Is my cham dehydrated?

[MyJacksonHarvey]

I'm new to the world of owning chameleons. I have a jackson chameleon, I've had him for a week now. I shower him and mist him, but I don't know if he is actually drinking. His color is mostly dark green with some light green stripes. Is this normal?

 

[sensation]

You have a picture?!?!

 

[ferretinmyshoes]

Welcome to the forums! What do his feces look like? There should be a brown part and a white part. If that is orange it means he is dehydrated. Also their eyes will appear sunken in if they are very dehydrated. He may need a dripper that slowly drips water on the leaves in his cage to recognize water, especially if he's wild caught. Mine has his one leaf he drinks from so he goes straight there when he's thirsty!

 

[MyJacksonHarvey]

His feces looks exactly as you described, white with brown, no orange. His eyes are fine, maybe I'm just over reacting. I'd love to post a picture but I am without a camera at the moment! Thank you! I'm getting a dripper for him tomorrow.

 

[ferretinmyshoes]

Yeah, he's probably fine at this point then. It will be good to get him a dripper though so he can get used to it. I used a plastic cup with a tiny hole poked in the bottom for a dripper quite successfully for a long time! Only changed to a "little dripper" because someone gave it to me for free. So you could try that. Since your cham is new to your care it is probably not very comfortable drinking in front of you yet. You might want to hide around a corner and watch him discretely to see if he's actually drinking. And it may take him a while to start drinking, but it will help to not a have a giant predator (you) watching him.