Strange Drinking Behavior

If you have to hand water your cham or some reason, you can use a spray bottle but pull the handle super softly so it only drips not sprays at all. You can slowly drip it on the top-middle of his head and it will drip naturally down into his mouth/lips if he is thirsty, and it will stay away from his nostrils. But if urates are good, he is prob getting enough water like ppl said.
 
If your cham hits that tape with his tongue and damages it permanently hows he going to feed ???
 
Filled out the form.
  • Your Chameleon -Panther Chameleon , male,1 year 4 months old. Had him for almost a year. He’s 102 grams though sometimes he drops to 97.
  • Handling - I take him out for some Sun sometimes and weigh him every Saturday. Usually no more than twice a week. Although lately I’ve held him s as lot more to help him to his baking spot because it’s cold.
  • Feeding - My staple feeders are crickets and dubias. I give him as much as he wants because he hardly eats as it is. He hasn’t eaten in a while because he only wants worms. For treats I give hornworms, silkworms, and phoenix worms. I normally feed him every morning. I give feeders carrots or sweet potatoes and some repashy gutload powder. 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 - Hasn’t pooped in a while do to refusing anything but worms. I see both orange and white urates. He was once tested for parasites at a vet and was negative. I haven’t done my own float in a while.
  • History - Very picky eater. Doesn’t seem to understand how to drink water.

Cage Info:

  • Cage Type - Solid back bottom and sides. Mesh door and top. 2 feet by 2 feet by 4 feet tall.
  • Lighting - What brand, model, and types of lighting are you using? Odysea T-5 24” reflector and t5 24w 6500k daylight bulb and 22” reptisun t5 5.0
  • 12 hours uvb/plant lights. 6am-6pm Heat bulb from 6am-12pm
  • Temperature - Upper temp 73.2 lower 70. (cage floor to basking spot)? Basking spot 80 Lowest overnight temp? Measure with those little hydrometer/thermometer box things
  • Humidity -Upper 44% but varies on the day. Lower 55% I run a dripper in the afternoon. I have a mister that comes on for a few seconds a couple times in the afternoon and night. At night I run a fogger. Measure with those little hydrometer/thermometer box things. I don’t do anything with water when the heat is on.
  • Plants - Yes. Pothos.
  • Placement - In my room. I have a ceiling fan but the cage isn’t directly underneath it. 6.5 feet from top to floor.
  • Location - SoCal
  • Other:
Can someone recommend some better humidity/thermometers? I don’t think mine are accurate. Also how do you keep the cage warm when you have water going? Also my uv bulb needs to be replaced so is my current one fine? If not I’m going to get an Arcadia reflector and bulb.
 
Pluto_the_Panther said:
Filled out the form.
  • Your Chameleon -Panther Chameleon , male,1 year 4 months old. Had him for almost a year. He’s 102 grams though sometimes he drops to 97.
  • Handling - I take him out for some Sun sometimes and weigh him every Saturday. Usually no more than twice a week. Although lately I’ve held him s as lot more to help him to his baking spot because it’s cold. He should be able to find his basking spot on his own.
  • Feeding - My staple feeders are crickets and dubias. I give him as much as he wants because he hardly eats as it is. He hasn’t eaten in a while because he only wants worms. For treats I give hornworms, silkworms, and phoenix worms. I normally feed him every morning. I give feeders carrots or sweet potatoes and some repashy gutload powder. Just don't feed him so much that he is fat. He should only be fed every 2 or3 days a week at that age...and likely only 4 or 5 crickets or appropriate calories of other insects. U can add a lot more greens (kale, dandelion greens, collards, endive, etc.) and veggies (sweet red peppers, zucchini, squash, etc.) and a tiny amount of fruit (apples, pears, melon, berries, papaya, etc.) to what you feed the insects.
  • Supplements - What brand and type of calcium and vitamin products are you dusting your feeders with and what is the schedule? This is important....it's recommended that you dust twice a month with a phos free calcium/D3 powder, twice a month with a vitamin powder/no D3, and at the remaining times with a phos free calcium powder...all dustings should be lightly done.
  • Watering - What kind of watering technique do you use? How often and how long to you mist? Do you see your chameleon drinking? How are you providing water? How often?
  • Fecal Description - Hasn’t pooped in a while do to refusing anything but worms. I see both orange and white urates. He was once tested for parasites at a vet and was negative. I haven’t done my own float in a while. White means very well hydrated....white with an orange bit or tinge is well hydrated and mostly/all orange means he's dehydrated.
  • History - Very picky eater. Doesn’t seem to understand how to drink water. What do you mean about the water?

