Chameleon isn't trying to eat water drops and has orange urate!

[ecoreef]

Hi guys,

One of my 6 month old male panthers has stopped drinking water how he normally does and is now shooting his tounge out at the water drops instead of lapping it up like he used to. He is eating normally but today I noticed that his urate is a little orange on one side. He is currently undergoing a baytril treatment for stomatitus that he aquired from a cut lip. Any tips guys? I have never seen anything like this and I'm extremely worried now that I've noticed that orange in his urate! Why did he all of a sudden forget how to drink?!?!

-Alex

 

[ChromaChameleons]

Try silkworms or hornworms to up his hydration... also a shower might help

 

[jannb]

Hornworms are great and also long very warm mistings.

 

[panthercham]

Maybe the infected cut lip is hindering the way he normally drinks as its painful. Is he shooting at his feeders or has that changed too? Does his urates have a little or a lot of orange? A little orange is ok....also do you have a dripper? If he is lapping at water droplets it would be worth making one so that he has access to water more frequently.

Chroma and Jann both have given excellent advice....boost his hydration with silk and horn worms and warm showers.

 

[ecoreef]

Thanks for the ultra quick response guys!

I don't have access to silkworms or horn worms right now so that is kinda out of the option. I have been giving him a lot of wax worms for the last couple of days (ever since I noticed this little drinking issue) cause I know they have a high moisture content also. He is still eating a lot and "shooting" at all his feeders (crickets, phoenix worms, superworms, dubia, and waxworms). Most of his urate is still white but the top 20% is still a little orange. He still seems interested in water........just not in the right way.

 

[Carlton]

I have had chams who simply changed the way they preferred to drink. Sometimes they would start off using their dripper and then stop on their own. Good for you for noticing. If he is now preferring to shoot at water droplets, help him by making sure there are lots of leaves to hold drops in his cage and misting more. I have noticed that chams who are well hydrated generally like to shoot at droplets almost for fun...a really thirsty cham won't bother and will spend more time seriously licking up water. Another idea...once he's started shooting at droplets (actively drinking) see if you can start gently hand spraying just above him. Let the warm water drop onto his head. He may start licking the water running down his face and swallowing it that way. I love it when my chams learn to drink this way as I have a very direct way to measure when and how much water they are getting. When a cham is "full" they tend to lift their snout straight up and turn away from the water stream.

 

[OOOst16]

i storngly suggest that ALL keepers spray with warm water...its more compfortable. SHOOTing at water droplets is completely normal...sometimes a lil orange tip on urate is ok...when the entire lil pacages of urate is orange then u got a problem ( or most of it)...just mist, drip, check there eyes and pee...all you can do ...if its somthing more advanced a vet visit is indeed needed

 

[ecoreef]

Last night I tried giving him a shower. He didn't seem to care about the water and pretty much just sat there. This morning I noticed more orange in his urate and more mucus in his mouth. Weighed my options and decided to force water him. He's still eating. He ate three crickets, four wax worms, and a superworm. With the infection and all do you guys think I should keep humidity up, normal, or down? Temps are slightly elevated as of now.

-Alex

 

[sandrachameleon]

do you have a dripper? if not, make one and have it going frequently. thats a far better option than forcing water.
dont over do the waxworms. consider Ordering some silkworms and hornworms online if you cant source locally. where do you live - i can give you links to places that sell feeders in the USA, Canada, or UK

 

[ecoreef]

I have been using a dripper. He still just "shoots" his tounge at the water drops a few times and then just stares at it. I live about an hour west of Chicago.

 

[jessica]

I have an idea for you. My male panther is a water "shooter" to and moving him to the shower is hard and stressful for both of us so I went to osh and bought a pump spray. I beleive Dave Weldon uses them too. I bought the gallon one also so my dude gets a soild 20 min warm mist its almost like a shower and he loves it.

 

[vinny knight cham]

do you have a dripper? if not, make one and have it going frequently. thats a far better option than forcing water.
dont over do the waxworms. consider Ordering some silkworms and hornworms online if you cant source locally. where do you live - i can give you links to places that sell feeders in the USA, Canada, or UK

how do u make a dripper?

 

[pantherlover]

i was having a dehydration problem with one of my guys when he was undergoing some treatment. ive never seen him lap water, he only shoots at it. ive only seen my babys lapping water. one thing i did in addition to giving more feeders with a high water content & showering is to cup feed for the time being with a tiny bit of water in the bottom of the cup so that when the cham shoots at the feeder hell get a bit of water as well. this really worked even when the cham was stressed from the vet visit & didnt wanna drink, only eat. i only put a couple feeders in the cup at a time so they dont have time to drown, just struggle enough to get the chams attention. in dire straits this worked well.

for a simple dripper just poke a hole in the bottom of a container or cup, only big enough so that the water drips out at approx one drip per sec. set the dripper on top of the cage so the water drips on the highest foliage point.

 

[warpdrive]

Ok, first try the home page of this site...
You'll find mulberry farms and great lake hornworms, both on the front page.
Ask for small worms, and if you do get truly small ones, they will grow up in a few days.
You might be able to get away with med size silkworms but always get small horns.

My panther Splat almost never drinks, but then again even my crickets are gutloaded so well with a wet gutload, that even they sometimes squirt bugjuice when eaten.

Harry

 

[pantherlover]

hey warpdrive, what do you use for the wet portion of your gutload? right now im using carrot, sweet potato, potato dandilion greens, that sound ok to you? anything else critical that im missing?

also do any of you guys know a hornworm supplier from canada? i cant find these guys anywhere. we cant get hornworms from the U.S up here as far as i know.

 

[warpdrive]

Everyone does gutload differently, but this is what I use...

Kale, dandelion, collared greens, carrots, orange slices, strawberries, or what ever I have around.
I always use orange slices when using cricket crack. Good for vit C and calcium.

You'll find baby crickets love orange slices.
I even feed my supers the greens listed above.

Harry

 

[kinyonga]

Its important that he gets enough water when he's on medication. You may have to hand water him (using a needleless syringe) if he won't drink any other way. Just be careful that he doesn't aspirate the water. You might be able to ease some into his mouth a little at a time as he chews an insect.

 

[OldSkoolxReasons]

I wouldn't use regular potatoes in your gut load as they are pretty high in phosphorus. Since he is still eating normally, and you can't get hornworms or silkworms you can take a syringe(like a needle for a diabetic that you can buy at cvs from the pharmacy) and inject water directly into the feeders so they are even juicer than a very well gutloaded cricket. It takes a while to get used to the right amount of water to inject without killing/popping the insect but it has helped some of my chams that think water is icky. Also once you have injected the water hold your finger on the hole gently and then hand feed the feeder or else the water may just come right back out the hole. It works very well with roaches and crickets. not with super and it is totally unnecessary if you have silkworms or hornworms as they work amazingly for keeping picky drinkers hydrated. They are must have feeders for a cham that is dehydrated. Good luck, I hope he decides to drink more for ya.


Justin