Dehydrated

[anthem4sc]

I have an 8 month-ish old veiled chameleon. He always looks dehydrated. His skin looks kinda dull and dry (esp. his head), his eyes aren't really that noticeably sunken, but i think they are slightly. However, he always has a drip going and i mist him and the cage with warm water at least 3 times a day. I also put a few ice cubes on top at some point everyday. And i make sure his humidity is around 65%.

I would post a pic but my camera on my phone is not working. Any suggestions on what i'm doing wrong?

 

[swordfish1030]

This might sound silly, but does the water drip and then sit/stay on anything for a period of time; leaves, stems, vines etc..? So that the cham can actually drink. Sometimes the obvious is right in front of us unseen. Maybe the cham can't get to the place the water sits; leaves, stems etc..??

Just a thought.. Do you have a picture of your setup?

 

[drcrossfire]

If you are worried you can spray him a couple times in the mouth while eating. Gotta be quick about it, but it's a way to make sure they're getting water.

Best way to tell if a Cham is dehydrated is by looking at the poop. Is there a distinct white section without yellowing?

 

[VeiledChams]

Put a potted plant in your shower and turn it on with room temperature water. Aim at the wall, not at the plant itself. After, place your cham on the plant for 15-20 minutes. Do this once or twice a day for a few days and he should rehydrate. Very important to aim at the wall and let the water bounce and then fall on the plant because otherwise the pressure is too great.

 

[anthem4sc]

His the white section is separate and it has a yellowish color. He has more than enough opportunity to drink. Is there any reason why he may not want to drink?

 

[carol5208]

are you sure he is not getting ready to shed? They will look dull and dry prior to shedding.

 

[Carlton]

His the white section is separate and it has a yellowish color. He has more than enough opportunity to drink. Is there any reason why he may not want to drink?

There isn't just one "best" way to determine if he's dehydrated...rather, several in combination. Urate color, but also skin "tenting", difficult sheds, concave casque, dry wrinkly skin, eye irritation, heavy drinking each and every time you spray, difficulty catching prey on the tongue tip, and producing a lot of clear strings of saliva (think drooling) while actively drinking.

There are reasons a cham may not be drinking...or be getting hydrated enough when it does drink:

If the cham doesn't "choose" to drink from a dripper. Many don't.
Getting stressed and hiding from cage spraying so he's reluctant to drink even when water is available.
The air in the room is too dry. So, even if you are spraying and running a dripper, he may be dehydrating faster than he can make up for it when water IS available. Chams lose a lot of body moisture through respiration. Their nasal passages are not very efficient at conserving moisture...but in humid wild environments they didn't need to be. Even if you spray his cage plants down the air humidity may be dropping so fast that he is bone dry between sprayings.

Check your humidity gauge...is it working properly? How dry does it get by the time you can spray again? If it gets too dry you can add more bushy plants to hold more water droplets, provide humid cover for the cham, etc. You may have to add some plastic sheeting on sides or back of the cage to help keep it more humid. An ultrasonic room humidifier can really help a lot!

How long does his dripper run and can he even get enough of a drink from it?
Do you actually SEE him drinking from the drops? He may be ignoring it. Drippers do not raise the ambient humidity much.

 

[anthem4sc]

Thank you all for your help. I know that for some reason my house does seem very dry. Based on all of the responses, I think i just need to take extra measures (besides the spraying, the drip and also my humidifier) to make it better for him. Luckily summer is almost here and i live on long island...that's probably the only humidity he'll need!

 

[drcrossfire]

For next winter: go check out to see if you have a humidifier attached to your furnace. If helps to turn it up more in the winter!

 

[javsto]

im also having some issues with my baby veiled and drinking. I have an umbrella plant in his cage and i spray it down very well on all sides, top even in the middle so as to get the stalks wet but he never seems to drink and of the dew. I placed a little dripper on top of his cage to slowly drip a couple of drops a second and these fall right in front of his basking spot and ricochet off of the other adjacent leaves, all heading to the center of the plant but ive only seen him lick his face like once or twice in the past week, never off of the plant itself. I watched him poop this morning, it was mainly dark brown with a small white tip, over all about an inch in length more or less. while im @ work my GF sprays the cage several times during the day, same procedure but again she hasent seen him drink from the foliage either, he just runs away from the spray and hides. Im probably going to do the shower thing later once i get home this afternoon.

 

[javsto]

what is a good feeder that my baby can get some needed moisture from? Im currently only feeding him 1/4" crix gut loaded with fluckers high calcium and fress veggies and fruits and lightly dusted with reptivite without D3 twice a day.

