Misting/hydration

[Lincolntowncar]

Hello people,

I have a male veiled chameleon (jimbo) who is about 2-3 months old according to the helpful people on this forum I’ve had him for 2-3 weeks now and I recently solved a huge problem I ran into. I had too much substrate at the bottom of my cage, making it get stinky and puddly and recently, without noticing, the puddle turned into a pond. Right when I noticed I cleaned out the whole cage (after struggling to get him out onto a nice set of leaves which he ended up loving), I dumped the water and substrate and took the opportunity to just clean out the whole cage and redesign it for him to make it better for his system of living. Anyway, that problem was solved along with feeding issues (he’s now eating much more than before, from 2 roaches a day to 8 yesterday! Progress!) now my biggest concern is his hydration. My little guy is really shy in front of me so I don’t expect him to drink in front of me but I still want to make sure he’s hydrated. Last time I checked his Urates they were pretty nice and white with a very very light shade of yellow but I was told it looked fine.

I have recently calmed down on misting because of how bad the puddling got but I want to know, is it necessary to mist for as long as a minute or a couple of minutes or is that too much? He gets startled by misting and it also caused the swampy puddles so I wanted to not spray as much but I still have the dripper and mist a few times a day. Not nearly as much substrate anymore btw, I added just a small layer for humidity.

 

[Lincolntowncar]

Found his hidden poopy spot, here’s a pic.

 

[Syreptyon]

Hello people,

I have a male veiled chameleon (jimbo) who is about 2-3 months old according to the helpful people on this forum I’ve had him for 2-3 weeks now and I recently solved a huge problem I ran into. I had too much substrate at the bottom of my cage, making it get stinky and puddly and recently, without noticing, the puddle turned into a pond. Right when I noticed I cleaned out the whole cage (after struggling to get him out onto a nice set of leaves which he ended up loving), I dumped the water and substrate and took the opportunity to just clean out the whole cage and redesign it for him to make it better for his system of living. Anyway, that problem was solved along with feeding issues (he’s now eating much more than before, from 2 roaches a day to 8 yesterday! Progress!) now my biggest concern is his hydration. My little guy is really shy in front of me so I don’t expect him to drink in front of me but I still want to make sure he’s hydrated. Last time I checked his Urates they were pretty nice and white with a very very light shade of yellow but I was told it looked fine.

I have recently calmed down on misting because of how bad the puddling got but I want to know, is it necessary to mist for as long as a minute or a couple of minutes or is that too much? He gets startled by misting and it also caused the swampy puddles so I wanted to not spray as much but I still have the dripper and mist a few times a day. Not nearly as much substrate anymore btw, I added just a small layer for humidity.

In general, misting sessions should be no less than 2 minutes long. The longer the better.

What kind of substrate are you using? Is it a full bioactive setup? If not, then it would be better to remove the substrate entirely and go bare-bottom. Unless it is fully bioactive with drainage, then substrate just gets soggy and breeds dangerous bacteria to make your chameleon sick

 

[Lincolntowncar]

In general, misting sessions should be no less than 2 minutes long. The longer the better.

What kind of substrate are you using? Is it a full bioactive setup? If not, then it would be better to remove the substrate entirely and go bare-bottom. Unless it is fully bioactive with drainage, then substrate just gets soggy and breeds dangerous bacteria to make your chameleon sick

Not going bioactive just yet, waiting til I upgrade the cage. I’m using a small layer of soil and moss to help lock in humidity.

 

[Syreptyon]

Not going bioactive just yet, waiting til I upgrade the cage. I’m using a small layer of soil and moss to help lock in humidity.

I repeat, that needs to be removed ASAP. It is not safe. It is not necessary. It provides nothing useful to the enclosure that is worth the risk of a dead chameleon. We see this happen all the time, most commonly manifesting in respiratory infection. If it is not bioactive, it is a major health hazard and a ticking time bomb. Bare bottom is the only other responsible way to go.

If you're worried about humidity, wrap a side or three of the enclosure in plastic. There are many ways to improve humidity that do not put your animal's health at risk.

 

[Lincolntowncar]

I repeat, that needs to be removed ASAP. It is not safe. It is not necessary. It provides nothing useful to the enclosure that is worth the risk of a dead chameleon. We see this happen all the time, most commonly manifesting in respiratory infection. If it is not bioactive, it is a major health hazard and a ticking time bomb. Bare bottom is the only other responsible way to go.

If you're worried about humidity, wrap a side or three of the enclosure in plastic. There are many ways to improve humidity that do not put your animal's health at risk.

Okay, I appreciate your input. I’ll try to get to removing it as soon as I can. I have a full glass enclosure with a mesh top so I think humidity may be just find. My only thing is repeating the process of cleaning the substrate again, it was a hassle. I’ll figure it out. So remove both the moss and soil or just the soil?

 

[Syreptyon]

Okay, I appreciate your input. I’ll try to get to removing it as soon as I can. I have a full glass enclosure with a mesh top so I think humidity may be just find. My only thing is repeating the process of cleaning the substrate again, it was a hassle. I’ll figure it out. So remove both the moss and soil or just the soil?

Definitely best to get rid of both. Without a drainage layer, there is no way around a messy soggy substrate. It's a pain in the butt for you to have to try and clean and endangers the chams, so it honestly has no benefits haha. You can just use paper towels to wipe away excess water. And you will not have any problem with humidity in a glass enclosure, as long as you're misting enough. Live plants will help that significantly, too

 

[Lincolntowncar]

Definitely best to get rid of both. Without a drainage layer, there is no way around a messy soggy substrate. It's a pain in the butt for you to have to try and clean and endangers the chams, so it honestly has no benefits haha. You can just use paper towels to wipe away excess water. And you will not have any problem with humidity in a glass enclosure, as long as you're misting enough. Live plants will help that significantly, too

Thanks again, really appreciate your help! Gonna get to emptying it as soon as I get the chance

 

[Ruthless]

You can start here by listening to this podcast https://www.chameleonbreeder.com/podcast/ep-89-naturalistic-hydration-for-chameleons/ or here http://chameleonbreeder.libsyn.com/100-challenging-ourselves-and-growing-in-chameleon-knowledge and the other 100 or so episode available this will help give a better understanding. Don’t stop there we are always learning something new so be prepared to always be learning something you didn’t know before.

 

[Lincolntowncar]

Definitely best to get rid of both. Without a drainage layer, there is no way around a messy soggy substrate. It's a pain in the butt for you to have to try and clean and endangers the chams, so it honestly has no benefits haha. You can just use paper towels to wipe away excess water. And you will not have any problem with humidity in a glass enclosure, as long as you're misting enough. Live plants will help that significantly, too

One more thing, how warm should I make the water I use for misting?

 

[RJChamers]

I use room temp, its in a 5 gallon Lowes bucket that is connected to the mistking. Even when he was hand sprayed it was room temp.

 

[Beman]

One more thing, how warm should I make the water I use for misting?

Room temp no heating

 

[Ruthless]

@Lincolntowncar Always use room temperature water not sure where in the world you would encounter warm rain water. Here is the link I think will help you out https://www.chameleonbreeder.com/podcast/ep-89-naturalistic-hydration-for-chameleons/