Cage Info:

  • Cage Type - Solid back bottom and sides. Mesh door and top. 2 feet by 2 feet by 4 feet tall.
  • Lighting - What brand, model, and types of lighting are you using? Odysea T-5 24” reflector and t5 24w 6500k daylight bulb and 22” reptisun t5 5.0 Is he basking light a white light?
  • 12 hours uvb/plant lights. 6am-6pm Heat bulb from 6am-12pm No lights at night. 12 hours in and 12 off for all daylight lights.
  • Temperature - Upper temp 73.2 lower 70. (cage floor to basking spot)? Basking spot 80 Lowest overnight temp? Measure with those little hydrometer/thermometer box things
  • Humidity -Upper 44% but varies on the day. Lower 55% I run a dripper in the afternoon. I have a mister that comes on for a few seconds a couple times in the afternoon and night. At night I run a fogger. Measure with those little hydrometer/thermometer box things. I don’t do anything with water when the heat is on.
  • Plants - Yes. Pothos.
  • Placement - In my room. I have a ceiling fan but the cage isn’t directly underneath it. 6.5 feet from top to floor.
  • Location - SoCal
  • Other:
Click to expand...
 
If it peels up from the moisture, because you ideally are having high humid nights, then it can get stuck to his tongue, even worse, it can stick to his skin. Have you ever seen what it does when you try to peel tape off chameleon skin? If not, use the search bar here...
There are some terrifying threads where people have accidentally ripped their chameleons off while trying to remove tape.
 
I had similar. I just added 1 or 2 minutes to each misting. I also moved the morning time up 1 hour, and evening 1 hour earlier.

The issue for me was that with winter they were getting up later and going to sleep earlier. They weren’t getting enough chance to drink.
 

Not sure what to do about him not finding the basking spot on his own. He sleeps in the bottom sometimes and it gets cold. Then in the morning he just stays there awake but doesn't get up. When I move him to the basking spot he warms up and gets on with his day.
As far as overfeeding him I give I doubt I'm overfeeding. He's only 102 grams and extremely picky. Right now he only wants worms. His weight dips below 100 because he just isn't hungry. Then when he gets worms or something it goes back up. I guess he could just be small but I thought I should try to feed him as much as I can while he can still grow.
I'll add some more stuff to my gutload. Right now I'm just trying to raise some silkworms big enough for him.
I dust every cricket and dubia with arcadia calcium powder. I dust twice a month with repashy loD powder.
I put the watering part in the humidity section. I see him drink only when I offer him water in the afternoon with a spray bottle.
As far as what I mean with water: he just seems dumb. I've seen him shoot water with his tongue before. He runs away from the mister and I never see him drink. Then in the evenings when I spray some water near him to see if he's thirsty he gets all interested and drinks it.
I don't have lights on at night?
 
Pluto_the_Panther said:
Bump.
Click to expand...
I would get another fecal done since there are issues of reduced appetite and weight loss... I would expect him to be about 20-30 grams heavier for his age. When was the last time you replaced the UVB bulb?

I also agree with removing the tape on the feeder run. The humidity will cause it to lift up and if he were to get stuck to it this is extremely dangerous. You can take a lighter to the sharp edges and melt them down just slightly.
 
I'll try to do a fecal today. Bulb was last replaced in July. I'm trying to figure out if I want to replace it. As far as his appetite, he's always been like this. That's why I took him to the vet originally.
 
Pluto_the_Panther said:
I'll try to do a fecal today. Bulb was last replaced in July. I'm trying to figure out if I want to replace it. As far as his appetite, he's always been like this. That's why I took him to the vet originally.
Click to expand...
When was the original fecal run?
I would replace the UVB bulb as an insurance that the UVB is not the issue for the reduced appetite.
 
The vet fecal was a while back that’s all I remember. I was gonna switch over to an Arcadia reflector and bulb for my cage since Bill has updated the chameleon academy for them. Which do you recommend?
 
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