Hello again, some of you may remember my panther cham Crash from earlier health clinic posts. For some reason he had become super dehydrated over the last month or so. His urates were pretty orange and I was starting to notice his eyes closing, not sleeping...but just the eyes closed during the day. At first I tried giving him small dosages of vitamin A on a couple of worms to see if it was a deficiency, but he kept doing it. He was still eating throughout this whole time, and shedding too as a matter of fact.
The light settings are on at 7:30 and off at 8:00 pm. I have a mist king with mist settings as follows: 9:00 a.m. 2 minute shower. 12:00 pm 5 minute shower. 4:00 pm 2 minute shower. I have a habiscus tree in the enclosure with multiple levels of basking sites for temp regulation. (92f to 80f). Coolest part of the cage at the bottom would be around 70f. So with all this water available for him to drink, I had a tough time believing that it was dehydration. This morning I took him out of the cage work and pinched his skin to see if it snapped back or not. Well, it basically didn't even move after I pinched it he was so dehydrated. I put him back in the cage and had this on my mind all morning. I drove 45 minutes from the office to home to take care of this on my lunch break. He was sitting in the cage, on a branch with his eyes closed, but not sleeping. I pulled out my old hand mist spray bottle and sprayed the living crap out of everything...including the sides of the cage. After seeing the water droplets on the screen, he darted right over to it and started drinking. I couldn't believe it. I swear he sat there and drank for close to an hour, without stopping. After he finished, he walked over to the biggest branch in the cage, sat there, and gaped for a couple minutes. I don't really know why but he isn't doing it anymore so maybe its not bad?
In conclusion Crash won't drink the dripper water, or the mister, but will drink from me spraying the screens down. Unbelievable. I'll keep you posted with his health but since the drink he hasn't been closing his eyes at all. Looks like I'll be hand misting in addition to the mister.
The light settings are on at 7:30 and off at 8:00 pm. I have a mist king with mist settings as follows: 9:00 a.m. 2 minute shower. 12:00 pm 5 minute shower. 4:00 pm 2 minute shower. I have a habiscus tree in the enclosure with multiple levels of basking sites for temp regulation. (92f to 80f). Coolest part of the cage at the bottom would be around 70f. So with all this water available for him to drink, I had a tough time believing that it was dehydration. This morning I took him out of the cage work and pinched his skin to see if it snapped back or not. Well, it basically didn't even move after I pinched it he was so dehydrated. I put him back in the cage and had this on my mind all morning. I drove 45 minutes from the office to home to take care of this on my lunch break. He was sitting in the cage, on a branch with his eyes closed, but not sleeping. I pulled out my old hand mist spray bottle and sprayed the living crap out of everything...including the sides of the cage. After seeing the water droplets on the screen, he darted right over to it and started drinking. I couldn't believe it. I swear he sat there and drank for close to an hour, without stopping. After he finished, he walked over to the biggest branch in the cage, sat there, and gaped for a couple minutes. I don't really know why but he isn't doing it anymore so maybe its not bad?
In conclusion Crash won't drink the dripper water, or the mister, but will drink from me spraying the screens down. Unbelievable. I'll keep you posted with his health but since the drink he hasn't been closing his eyes at all. Looks like I'll be hand misting in addition to the mister.
