He's drinking a lot but...

[ChamomilleCame]

So my jackson cham drinks mainly in the morning and he drinks a lot of it. The problem is that whenever I put more water later on in the day, he wont drink it. The point is that his poop (white part) has orange spots and I try my best to make him drink, but it's almost impossible! Any suggestions?
Thanks!

 

[Elizadolots]

You can try dripping water right on his nose. Use a plastic needless syringe or plastic eye dropper.

 

[ChamomilleCame]

You can try dripping water right on his nose. Use a plastic needless syringe or plastic eye dropper.

Sounds interesting... I can try and see! thanks!

 

[xJackFrost]

There is multiple ways to do this, but are you just misting currently becuase if you are then just mist in the morning like you are doing, and then you can place ice cubes on the top screen or other things. There are multiple ways to do this but another suggestion is just give frequent but not too frequent baths that gets them hydrated and is good for their health too. So different people take different ways, your cham may not like the eyedropper if so then try ice cubes, or maybe just still water (only if you clean the water frequently) or you could have a small water container on top and have small holes that drain water slowly into the cage, and what I did with my cham is I use a fog machine and that gets him hydrated and it keeps humidity up and water collects on the nozzle and he likes to drink that when it falls. Some suggestions may not work and if so just try different ones good luck.

 

[Elizadolots]

This board doesn't recommend ice cubes. Cold water isn't considered inviting. However, I will say that I've used them and found them successful. My chameleons (at the time) would go hang out under the ice and drink the water before it even got a chance to drip on the leaves....

 

[xJackFrost]

Why does this board not approve of ice cubes exactly they are very efficient and I know chams love them(most anyway).

 

[VeiledChams]

Why does this board not approve of ice cubes exactly they are very efficient and I know chams love them(most anyway).

It was explained in the previous post.. And you cannot state that you "know" that most love to drink the cold water from ice cubes as you havent actually tested this out with many chameleons.

 

[xJackFrost]

Wow, some people aren't friendly on this post don't be such a buzz kill and I didn't see it stated very clearly other than a vague,"the cold water is uninviting" so I'm not sure what exactly that is supposed to mean and i speak from what others say and personal experience

 

[VeiledChams]

So my jackson cham drinks mainly in the morning and he drinks a lot of it. The problem is that whenever I put more water later on in the day, he wont drink it. The point is that his poop (white part) has orange spots and I try my best to make him drink, but it's almost impossible! Any suggestions?
Thanks!

You can also give him showers in your bathroom.. Put a plant in there and give him a 15 minute shower with luke-warm water.. Aim the nozzle at a wall and let the water bounce off onto the plant.

 

[VeiledChams]

Wow, some people aren't friendly on this post don't be such a buzz kill and I didn't see it stated very clearly other than a vague,"the cold water is uninviting" so I'm not sure what exactly that is supposed to mean and i speak from what others say and personal experience

Well, sorry for hurting your feelings. All I wanted is to say that you cannot (or should not) state something for which you have nothing to back up with.

 

[Elizadolots]

I suspect that willingly drinking the ice water is a sign of extreme thirst....

It's probably better for them to drink water that room temperature. The ice water does have to cool them down a bit.

I think that's the rub on the ice...if they are loving it it's because you haven't found a way to give them water that's better for them.

A dripper is the obvious substitute for the ice cubes. I know my drippers sit close to the heat bulbs and the water is, in fact, a tad warmer than "room temperature" when it comes out. And, my good drinker watches me put the dripper into position and then climbs over to start drinking first thing in the morning.

 

[Ace]

Ehh personally ice cubes arent horrible...to me if you live in a warm climate the ice cubes wouldnt be that bad to use to cool down thr whole enclosure

 

[Elizadolots]

That's a good point...

It sort of depends on where you live and what chameleon you have but some do like it cooler. While I've switched to drippers, I have "ice on top" as one of my emergency scenarios for my little mountain chameleons should we have a heat wave.

 

[Willardi]

So my jackson cham drinks mainly in the morning and he drinks a lot of it. The problem is that whenever I put more water later on in the day, he wont drink it. The point is that his poop (white part) has orange spots and I try my best to make him drink, but it's almost impossible! Any suggestions?
Thanks!