 

[Carlton]

what is a good feeder that my baby can get some needed moisture from? Im currently only feeding him 1/4" crix gut loaded with fluckers high calcium and fress veggies and fruits and lightly dusted with reptivite without D3 twice a day.

Waxworms, silkworms, hornworms are higher in moisture. But, a crix well gutloaded with fruit and veggies is OK.

 

[Carlton]

im also having some issues with my baby veiled and drinking. I have an umbrella plant in his cage and i spray it down very well on all sides, top even in the middle so as to get the stalks wet but he never seems to drink and of the dew. I placed a little dripper on top of his cage to slowly drip a couple of drops a second and these fall right in front of his basking spot and ricochet off of the other adjacent leaves, all heading to the center of the plant but ive only seen him lick his face like once or twice in the past week, never off of the plant itself. I watched him poop this morning, it was mainly dark brown with a small white tip, over all about an inch in length more or less. while im @ work my GF sprays the cage several times during the day, same procedure but again she hasent seen him drink from the foliage either, he just runs away from the spray and hides. Im probably going to do the shower thing later once i get home this afternoon.

How small is your baby? If the plant leaves are much larger it might be harder for a tiny cham to handle large water droplets. A plant with many smaller leaves that he can climb around in might help. Many chams won't drink while they are watched. They have to expose themselves to view by moving.

 

[javsto]

he's about 2-3 inches overall length and the plants leaves vary in size from about half his length to a little bit longer than he is. I use the fine spray nozzle on the hand mister to coat the entire plant so that he has a large area from where to drink from if necessary. But i will try to gutload my crix with more "juicy" fruits and veggies before trying to change his feeders to suddenly from crix to worms.

 

[kinyonga]

javsto said..."dusted with reptivite without D3 twice a day"...be careful with reptivite...it has prEformed vitamin A in it and you don't want to overdo it.

Here is some information that I hope will help explain supplements and a couple of other things that are indirectly involved....
Appropriate cage temperatures aid in digestion and thus play a part indirectly in nutrient absorption.

Exposure to UVB from either direct sunlight or a proper UVB light allows the chameleon to produce D3 so that it can use the calcium in its system to make/keep the bones strong and be used in other systems in the chameleon as well. The UVB should not pass through glass or plastic no matter whether its from the sun or the UVB light. The most often recommended UVB light is the long linear fluorescent Repti-sun 5.0 tube light. Some of the compacts, spirals and tube lights have caused health issues, but so far there have been no bad reports against this one.

Since many of the feeder insects have a poor ratio of calcium to phosphorus in them, its important to dust the insects just before you feed them to the chameleon at most feedings with a phos.-free calcium powder to help make up for it. (I use Rep-cal phosphorus-free calcium).

If you also dust twice a month with a phos.-free calcium/D3 powder it will ensure that your chameleon gets some D3 without overdoing it. It leaves the chameleon to produce the rest of what it needs through its exposure to the UVB light. D3 from supplements can build up in the system but D3 produced from exposure to UVB shouldn't as long as the chameleon can move in and out of it. (I use Rep-cal phos.-free calcium/D3).

Dusting twice a month as well with a vitamin powder that contains a beta carotene (prOformed) source of vitamin A will ensure that the chameleon gets some vitamins without the danger of overdosing the vitamin A. PrEformed sources of vitamin A can build up in the system and may prevent the D3 from doing its job and push the chameleon towards MBD. However, there is controversy as to whether all/any chameleons can convert the beta carotene and so some people give some prEformed vitamin A once in a while. (I use herptivite which has beta carotene.)

Gutloading/feeding the insects well helps to provide what the chameleon needs. I gutload crickets, roaches, locusts, superworms, etc. with an assortment of greens (dandelions, kale, collards, endive, escarole, mustard greens, etc.) and veggies (carrots, squash, sweet potato, sweet red pepper, zucchini, etc.)

Calcium, phos., D3 and vitamin A are important players in bone health and other systems in the chameleon (muscles, etc.) and they need to be in balance. When trying to balance them, you need to look at the supplements, what you feed the insects and what you feed the chameleon.

Here are some good sites for you to read...
http://chameleonnews.com/07FebWheelock.html
http://web.archive.org/web/200605020...Vitamin.A.html
http://web.archive.org/web/200406080...d.Calcium.html
http://www.uvguide.co.uk/
http://web.archive.org/web/200601140...ww.adcham.com/
If you can't access the sites above that have the word "archive" in you can do it through the WayBackMachine.