How do chameleons drink water?

[SilverWolf]

So in a video I was watching (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-DXpfHNn7V4) someone said that you cannot just leave a bowl of water for a chameleon. They need to have the enclosures misted so that they can drink off of the leaves. I am aware of this. Most people seem to use a dripping system. But what got my attention, was something the person in the video said. "They do not know enough to go down to a standing body of water and take a drink. Some species yes, veiled chameleons no."

...note "some species yes..." really? I have seen some chameleons go down to a little automatic water fall device of some sort, but never an actual standing body of water. Do any of you know a species of chameleons that will do this? I assume specific species simply because he said "SOME species." So let me ask this question; are any of you, aware of ANY chameleon, to drink from a bowl or standing body of water?

 

[oblgobl]

I havn't heard of any chameleon as a species drinking from standing water but I have heard of a few individuals that do it. I don't know for sure but I'd guess none of the arboreal chams would normally drink standing water. I remember seeing a terrestrial species on an attenborough program years ago I'd imagine they would have to. I don't keep them myself but I would imagine pygmy chams are quite low to the ground compared to larger species but again because of their size would naturaly drink droplets rather than from a body of water. I don't think any of the species commonly kept in captivity drink standing water. I think what he probably meant was that some individuals will.

 

[ADKEarl]

Re:

About a week ago I purchased a 2 year old veiled chameleon from an individual. He has lived in a 55 gallon aquarium with sand and a water dish his whole life. The first day we had him set up with a dripper and used his empty water dish to catch the droplets. That evening my wife called me into the room to see him and he was drinking from the dish like a cat!(sort of). We have a reptibreeze on the way and so far have left the dish. I have yet to see him drink off the leaves from the dripper. He licks when misted. Once we set up the other enclosure that option will be eliminated. But yeah ,it happens...

 

[tagerlilly18]

When I was at Petco I watched a vield cham drink from a still standing bowl. My guy I think would. Like if I had a drink cap up in the leaves I'm 90 percent sure he would go drink from it because he always looks for the leaf with the biggest pool of water. When I see my guy drinking I'll use the mister on the drop setting and he comes right over to it and drinks directly from it.

 

[GTSLOW]

The rescue I had was never misted or sprayed in anyway and only had a water bowl. He lived like this for 4 months so apparently they do drink from bowls. Otherwise there is no way a cham would survive 4 months straight without water.

 

[Carlton]

So in a video I was watching (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-DXpfHNn7V4) someone said that you cannot just leave a bowl of water for a chameleon. They need to have the enclosures misted so that they can drink off of the leaves. I am aware of this. Most people seem to use a dripping system. But what got my attention, was something the person in the video said. "They do not know enough to go down to a standing body of water and take a drink. Some species yes, veiled chameleons no."

...note "some species yes..." really? I have seen some chameleons go down to a little automatic water fall device of some sort, but never an actual standing body of water. Do any of you know a species of chameleons that will do this? I assume specific species simply because he said "SOME species." So let me ask this question; are any of you, aware of ANY chameleon, to drink from a bowl or standing body of water?

Be careful about what you read online. The person on that video was NOT correct in saying "they do not know enough to go down to a standing body of water.....some species yes, others no". A cham in a captive situation may simply learn that a bowl in its cage contains water and they may LEARN to drink that way. It has nothing to do with species, and would not be a natural drinking option for most chams. It is a learned action. And, one reason some chams learn to drink from a dish is extreme thirst and no available foliage to drink from normally. I have seen severely dehydrated Meller's chams in terrible cage situations learn to drink out of a dish.

If a cham has always had dripping water and wet foliage to drink from it may never learn to drink out of a bowl. Can they learn? Sure. This isn't justification for running waterfalls in their cages however. The risk is that someone could assume their cham drinks out of a bowl or a waterfall when in fact they don't decide to go down to the cage floor to drink. Then you will end up with a really dehydrated cham.