Chameleon Shower

[DanielleB]

I just introduced Herb (male veiled cham 11 months) to the shower and he loves it. I just want to recommend this to other people, because it drastically changed his personality. All I do is set him on a plant and turn the shower on warm to hot water. He just sits there soaking it up or tries to move into a more direct path of the water.
Anyways, now he is always crawling on the door of the cage and will immediately climb on to my hand or a stick I put out. He also will get out and roam around my room and knock everything off my shelves.
Before I started the chameleon shower once a week, he was crabby,aggressive, would hiss at me, and would just get stressed when I took him out. He still avoids me as much as possible when he is outside his enclosure, but I have no problem getting him out and he usually does not hiss. He is also eating more.
I have been studying environmental enrichment in class and decided to try some things out. He seems much happier and definately not as aggressive. He will immediately climb on me if the door is open and before he would always be reluctant to come out of the cage.
I urge you to try these techniques to see if it helps tame down your cham at all.
-Danielle

 

[fullhouse]

shower

how/where do you put the plant in the shower? How long do you leave him there? do I have to use a plant or could I just use some kind of climbing structure?

Thx

 

[opti]

Nice! I can't wait till my Cham is old enough to go in the shower!

 

[neil nosy be]

shower

Hi all

Regarding showers its best that you put your cham on a plant so he/she can drink of the leaves. Its also best to aim the shower head at one of the walls around your shower so that the water hits the wall and produces a mist of WARM water,as pointing water directly at the plant will probably cause MOST chams to freak out.The duration of the shower depends on how long it takes to get a drinking response from your cham, i do this 1-2 times per week


Neil

 

[ChamFreak]

Hi all

Regarding showers its best that you put your cham on a plant so he/she can drink of the leaves. Its also best to aim the shower head at one of the walls around your shower so that the water hits the wall and produces a mist of WARM water,as pointing water directly at the plant will probably cause MOST chams to freak out.The duration of the shower depends on how long it takes to get a drinking response from your cham, i do this 1-2 times per week


Neil

Neil is right on the money here.. I also use pedalyte if dehydration occurs. I also wanted to add that I try not to shower my cham cause the water isnt pure. many bad things in water with out filter so I dont shower my chams unless needed

 

[neil nosy be]

water filter

Hi all


Forgot to add this i have water filters contected to all my water outlets(RO units) as chamfreak stated unfiltured tap water contains to many nastys to be used as a drinking source for your chameleons


Neil

 

[tony103]

so would you guys say that bottled water is best for drinking and such..? and what do you think about mixing electrolyte supplements in the water?

 

[Brad]

Bottled water would get pretty expensive. I use a small RO (reverse osmosis) unit I purchased a few months ago for drinking water. I give Ezhno a shower a couple times a month on average, but I am still using tap water for that.

 

[ChamFreak]

price and place for RO units?

 

[DanielleB]

I actually just use a dead hibiscus (not enough sunlight for it) and leave him in there for roughly 3-5 min (want to conserve water), but I forgot about him once and he was still there soaking it up 10 min later.
As for tap water- I use it up here at school because we have a great water supply system. I would never use tap water from back at my hometown due to chlorine and ph levels. My daily mister and drip bottle both have repti safe in them.

 

[DanielleB]

I don't know about the drinking response- I have only seen him drink once and that is when my roommates were supposed to take care of him and he wasn't misted for a whole day ( I have a continuous drip). Other than that, he does not seem to drink at all.

 

[DanielleB]

Oh and speaking of misting systems, does anyone know of one that is cheap and can have it own water supply?

 

[billumz91]

If you put your cham in the shower, if your water has chlorine in it, will that affect him/her in a negative way? Or are chams not bothered by hard water/chlorine?

 

[DanielleB]

Tap water (almost) always has chlorine due to a disinfecting process, but the levels in my hometown were simliar to pool water levels.

 

[ChamFreak]

If you put your cham in the shower, if your water has chlorine in it, will that affect him/her in a negative way? Or are chams not bothered by hard water/chlorine?

Most defintly! I am not saying he will plop over and die, but chams will get sick from chlorine and will kill them eventully. We all know chams are super sensitive and could die from stress so I would assume that chlorine would be same results.


As for misting question, I saw few setup that are very nice but yet pricey! I think it was like 200 and you get full automatic system it runs its self. You need to empty reserve and also fill the inlet reserve. IF you buy pump misting system, you have to pump when you want mist. Also the other crazy misters that are under 50 or 75 are mostly junk! Dont waste your time or money!

And if you wanna search google to find this system its called " rainmaker jr " and search that and you will see why its 200! Its fabulous kit

 

[Heika]

I use a homemade misting system that uses a garden sprayer to hold the water. It does have to be pumped to maintain pressure, but I usually only pump mine once a day, and have it set to run automatically 4 times a day for a total time of an hour. I also do a couple manuals a day in addition to that. Total cost was around $65 or $70. I bought inexpensive plans from this site:

http://www.baskingwonders.com/product_info.php?cPath=24_39_46&products_id=56

Here are a couple sites that have directions for making one also:

http://www.trix.com/binx/mister/
http://www.barrs.com/spray.htm

The only thing I plan to change on my system in the near future is the addition of an inline filter. I have cats, and cat hair plays havoc on the tiny .5 gph sprinkler heads I use in the cage. I picked up everything for this system at local hardware stores. The hardest thing to find were the sprinkler heads because of the low output.

Heika

 

[DanielleB]

Thats, this is the kind of stuff I am looking for. While I want my cham to be happy, I can not afford a $200 misting system. Once a day pumping is no problem, I already spend 20 min each morning feeding him, his food, and my snake and turtles

 

[neil nosy be]

Hi all

With respect danielleb putting your cham in the shower for around 5mins at a time is probably A WASTE OF TIME.The whole point of putting your chameleon in the shower is to rehydrate them and this cannot be done in 5minutes.You need to leave your cham in there long enough to induce a drinking responce and then long enough for them to rehydrate them selfs which can take up to a hr

Neil

 

[ChamFreak]

If that is what fits you best then go with it
I am big fan of, " you get what you pay for " Not meaning the system above is cheap or bad! But, take a look at the rain maker setup's for... In future, if you do change your mind it would have paid for half of it. For 170 you get quality products and you also get complete system that runs it self, you gain more in the end. I just saw you sying you dont have time so think in about that too

Here is the link for em. scroll down http://www.cloudtops.com/misting_systems.htm

 

[DanielleB]

In the shower I pick how long he stays in, we can not run the shower for 1 hour- that is a waste of good drinking water plus the bills for it. As for a drinking response- I honestly do not think my cham will do it. I mist him for roughly 2-8 min a couple times a day in addition to a constant drip system. I start misting him and then he decides when to stop being misted by moving out of the water. Sometimes it is 1 min, sometimes it is 5. Either way, he never drinks. If I try to mist him after he has moved out of the way of the stream, he gets mad.

-- One thing to add to ask- Does anyone use humidifiers by their chams? One of my friends has one just sitting around and I think it would be excellent since the winter air is dry up here (my room is 30-45%) and it is about 50-55% in his plants.