Soaking your Cham

Brodybreaux25

Chameleon Enthusiast
Credit: Petr Necas

The myth about soaking, bathing, spraying,
misting and showering chameleons revealed...

Repeatedly people get advised, even by VETs or get ideas like that, to soak, bath, spray, mist or shower their chameleons.
With one only little exception in the course of emergency rehydration, when an indirect shower can be tolerated as one of the possible methods, all the rest is a total crap and absolutely meaningless or even harmful.

The reasons are simple:

1. The skin of chameleons is NOT penetrable by water. So it makes no sense to make it moist. It has absolutely no effect.
2. Any touch of chameleon body is causing stress, as in the wild, there are only three occasions, when chameleon body is touched: a. When unexpected rain comes at night, b. While mating, c. While being predated. So, any touch is omitted as vigorously as possible or leads to heavy discomfort and stress that can even be lethal

Even on reputable sites, people are swearing their chameleon likes daily bath up to one hour, they report it helped to calm it down and recommend for hydration etc etc.
Please, this is an absolute insanity and qualifies already as animal torture.
Never do it!
BF5D57AB-0D91-4278-9F78-9327A5210E12.png
 
Credit: Petr Necas

The myth about soaking, bathing, spraying,
misting and showering chameleons revealed...

Repeatedly people get advised, even by VETs or get ideas like that, to soak, bath, spray, mist or shower their chameleons.
With one only little exception in the course of emergency rehydration, when an indirect shower can be tolerated as one of the possible methods, all the rest is a total crap and absolutely meaningless or even harmful.

The reasons are simple:

1. The skin of chameleons is NOT penetrable by water. So it makes no sense to make it moist. It has absolutely no effect.
2. Any touch of chameleon body is causing stress, as in the wild, there are only three occasions, when chameleon body is touched: a. When unexpected rain comes at night, b. While mating, c. While being predated. So, any touch is omitted as vigorously as possible or leads to heavy discomfort and stress that can even be lethal

Even on reputable sites, people are swearing their chameleon likes daily bath up to one hour, they report it helped to calm it down and recommend for hydration etc etc.
Please, this is an absolute insanity and qualifies already as animal torture.
Never do it!View attachment 256455

Great discussion starter :).

What do you think Brody? Does your Cham bath themselves in their mister or cower and hide Everytime it happens?

Is their a source that Chameleons skins do not absorb water? I can obviously see just like all of us the water bead off, but doesn't that mean none is absorbed?

If it's not pentretable then why do it to rehydrate them? What effect does that provide?

On that same note, if it's not pentretable what danger does it pose?

What is this danger we are causing? What are the Ill effects of the spray?

I think we have all watched a chameleon wash their Eyes under a mist, or drops of water. Is that to be ignored?

As to my personal experience, my current Panther walks himself to his misters and sits in them not every day, not every mist (He is only awake for the afternoon mist anyway) however I have witnessed him do it on several occasions. He chooses to sit under the mist, with no coaxing from me at all. He has plenty of space to hide from it, and often does. However sometimes he chooses to seek it out.

So am I abusing the animal by allowing him that choice?
 
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I have never given my chameleons a shower in the bathroom shower or a bath/soaking unless here has been a "medical" reason for it. When I mist I don't spray the chameleons directly, I spray the greenery in their cages and the glass sides (where there are glass sides).

I do drip water on the end of chameleons noses sometimes if I need them to drink or to eat when they are not well for instance.

I also do not leave the cages wet at night in winter because the room ends up developing mold from cold air meeting warm at the walls and windows mostly. I don't use foggers either.

If I do something and it seems to work then I don't change it unless I feel that it is necessary.

@cyberlocc said..."What is this danger we are causing? What are the Ill effects of the spray?"... Stress is what I feel it might cause...it depends on the chameleon.
 
I have never given my chameleons a shower in the bathroom shower or a bath/soaking unless here has been a "medical" reason for it. When I mist I don't spray the chameleons directly, I spray the greenery in their cages and the glass sides (where there are glass sides).

I do drip water on the end of chameleons noses sometimes if I need them to drink or to eat when they are not well for instance.

I also do not leave the cages wet at night in winter because the room ends up developing mold from cold air meeting warm at the walls and windows mostly. I don't use foggers either.

If I do something and it seems to work then I don't change it unless I feel that it is necessary.

@cyberlocc said..."What is this danger we are causing? What are the Ill effects of the spray?"... Stress is what I feel it might cause...it depends on the chameleon.

Do you hand mist? Not have a mister system?

The post as far as I understood it when Petr was explaining it the first time he posted it. Was not just about placing a chameleon in a shower. I don't do that, and could see the stress caused from that.

