Do my babies look healthy?

[Tara]

Ok, to my untrained newbie eye...they look fine. I can see the changes in color sometimes...dark means stress right? Only one seems to fear handling. So I'm going to give him some space for a while. But mostly they stay a light green color. The other always wants to walk toward the camera after a flash.
I'm interested in hearing what you guys think about whether or not they look healthy. I know thinks can be wrong you can't see..but this is just a starting point for me. The only thing that makes me nervous is how thin they are and the visibility of their ribs most of the time. They had a pretty good meal today...I only see a few remaining crickets. I'm going to try giving them the crickets in a cup next time. Anyways, here are some pic..enjoy! Tara

 

[jvillereptile]

they look a little dehydrated you might want to give them a large water source a thirsty chameleon will drink right out of a bowl. chameleons are naturally skinny.

 

[Tara]

Thanks!

They do have a large water bowel along with regular mistings...but I will step up the mistings a bit and plan to hook up a mister on a timer also a humidifier. Thanks for the suggestions!!! Tara

 

[Drake]

Waterbowls are bad. Chameleons like to poop in them, bacteria likes to grown in them, and also Chameleons wont drink out of still water. So its best to get rid of the the bowl completly, unless it is used to catch water.

 

[Tara]

ok, sounds good

I wondered about that. While I haven't seen them near the bowel yet...my water dragon pooped exclusively in their water bowel. Boy that was a chore to keep clean! I had originally just placed it in their to help with humidity but I don't think it is helping at all anyways, so I will take it out. Their home is already going to get a makeover. I purchased some reptile carpet I'm going to take out since all it will do is hold water that drips and breed the bacteria as well. I am having their new branches and other things overnighted and now I am going to "draw a layout of how their new set up will so I will have it all straigt in my mind when thier stuff arrives. I hate to have to put them through the stress of takeing them out and then changing everything, but it will benefit them. I have just sent an email to seller about them both being females, but if I don't hear something soon I am just going to call. Thanks again! Tara

 

[Jam]

I have to add that some chameleons actually will drink standing water. Hermie being one of them. I do have a dripper system, but I have caught him going down to a bowl at the bottom of his cage (that is changed and scrubbed daily) to drink, when the dripper is very obviously dripping just a little ways away. The chameleon that I had before him would do the same thing. Even though I swear I offered and offer them both misted and dripping water regularly. But, I certainly wouldn't count on them drinking from a bowl. I think that I might just own weird chameleons though.

 

[lele]

you occasionally hear of the rare case of bowl drinking, but in nature there are no bowls in trees and they certainly won't climb down to sip from the river! So I agree, don't bother with the bowl.

Drinking and humidity levels are about the most important for these animals. To help keep humidity in you can wrap shower curtain liner around 3 sides. Not sure what you are using right now for setup (would have to look back over your posts). You might also look at other folks setup to get some ideas. I have some here Luna's setup. with her humidifier hooked up.

Think it through well and have fun doing it!

 

[Tara]

The pet store only has a water fountain

The poor pet store cham only has a water fountain to drink from. I pointed this out to them, but really they didn't seem to know much about what the chams prefer. Sad to hear that I did and I didn't even have one yet. I had done a lot of reading first.
You wanna know something funny...I had originally though that humidity went up when hot and down when cool. Now I know different. I see the guage go up when the light clicks off.
I am going to try and add a humidifier soon. I've had my questions answered about heat range and night ranges. I am shooting for 95 day basking and 85 in surrounding areas. Lowering to 70-75 at night. Does this sound good? It shouldn't go below 70 though right.
But I am still not sure about the humidity range. What is a good range for day humidity and a good range for night humidity. And I assume that it should vary through out the day and night in each of these ranges right? Sorry if I am asking the same wuestions agin, I just want to be sure. Tara

 

[jvillereptile]

my chameleons drink from water bowls that don't have moving water. if they are thirsty enough to do so i would take out the bowl just because that just keep fresh water. the chameleon we have are not wild so why treat them like wild animals and not give them extra water beside how do we know if a chameleon won't come down out of the tree to drink water from a pond, lake or river