I would go with high temps. Puerto Rico is nice, nice and hot. I'm sure you have air conditioning, but is the Jackson's exposed to it, or is he in a hot part of the house? They like it a lot cooler than most Chameleons.
Also, if you have recently aquired him, he may have come to you dehydrated, and it can take months to get him back up to near perfect hydration.

 

[Action Jackson]

Provide a dripper, drip it on some leaves where here can get to it and mist him a couple times a day and you should be fine. If you see him drinking I wouldn't worry too much, he'll drink what he needs.

 

[JackP308]

This board doesn't approve of ice cubes LOL. So there is a board standard section can I check that out. Is it right under the substrate section,.Seriously you people amaze me. If your chameleon wants to drink from an ice cube let him jeez .Veiled can you prove they don't like to drink from Ice Cubes. My prefer to drink from the screen actually and I use misting systems and water bottles drippers cubes whatever means of water my chameleons like. By the way they like them all from the looks of their activity and being well hydrated actively breeding and laying fertile eggs.

 

[Carlton]

This board doesn't approve of ice cubes LOL. So there is a board standard section can I check that out. Is it right under the substrate section,.Seriously you people amaze me. If your chameleon wants to drink from an ice cube let him jeez .Veiled can you prove they don't like to drink from Ice Cubes. My prefer to drink from the screen actually and I use misting systems and water bottles drippers cubes whatever means of water my chameleons like. By the way they like them all from the looks of their activity and being well hydrated actively breeding and laying fertile eggs.

While some chams may not "care" if their water is cool, cold, or warm, others do. We all remember the outdated chameleon husbandry books that suggested laying ice cubes on the cage top to melt and provide dripping water over time. There are a couple of reasons this fell out of favor with many keepers: we now have other options for providing water in a somewhat "natural" way (rain in their wild habitats isn't cold)...drippers and auto misting systems. And, there's the the simple fact that many chams avoid colder temps, hide from cold spray, and end up refusing to drink enough to stay healthy. If I was to tell a new keeper how to offer their cham water, I would not suggest ice cubes because their cham might never go to the fairly cold dripping water to drink, become dehydrated, and end up in trouble.

If you have chams who don't care about the water temp and go to the ice cube drips reliably, there isn't a problem and I wouldn't try to talk you out of it. If you have a cham who is not drinking reliably, I would probably suggest trying other methods.

 

[Miss Lily]

My baby Jackson only really drinks in the mornings too - I make a point of dropping water onto his leaves before I even mist in the morning and he always drinks. I also run a dripper all day too but I have never seen him drink from that yet.

With regards to using ice cubes - nobody likes a cold shower, and chameleons are no different - that is why most keepers mist with hot water that cools to room temperature when misting rather than using cold water to mist with.

 

[Carlton]

So my jackson cham drinks mainly in the morning and he drinks a lot of it. The problem is that whenever I put more water later on in the day, he wont drink it. The point is that his poop (white part) has orange spots and I try my best to make him drink, but it's almost impossible! Any suggestions?
Thanks!

What's the cage humidity range over time each day? Even if a cham drinks well every day it can still get dehydrated if the air humidity level dries out fast and gets very low after each spray session. Especially in our winters indoors when heating is going on...tends to dry out the air a lot. Chams are not very efficient at conserving body moisture. They developed in very humid habitats in the wild and never needed to adapt to dry conditions like arid habitat herps must. They lose a lot of moisture through respiration if the air is very dry. Their nasal passages are short and simple which means they don't reclaim vapor from respirations well. Compared to a desert herp anyway. Dry habitat animals tend to have complex, long, or convoluted nasal passages...every loop helps trap water vapor before it is lost during exhaling.

If your cham's cage stays humid enough he may not drink heavily every day. The fact that he does is a sign the cage is too dry most of the time.

 

[Miss Lily]

Carlton - does that apply to all chameleons? I was told a few years ago that chams can absorb a certain amount if moisture from the humidity in the enclosure. I wasn't ever sure that it was entirely true though.