However it also entailed again as far as I understood it. Running the misters for long periods with like Parsonii, or running the misters ever with any species. Kind of a drop the mister, only use a Fogger thing.

It's kind of hard to grasp that, from the OP, however in the comments section Petr went more in Depth. Bill has also stopped using Misters in their naturalistic hydration regimen.
 
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Yup...hand mist.

I'm kinda "old school" and I do some/many things differently than most. Started off with aquariums...then glass cages, etc...incubator consists of a heating pad with a wood and screen frame over it ...still stick to the powders for supplements and greens, veggies and such for feeding/gutloading insects, etc...what can I say??
 
My panthers hate getting wet!! Stresses them out bad, causes them to freak out or jump, slow dripping water does the trick
 
I would never soak a chameleon by any form of immersion in standing water. There are some species that have been found swimming either to cross bodies of water for mating opportunities etc. or simply because they fell in. It seems to me an unnecessarily stressful procedure with no benefit for the common species most keep. They don't absorb water thru their skin or their cloaca.
If you are taking about hand misting in the cage I do that occasionally, once or twice a month. If I don't like the color of their urates, they have been transported/shipped, their appetite is off, they have not had a stool on schedule, they have passed slugs/given birth and/or the occasional eye rinse. I try to do this after the morning misting for the most part when the cage is cooler and the basking light is off. I do use it more as first aid than routine these days.
Mine will initially dodge the mist but once wet often they ignore it, clean their eyes and may drink. I raise my humidity at night with an ultrasonic cool mist humidifier that is aimed down thru the top of my cages so the "fog" pour over them for several hours a night. I get 80-90% humidity in the cage in general with areas of 100%.
 
I would never soak a chameleon by any form of immersion in standing water. There are some species that have been found swimming either to cross bodies of water for mating opportunities etc. or simply because they fell in. It seems to me an unnecessarily stressful procedure with no benefit for the common species most keep. They don't absorb water thru their skin or their cloaca.
If you are taking about hand misting in the cage I do that occasionally, once or twice a month. If I don't like the color of their urates, they have been transported/shipped, their appetite is off, they have not had a stool on schedule, they have passed slugs/given birth and/or the occasional eye rinse. I try to do this after the morning misting for the most part when the cage is cooler and the basking light is off. I do use it more as first aid than routine these days.
Mine will initially dodge the mist but once wet often they ignore it, clean their eyes and may drink. I raise my humidity at night with an ultrasonic cool mist humidifier that is aimed down thru the top of my cages so the "fog" pour over them for several hours a night. I get 80-90% humidity in the cage in general with areas of 100%.


Yes it entails misting, as you said you do monthly, I assume that means Misting the Cham Directly?

It also entails using a Mister at all, as far as I understood, when I spoke with him about it anyway.

"Even on reputable sites, people are swearing their chameleon likes daily bath up to one hour, they report it helped to calm it down and recommend for hydration etc etc. "

Was in reference, of the older Parsons keepers on the site, and Mellers keepers, to have their misters run for an hour in the afternoon, especially with WCs, is how it was framed to me, or how I took it from Petr. He can be a bit hard to understand at times, but that is how it was framed in my comprehension.

This was accompanied with the "Naturalistic Humidity" idea, as to say that Humidity being raised to 100% at night, is all we should be doing, Zero misting throughout the Day, ever, including for the likes of Parsonii, and Mellers ect.
 
I do directly spray them but usually after their longer morning misting when they are already damp. I get them damp if they aren't already, let them settle and then spray for a minute or two and they start drinking and/or eye cleaning. I wouldn't do anything long term or continue after that have had a few sips.
I would like to know what the Parson's, and Meller's people think.
 
Mine has a water bowl, a dripper, and I mist her as well. Not directly spraying though. There is a netting on the terrarium that I mist and it forms almost a rain like effect. She seems to love it.
She prefers the water bowl and misting.
She has a branch perfectly aligned for her to get dripped on, but she likes to stick her little tongue in the water.
 
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Coda just hates anything to do with water.........even if she sees the spray bottle she hides. I think it's the pet store PTSD.
 
Yup, mine hides durring the misting and then comes out after the rain to drink.

I only mist spray:
when they are fresh out of the box and i need to get them to drink
when they have a stuck shed and i need the shed to hydrate, dry out, repeat, till it turns into flaky paper


On the other hand we have at least 1 picture of the month that had a parsons just having a good old time in the mister drinking :)
 
My panthers hate getting wet!! All of them, I just had a juvenile jump from spraying water on him, I didn't see him...oops
 
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