Hand Misting

Brad

Brad

Administrator
Staff member
Many chameleon owners water their chameleons by hand. It is much cheaper than an automated system and can be manageable with only one or two cages. While I prefer an automated system, I believe hand misting is an important topic for the average keeper and we should discuss the best and most recommended method(s).

First, the duration. If I am hand misting I will often do so until the chameleon starts to drink. The time required for this to occur can vary greatly; I have experienced and received reports ranging from one to fifteen minutes. Water droplets do not hang around for very long. If you are hand misting and don't see your chameleon drinking, there is a chance its behavior does not change when you leave. My experience is limited and other members may have better input on this. A good way to know is to pay attention to your chameleon's poop.






Second, I highly recommend a pressurized spray bottle over the conventional squeeze bottle type. The chameleon's drinking response comes quicker and the daily process is obviously less tedious. This is from my experience and from other people I have talked to. I picked up a few from Home Depot a couple weeks ago for under $7 a piece. I think every chameleon keeper at a minimum should have one of these. I believe we will have more successful people in the hobby if small things like this are stressed.

3pintRL.jpg mister.jpg
photo left - pressurized spray bottle
photo right - common spray bottle
 
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Excellent topic Brad :)

I have lots of cages but I like to hand mist. It's part of my cage cleaning process. I clean the cage and then I hand mist it. My chams all learn the routine within a week of getting them. When they see the hand mister they get ready to drink. They actually get into position on their favorite foliage spot. It takes about two seconds for them to start drinking. Some come right up to the bottle. I watch to see that they drink and then I move on to the next cage. The cham in the next cage already knows he/she is next and is ready. They even know the order that I clean and mist. After I do all the cages in an area I look at the ones I have already done. If a cham is still drinking I go back to that cage and mist it again. Some locals drink more than others in my experience. Sambavas drink a lot! With the number of cages I have most people would do the auto misting thing. I like the interaction with the chams though, and I also use it as a daily health check. If they drink too much or don't drink at all I consider that an indication of a potential problem.
 
I'm in interested in this discussion because I am a cham keeper that has never seen my chameleon drink. Almost - never. I mist and mist and mist and he runs and hides. Sometimes he'll begin to lick his lips, but he will only do it once or twice and then never again.

I keep a dripper going most of the time, I mist through the top of the cage as much as possible because the drips on the screen are large, visible, and stay there most of the day because they're above the lamps. This was also the only way i saw him drink once, by licking the drips on the top screen.

Other than that I just monitor his feces and his eye sockets and wrinkles. I worry about him being dehydrated, but I don't know how to force him to drink.

any comments or ideas?
 
I find the hand misters with brass nozzles work well.

I did have trouble creating a fine mist from a mister I purchased that had a brass outer nozzle, but a plastic needle valve on the inside. I did return it and purchased a different model>
 
I got this bad boy from home depot!! It takes 4 AA batteries and I use rechargeable ones of course!! I think it cost me like $20.00 all I do is point and squeeze!! It has an adjustable nozzle so you can do what you want with it!!
 
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I spray Butter's (a Veiled, about 4 months old) cage three times a day. I use a plastic sprayer bottle, with filtered water (our unfiltered tap water is very very hard).

I spray until the plants are very wet. I move away. I come back and do it again about 5 minutes to 10 minutes later. I do this early morning, after his lights are on the cage has warmed up some. Then again mid afternoon, and late afternoon.

If I"m not going to be home, and will miss a spraying, I put the dripper on a slow drip.

I have had Butter almost 2 months, and I have yet to ever see him drink.

Hi poop has good uriates and he appears to be well nourished, and hydrated.

I just wish I would SEE him drink.....
 
Never stopped hand misting, even with the pro mist setup. I still hand mist 2x a day. Its the only time I ever see my jacksons drink. Usually takes 2-3 mins of straight misting on him to get him to start drinking. Hot water mist in the morning and evening. Love it! Plus you get to mist all the spots the automatic mister doesnt reach/cover and clean up any excrement on the plants.
 
bump

Throw away that squeeze bottle and get yourself a cheap pump spray from home depot, lowes, walmart, or other garden supply store. I think I spent $5-$6 dollars on mine.
 
We have sort of a bamboo "duck blind" between the dining and spa room that lets me watch her drink. Otherwise, I would never get to see it.
 
I think some chams are more shy than others. About half of mine will drink with me watching, the others won't. I even have one that won't eat with me in the room. I just do like Royden and monitor the poop. It all looks fine, so I know the shy ones are drinking somthing.
 
To be honest I wasnt impressed with the mister in the video.
When I was hand misting I used this pump/pressure reptile mister from PetsMart.
The thing was awesome!
The fine mist was comparable to a PM or HerpMist system.
My chameleons like to have the mist run down their head into their mouth.
It is such a cool adaptation!
Fishers and Veiled chameleons definitely got it figured out!
 
On a serious side of that -

I started having some serious wrist pain this year and I'm an artist by proffesion.

I finally bought a pm mister and I swear; taking care of a cham has never been so easy. The roaches are more work then the cham.

And the wrist pain is gone.

And my cham doesn't associate water with an attack from the giant outside of the cage.
 
ive got a manual spray bottle and i dont think my cham likes it should i get a pump spray bottle? and also to me it looked like your cham hated that water lol he ran off
 
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tryme said:
ive got a manual spray bottle and i dont think my cham likes it should i get a pump spray bottle? and also to me it looked like your cham hated that water lol he ran off
Click to expand...

Yes a constant spray is better over bursts of pressure from a trigger style one. Did you view the entire video, initially chamele ons will almost always back away from water. Once they are sure of what it is, almost all will run to it if thirsty, just as was done in the video.
 
Even though all my cages are on automated msiting systems, i still wet down the cages with a garden sprayer 3 times a day. I don't soak it, just enough so that all the leaves are dripping..maybe 20 seconds in each cage with a semi-heavy spray(light rain equivalent)

I think that 20 minutes spraying sessions multiple times a day is a bit excessive. I read a lot of posts that say a chameleon won't drink unless it gets 20 minutes of mist 5 times a day(exageration) I really feel this is a bit much, especially with Veileds.

We are talking about a reptile that has instincts, and when they are thirsty, they will drink.

I have never misted for more than two minutes at a time, and have not seen any dehydrated chameleons at my place(besides recent imports.)

I am not trying to change what anyone is currently doing with their chams, but i just wanted to let people know that in my experience, massive, daily misting sessions are not needed to have healthy chameleons. That is what a random cham shower is for.
Again these are just my opinions.

josh
 
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