Dehydrated ? Help!

[KellyCotton]

Within the last week, I’ve noticed Sammy’s (my female ambilobe) poops to be a little bit off. The urate has been a bit yellow. I recently started listing her more, so I’m confused as to why all of a sudden she is having issues! I have a reptile mister that sprays a certain spot on the cage every hour for 15 seconds. For the last four months, that’s been totally fine and everything has been normal. It seems as though since I stared hand misting her as well that things have changed.

Two days ago I started hand feeding her water from a little dropper. She drank about 1 ml. The first day (throughout the day) and yesterday about .5 yesterday. This morning she pooped and it was really yellow but also super watery.

I’m not sure what to do! Help!

 

[JacksJill]

15 seconds may not be enough time to get a good drinking response. I would also do a single longer hand misting daily that you see her drink and/or clean her eyes. Wait and see if her next urate looks better. The last one was made while she was dehydrated. If the next looks better you can then move to doing this just a few times weekly.
Your house may be drier now if you are running central heating.

 

[Graves923]

I would mist longer. 15 seconds isn't long enough for the chameleon to realize there is water and stimulate a drinking response. I have my mist system set to spray every 3-4 hours during the day for atleast 3 minutes on the shortest cycle and a long morning mist of 10 minutes. Every other week or so I'll do a longer session of close to 15 minutes.

You may need to shower your cham to rehydrate her. Place her in the shower on a plant and aim the shower head at the wall so the water droplets bounce off the wall onto her. Warm water but not hot. I'd do that every couple of days and keep an eye on her droppings.

 

[KellyCotton]

I would mist longer. 15 seconds isn't long enough for the chameleon to realize there is water and stimulate a drinking response. I have my mist system set to spray every 3-4 hours during the day for atleast 3 minutes on the shortest cycle and a long morning mist of 10 minutes. Every other week or so I'll do a longer session of close to 15 minutes.

You may need to shower your cham to rehydrate her. Place her in the shower on a plant and aim the shower head at the wall so the water droplets bounce off the wall onto her. Warm water but not hot. I'd do that every couple of days and keep an eye on her droppings.

Thank you!! I actually set the mister for 45 seconds and it took her a little bit to realize the water was there but then she went for it. I can up it to sixty and do it less frequently as well. This helped so much !

 

[KellyCotton]

I would mist longer. 15 seconds isn't long enough for the chameleon to realize there is water and stimulate a drinking response. I have my mist system set to spray every 3-4 hours during the day for atleast 3 minutes on the shortest cycle and a long morning mist of 10 minutes. Every other week or so I'll do a longer session of close to 15 minutes.

You may need to shower your cham to rehydrate her. Place her in the shower on a plant and aim the shower head at the wall so the water droplets bounce off the wall onto her. Warm water but not hot. I'd do that every couple of days and keep an eye on her droppings.

Thanks so much! I ended up setting the mister for longer and when she realized it was spraying, she went for it! This was super helpful...! It was just odd that it took her this long to become dehydrated... but I’m glad it’s all figured out. Cheers!!