Cup drinking?

[littlefoot3]

So in my pre-purchase research, the most common method for keeping a cham hydrated seems to be misting and drippers. However, I've come across a user on /r/chameleons who seems to successfully train his chams to drink from a wide-rimmed glass at the bottom of the cage. He has documented it and they seem to be doing pretty awesome. It looks a lot less messier.


He is the ONLY one I've come across though. Does anyone here also successfully do this? It's something I'm interested in working on with my cham when I get him. It seems to make clean up faster and easier.

 

[sandrachameleon]

Its less uncommon than you might think. Its also not particularily natural and not recommended.

 

[littlefoot3]

Why specifically would it not be recommended?

Just curious.

 

[ChameleonSWAG]

It is generally not recommended because the sitting water provides an environment for bacteria to grow, especially if fecal matter lands in the bowl/dish. If you did use this method you would have to clean the bowl daily.
It is also difficult for chameleons to recognize the still water. Water droplets from misting are visually stimulating for chameleons and encourage them to drink. I also imagine that "training" the chameleon to drink from a dish could be stressful for it and run a risk of dehydrating the animal if you don't maintain mistings for it during the process.
Some people would also say a chameleon could drown in the water but I feel common sense would dictate not using a deep bowl for this.
I don't personally see any benefit in it.
Hope this was a little helpful/insightful for you.

 

[leedragon]

no dricking out of a bowl was the mayor cause of the death of chameleon back in the days, to train a chamelon to drink of a cup just becuse is just to put your chameleon to unesseray handling, and besides mysting keep the humidity higher

 

[sandrachameleon]

1 - not natural. doesnt stimulate drinking the way falling water does.
2 - can result in an under-hydrated chameleon (there are exceptions, but often times chameleons will only drink from standing water out of desperation)
3 - contamination from fecal matter from the chameleon and bugs, as well as dead/drowned bugs
4 - people dont clean bowls often and well enough (would have to be at least daily, and not just a wipe rinse). bacteria

 

[littlefoot3]

The way this guy does it, he keeps a broad mouthed glass where it catches the light so the cham can see it, and out of the way potential poop falling in. His chams all seem healthy and well hydrated, and all of them apparently drink from their glass daily in the mornings without any outside help. I can see where the glass would need to be cleaned every day, but I don't really consider that a problem. Humidity is already incredibly high where I live (Louisiana).

I'm going to set up a dripping system as well to be safe since I think I could keep that fairly mess-free.

I was just curious to see if this had been successfully done by anyone else. I thought is was fairly out of the ordinary that something contradicting all other research I had done seemed to be a working system for someone.

 

[betzjen]

My Cham was drinking well out of a waterfall. I had a screen over the main water to prevent crickets from committing suicide. Worked well until I went out of town and my so called pet sitter didnt clean the water on a regular basis and my Cham got a serious respiratory infection and I almost lost him. I threw the water fall in the trash and he now uses a mr mister and a drip vine.

 

[sandrachameleon]

The way this guy does it, he keeps a broad mouthed glass where it catches the light so the cham can see it, and out of the way potential poop falling in. His chams all seem healthy and well hydrated, and all of them apparently drink from their glass daily in the mornings without any outside help.

goes to show that there are no hard and fast rules
what doesnt work for most can still work for some!

 

[little leaf]

my panther drinks from a milk cap I hot glued a zip tie on it, and put it on the vine under the driper - it does not hold a whole lot of water at one time, the dripper is right above it, so it drips into the cap, then over flows on down into the cage and on the plants, at night I turn off my drip system, and flip the cap over so all night it is upside down and dries - I started this because he seems to not like the dripper, and when outside, a dripper is the only non stop water source - but he wont touch it, but will use the cap inside and out- but mostly he drinks off the plants when inside - I also babysat a panther for a time, he also drank from one - but none of my others Jax will, only him -

 

[djfishygillz]

my panther drinks from a milk cap I hot glued a zip tie on it, and put it on the vine under the driper - it does not hold a whole lot of water at one time, the dripper is right above it, so it drips into the cap, then over flows on down into the cage and on the plants, at night I turn off my drip system, and flip the cap over so all night it is upside down and dries - I started this because he seems to not like the dripper, and when outside, a dripper is the only non stop water source - but he wont touch it, but will use the cap inside and out- but mostly he drinks off the plants when inside - I also babysat a panther for a time, he also drank from one - but none of my others Jax will, only him -

I like it. Good idea.

 

[PantherChamDad]

So in my pre-purchase research, the most common method for keeping a cham hydrated seems to be misting and drippers. However, I've come across a user on /r/chameleons who seems to successfully train his chams to drink from a wide-rimmed glass at the bottom of the cage. He has documented it and they seem to be doing pretty awesome. It looks a lot less messier.


He is the ONLY one I've come across though. Does anyone here also successfully do this? It's something I'm interested in working on with my cham when I get him. It seems to make clean up faster and easier.

My female panther drinks from a large glass bowl. I clean it as soon as I see something fall in it, and keep it filled with bottled spring water. I place it off to the side of a low hanging branch and keep it filled close to the rum. I also spray once in a while.

 

[crosscutts]

My female panther drinks from a large glass bowl. I clean it as soon as I see something fall in it, and keep it filled with bottled spring water. I place it off to the side of a low hanging branch and keep it filled close to the rum. I also spray once in a while.

Not a very good idea . And how are you hydrating your animal and will besides that?

So in my pre-purchase research, the most common method for keeping a cham hydrated seems to be misting and drippers. However, I've come across a user on /r/chameleons who seems to successfully train his chams to drink from a wide-rimmed glass at the bottom of the cage. He has documented it and they seem to be doing pretty awesome. It looks a lot less messier.


He is the ONLY one I've come across though. Does anyone here also successfully do this? It's something I'm interested in working on with my cham when I get him. It seems to make clean up faster and easier.

Flip 69 gives some of the worst advice I’ve ever seen . not only is that site produced plenty of fatalities. It gives out very bad information.! I can’t believe that site still up .. the best source of hydration that I’ve come across is fogging . Mist would be second I haven’t dripped in years I wouldn’t cup water at all way too big of potential for bacteria no matter how careful you are .

 

[DonKeesh]

Get off that subreddit immediately and use chameleon academy as your source of truth. You will have a much better chameleon keeping experience.

 

[Beman]

This will help you with the correct info for hydrating. https://chameleonacademy.com/creating-a-chameleon-hydration-strategy/