How to tell if a poop is healthy?

[Ghostbirb]

So I haven’t really seen any poops from my girl recently, and I found a bunch of them in the back of her cage. They where pretty old and a-bit yellow/orange. Do poops get darker the older they are? How often do chameleons poop? And how do I know if my girl is dehydrated?

Nachito does get a hornworm at almost every meal

 

[kinyonga]

Normal chameleon poop should be dark brown to black and in an oval shape with a small bit of moisture. The white to yellow urates should also be seen attached to the end of it ...and the feces should not be bloody, watery, or runny.

They should poop every few days. Each is a little different and may partly depend on what they ate.

 

[MissSkittles]

From the aged gifts I’ve found left in places where the clean up crew hasn’t yet accessed, urates don’t change color as they dry. A white urate will dry white. Do keep in mind that it is normal to have an end part to be yellow or even orange, depending on how long it’s been in between poops. The longer the time between poops, the darker the urate will be.

 

[Ghostbirb]

From the aged gifts I’ve found left in places where the clean up crew hasn’t yet accessed, urates don’t change color as they dry. A white urate will dry white. Do keep in mind that it is normal to have an end part to be yellow or even orange, depending on how long it’s been in between poops. The longer the time between poops, the darker the urate will be.

The poops I found was brown/black with some dried orange/yellow around it.

 

[kinyonga]

So urates are never white or almost white?

 

[Gingero]

You’re asking great questions!! This video should help:

 

[Ghostbirb]

Ok after watching the video I can’t decide.
What do u guys think? I’m thinking maybe not enough water? The poop is in a spot in her cage that’s hard to see so I didn’t notice it until now.

I’m guessing maybe she just doesn’t get enough drinking opportunity’s? I’ve tried to make a drip system but it either drips all the water out in like a few hours or drips until it just holds water without dripping.

Edit: she also has opportunity’s to drink when her mister goes on before her lights go out, after her lights come on and in the middle of the day

Oh and she get fed hornworms too

 

[kinyonga]

This might help too...
https://www.chameleonforums.com/threads/chameleon-poop-101.120171/

 

[PetNcs]

You’re asking great questions!! This video should help:

as usual, this video is full of useful info explained a very simple language
and
as usual, there are many inaccuracies and mistakes such as
statement that little bit of orange in urates is OK - in fact upto 50% can be orange and it is within physiological norm, on contrary, totally white rate is a sign of overhydratioin
statement that from urine, nutrients are re-asorbed is false, as far as you consider water a s a nutrient...
examples of totally pathological poop of greyinish color is declared as OK - it is NOT. Physiological chameleon poop is black or dark brown and NOT WATERY and not containing any mucous sticky gelly substance
etc etc

it is heavily advised to pay more care in explaining things, as you can mislead as many people as your audience, which is quite massive, so damage is big

 

[Gingero]

as usual, this video is full of useful info explained a very simple language
and
as usual, there are many inaccuracies and mistakes such as
statement that little bit of orange in urates is OK - in fact upto 50% can be orange and it is within physiological norm, on contrary, totally white rate is a sign of overhydratioin
statement that from urine, nutrients are re-asorbed is false, as far as you consider water a s a nutrient...
examples of totally pathological poop of greyinish color is declared as OK - it is NOT. Physiological chameleon poop is black or dark brown and NOT WATERY and not containing any mucous sticky gelly substance
etc etc

it is heavily advised to pay more care in explaining things, as you can mislead as many people as your audience, which is quite massive, so damage is big

Thanks for the input. I’m aware of the 50% orange urate and actually shared that info with new keepers yesterday That video is older, and came out prior to the community learning more about chameleon poop. I am in the process of redoing that video right now along with many others. Constant advancements in chameleon care mean constantly updating videos so I’m doing my very best to update videos as new care info comes to light.

 

[Beman]

Thanks for the input. I’m aware of the 50% orange urate and actually shared that info with new keepers yesterday That video is older, and came out prior to the community learning more about chameleon poop. I am in the process of redoing that video right now along with many others. Constant advancements in chameleon care mean constantly updating videos so I’m doing my very best to update videos as new care info comes to light.

Thank you for all that you share on social... I have talked to many new keepers that without you would not have found correct info or the forum. We appreciate your constant devotion in getting correct info out there.

 

[PetNcs]

Thanks for the input. I’m aware of the 50% orange urate and actually shared that info with new keepers yesterday That video is older, and came out prior to the community learning more about chameleon poop. I am in the process of redoing that video right now along with many others. Constant advancements in chameleon care mean constantly updating videos so I’m doing my very best to update videos as new care info comes to light.

I wish you good luck in that, as proper popularisation and info through SM is extremely valuable if it comes to making the captive chameleons happy
I would love to see you going more naturalistic, as this is my passion, but I respect also other approaches in chameleon husbandry of course

 

[PetNcs]

...and, if you need some natural poop from the wild, let me know... for decades, I did just analyses but in last decade, I started to document also chameleon droppings from the wild... ))

 

[Nixibabie]

Sorry posted on whole forum can't figure out how to delete so I'm editing to this message