how to monitor drinking

[booshified]

I have success keeping them alive and healthy for up to 3 months this way.

for anyone that doesnt know, crickets dont live much longer then this. so if you are looking to keep crickets for a while then you need to buy the young/small.

 

[stevereecy]

my cham is still new and not used to me yet.
but, the first day i spray the enclosure, i saw him licking the leaves.
also couple of days after that,
he has been drinking happily. but after a week, i no longer see him drink
in front of me.
I mist the enclosure heavily twice a day and no reaction whatsoever.

the funny thing he let himself to be misted today. he just close his eyes and stay silent (which never happened.. usually he'll just run away).
But, i do not see any swallowing movement.
It's been 3 days, and i start to see many holes in my ficus (isn't that what
they do when they are in need to be hydrated?)

He's still alert now and been hunting quite rigorously.
but I don't want to be sorry later and found out that my cham is dehydrated like my first experience.. so, how do i monitor him drinking?
He kinda refused to do anything while i am around. So i cannot exactly stay
in the room to monitor this dude.

I don't see sunken eyes... I'll take a picture for you guys to see.
please notify me if you see something wrong with him.
He looked fine to me though.


He's 3 months old.
Is there tips to enhance his drinking appetite?
PS: I know he's too young for shower method.. but exactly how old should the chameleon be to endure this process?

thanks

***Hi, First off, no...spraying a baby cham will not make them sick. Just allow them to dry off good before turning off lights for the night.

If they are't drinking, try spraying them until you see a drop of water forming on the crack of their lips. Then watch the drop, and see if it disappears. If it does, spray them gently to make another drop, and keep doing it.

Some of my chams will only drink when I put the sprayer right up to their lips, and spray a stream right into the crack between their lips.

Some of my chams will only drink when I spray their whole body, then stop and wait a minute or two and they will start to drink...then I spray them again when they are drinking.

try all of these.

Steve

 

[dodolah]

Hello, what does his feces look like, does it have the white uriate part to it, does it have any red/orange to it? If they are dehydrated, it will lack the urate part or it will be discolored, not white and healthy. I would recommend a drip system, just a bowl/container with a pin hole in the bottom that you can fill a few times a day, so that can stimulate his interest to drink. As far as a shower goes, I began setting my Ambi on a green towel over the shower curtain pole when he was 3.5-4 mo.... but not directly over the mist, and he loves it! I think the veiled's just like to eat plants. From what I can see in the pic he looks alright. What are you gutloading your crickets with?

umm i just finished picking up his poop today.
his poop from a glance looks normal.
it has almost a watery or slippery surface.
the urate is about 1/4 of the whole thing.
When i pick it up with chopstick, i accidentally break off the urate part.
the inside of the urate is yellow!
but the outside is white.. but not as white as xerox paper though..
it actually has a very light cream color to it.
Is this healthy?
I'll take a picture tomorrow when he poops again.

haha i never thought i would ever take a picture of poops.

 

[Brad Ramsey]

Urates sound good!
Also good that there is moisture in the poop part.
There will always be some yellow but you want most of it to be white.
It appears to me, from your description , that the cham is well hydrated.

-Brad

 

[FaunaBgirl]

Dodo wrote:i once heard that misting water directly on baby cham can make him sick.
is it true?
yes i do have a dripper.

The water can cover the nostril, get in and suffocate the baby. Also... I never directly spray a baby. They get enough water when they crawl around all the wet leaves and I also make sure they drink either from my eye dropper or off the leaves as well as having a dripper going for them. But you are right. Never ON them.

 

[ChameleonsTree]

i once heard that misting water directly on baby cham can make him sick.
is it true?
yes i do have a dripper.

no it wont make him sick but you have to make sure the mist is extra fine with babies cause their eyes are very delicate.

 

[dectr6]

I buy my crickets from bait shops. Same variety but usually much larger than I can find at petsmart or any other pet shop. They cost two dollors per 100 in my area. Louisiana (State Motto: Thank god for Mississippi) I gut load them of course.Been using them for years with great results.

 

[bucky]

I have started to mist him for 5minutes,and heavily mist his enclosure. Yesterday,after i did so,i watched blades of glory in my room,then i saw him go mad and drink like crazy! So maybe they drink after a couple minutes you mist the enclosure,seems to be with mine.

 

[dodolah]

I have started to mist him for 5minutes,and heavily mist his enclosure. Yesterday,after i did so,i watched blades of glory in my room,then i saw him go mad and drink like crazy! So maybe they drink after a couple minutes you mist the enclosure,seems to be with mine.

yes they do drink afterward.. especially when no humans are present.
It's been a whole month ever since this Q, and he still healthy.
poop is moist.. so he must have been drinking behind my back

 

[SuperRad]

if reptilefood.com sends you a bunch of dead crickets is it a hassle to try and get your money back? im just trying to figure out if buying online is more efficient that pet stores ect..

in my opinion i think reptilefood.com is the best. I use them everytime i get a batch. i order in batches of 1000. It's best if you do overnight which will only be 5 dollars more than regular two day shipping. There was two times already were i ordered crickets and chose two day shipping because i was being cheap, and they arrived dead. The reason for that is cause i'm in Arizona and in summer when i ordered them the Temp was over 100 degree's. And they just sit in a ups truck all day. So of course they would die. Both times i emailed reptilefood.com and told them and they said "no problem, we'll send you a batch overnight free of charge". And sure enough, next day i would receive my thousand crickets. Jennifer the sales manager is very awesome and way cool.
Because they treated me with high customer service value, i am a loyal member to them.

 

[Brad Ramsey]

I am also a big fan of reptilefood.com.
Their zophoba worms are great too! Big, fat and healthy!

-Brad

 

[dodolah]

I am also a big fan of reptilefood.com.
Their zophoba worms are great too! Big, fat and healthy!

-Brad

hey Brad..
do you think ordering 250 crix at reptilefood is kinda expensive?
I don't really need 1000 crix for my 1 chameleon

with the shipping the total is 8.00 + 14.00 = $ 22.00
and a pet store near me sell their 250 crix for 7 bucks.

also what do you think of reptilefood crix food?

 

[Brad Ramsey]

The best deal from them is definitely 1000.
If you can get them cheaper locally....I would do that.
I haven't tried their gut-load.

-Brad

 

[dectr6]

Have you tried your local bait shop? If you need full size crix, they are the same variety as pet stores and two dollars per hundred in my area. Good luck. David