (muscles, etc.) and they need to be in balance. When trying to balance them, you need to look at the supplements, what you feed the insects and what you feed the chameleon.

Here are some good sites for you to read...
http://chameleonnews.com/07FebWheelock.html
http://web.archive.org/web/200605020...Vitamin.A.html
http://web.archive.org/web/200406080...d.Calcium.html
http://www.uvguide.co.uk/
http://web.archive.org/web/200601140...ww.adcham.com/
If you can't access the sites above that have the word "archive" in you can do it through the WayBackMachine.

 

[PeriTanz]

Thanks everyone for your advice. Today Tanzy drank a little bit from a hand dripper so hopefully hes getting the idea. Also i got a stand for his heat lamp so that i can have it on the same schedule as his UVB, thanx carol5208. Does anyone have any tips on keeping the humidity up besides misting??

 

[ChameleonNerd]

more plants keep humidity up. if you have a screen cage you can cover a side or two

 

[seanUTD]

It may just be a means of WHAT METHOD she/he will drink from... I NEVER saw my guy drinking and for a while it was fine until yellow started turning up, I went out and created a "rain" system instead of a mist system and he is literally lapping up water now... Try different methods, moving systems around, and yea it helps if theres light on the drops for more than one reason 1. it activates the instinct to drink (I could be wrong but this what I was told) and 2. It slightly warms the water which also from what Ive heard and been told is better for them.