Dehydrated????

[VeiledBunta1984]

Im worried that my chameleon is dehyrated and unwell!!!

Cage Info:

Cage Type - 100 Gallon Flexarium
Lighting - 2 x 24" reptisun UVB 5.0 12hrs a day 8-8
Temperature - Basking Spot 88F, bottom of cage 70F
Humidity - 30-50% as high as 60% after misting. measured with a digital hygrometer
Plants - 120cm Schefflera & Ficsus also artificall ficsus and jugle vines
Location - located in a walk in cuboard on a shelf.
Top of the cage is about 6ft from the floor

Chameleon Info:

Your Chameleon - Male veiled chameleon. 4.5 months old, ive had him 4 2months now
Handling - Once every couple of weeks
Feeding - Size 5 Crickets & Size 4 Locusts. 5-15 everyday gut loaded with apple, carrots and spinach
Supplements - Miner-all with D3 & Without D3 & Vit-all.
Dust crix without D3 everyday, with D3 once a week and multivit once a month.
Watering - Mist twice aday with spring water for 5 mins & A MISTING M/C every 6 hrs for 1min. Never seen him drink water, just intake moisture in the air.
Fecal Description - White and brown slightly runny. Neva tested for parasites
Current Problem - Sleeping 2hrs before his lights turn off. Been like this for nearly a week now. Tried to give him a soaking to reduce any dehydration.

 

[neonate]

send in some pics on the thread it might help a bit...

 

[Chameleons Northwest]

send in some pics on the thread it might help a bit...

I agree we need some pictures. Nothing in your husbandry really stands out as a problem. You don't see him drinking, but apparently his urates look normal.

 

[VeiledBunta1984]

ive changed his lights from 8-8 to 6-6 as i believe the sunrising earlier has been waking him up as i open his cuboard doors for air flow before i leave for work.
Today he has been awake untill 30 minutes before his lights go off.
Ive recentley added a Ficus Benjamin into his Viv, giving him more cover.
But doing this there isnt as much light penetration towards the bottom of his viv which is where he sleeps!
Im considering purchasing another light and place it on the side of his viv to give more light penetration.
Any Ideas????

Which type of disenfectant can i use to clean his viv and plants in case there is a bacteria in his cage?
Ill also try and post a pic of him and his setup when i manage to catch him whilst awake!!!!!!!!

 

[Murrdox]

- Your description of his poo and urate seem to indicate that he's well hydrated.

- You may hardly ever see your chameleon drink. They are very shy about this. In fact, after I mist my chameleon (spray the cage for a good solid 3-5 minutes) I make it a point to leave the room so he can comfortably drink.

- Chameleons enjoy cooler, sheltered areas to sleep in. It's perfectly fine if he's going down near the bottom of the cage to sleep. He's sleeping where he's comfortable. No need to add a light down there.

- If you identify a bacteria problem in the cage, you've got issues. I'd remove all the plants from the cage, and replace them. Any artificial vines, plastic parts, wood rods, etc you have in there for him to climb on can be boiled in water to get rid of bacteria. The cage itself can be sprayed with disinfectant when it's completely empty. Make sure it's well rinsed before you put your chameleon back in. Note, you'd have to have a pretty serious bacteria/fungus problem before I'd do all of this.

- For normal cage cleaning, just make sure you have a good system setup to remove water from the cage, such as a container to hold all the excess water from the drip and mistings that you can change regularly. If you have a nice easy screen cage like I do, cleanup is as simple as removing the bottom of the cage, washing the poo off it, give it a quick spray down and rinse, and put it back in the cage.