My chameleon despises getting wet

[jasimmons86]

I have a mistking, with 2 misting heads, one in each upper back corner of the cage. as soon as the misting starts my chameleon heads under a bunch of leaves and stays there for atleast 30 mins before going back to his basking spot.
I use room temp tap water and it mist every 2 hrs for 2 mins, from 8:30am to 8:30 at lights out.
Ive had the mister for 2 months now and I thought he would get used to it, but no luck, he despises the thing.

any body else's chameleon like this?

 

[Kansascity]

Most do, but it triggers their drinking mechanism . Just make sure you water is warm )yet not Hot as , well u know) maybe increase misting sessions, and decrease misting durations.

 

[e30nate]

i have my aquazamp set up on the same cycle and my cham did the same thing for about three months, but now it doesnt bother him at all. he will sit right in front of the nozzle and take a shower.

 

[Cainschams]

He probably doesnt hate getting wet but hates being blasted with mist. IMO drip systems would be the best for automated systems. Its much more natural to get "rained" on than blasted with mist.

 

[SarahChamlove]

i feel like my chameleon is the same way. I find warming the water a bit helps. I live in a very hot climate and i leave my filtered water outside to warm up (just to make sure its not to hot for them) and i mist the plants instead of her. I also just use a dripper, the water collects on top of the cage and falls thru kinda like rain. She enjoys drinking like that!

 

[Marty]

He probably doesnt hate getting wet but hates being blasted with mist. IMO drip systems would be the best for automated systems. Its much more natural to get "rained" on than blasted with mist.

"blasted" sounds as if the mist coming out is like a power washer for washing a car. To put the power of the mist in perspective, You could take the nozzle and put it 1 inch from your eyeball and turn it on and it would just gently wash your eyeball. Mist is highly atomized into tiny particles, there's not much blasting going on. I think it's the cooling effect that freaks out your chameleon. That's not any different than rain in the wild. Your cham may be just a bit of a baby about it

 

[krknieriem]

I love your common sense Marty, I dont bother doing any heating with my water and my cham does fine, sometimes he goes under a leaf at misting times and sometimes he sits underneath it. I dont use a dripper as he has 3 15 min showers and 4 5 minute showers. I go through 5 gallons with 1 nozzle every 3 days and I dont have any hydration problems. Male ambilobe panther is what I have

 

[Dave Weldon]

...I use room temp tap water and it mist every 2 hrs for 2 mins, from 8:30am to 8:30 at lights out...

Howdy jasimmons86,

Unless you have a low humidity issue (below ~40%) that you are using the 2 minute misting sessions to help compensate for, I'd switch to a single session in the morning (8am) and another in the afternoon (2pm) lasting somewhere around 10-20 minutes each. This will give enough time to potentially trigger your chameleon's drinking response while letting the enclosure dry-out in-between. Also, attempt to aim the nozzle in a direction that will let more of the mist hit plants and other structures, turning more of it into rain drops by the time it reaches your chameleon. Double check the water temp. If the tank water isn't 70F-75F, consider adding a regulated fish tank heater to keep it in that range. Tank water that is more than 75F water tends to grow algae too quickly and less than 70F means that the misted water is potentially a chilly ~60F or less as it reaches your chameleon . The next step some of us have taken is to add an inline heater, pushing the water temp to 90F or more as the water travels from the tank to the nozzle(s).

 

[warpdrive]

both Dave and Marty give great advice.

my first chameleon hated being wet. he was always hand misted and I mostly misted the plants for him as a result.
he never grew out of it for the 2 years that I owned him. so I only got him wet like once a week.

on the other hand, I have plenty of chameleons now that love being misted.
some will just sit in the mist and enjoy it.

you can also buy or make a "rain dome" and this works wonders for chameleons who don't like the misting. rain domes drip water like 20 drippers and replicate what rain is like.

Harry

 

[jasimmons86]

thanks for the great advice..,. my water sits right around 65-70, so I may need to add a heater of some sort.

 

[Picasso123]

water shouldnt be 80 degrees unless it's 80 degrees in the house. It's primary purpose it to water an cool. It's not gonna kill you cham, if anything it should mimic his natural environment by not being the say temp as everything else in there.

 

[sdheli420]

"blasted" sounds as if the mist coming out is like a power washer for washing a car. To put the power of the mist in perspective, You could take the nozzle and put it 1 inch from your eyeball and turn it on and it would just gently wash your eyeball. Mist is highly atomized into tiny particles, there's not much blasting going on. I think it's the cooling effect that freaks out your chameleon. That's not any different than rain in the wild. Your cham may be just a bit of a baby about it

ya if its a blast, its more like a blast of fog rolling in, lol

p.s. i use an aquarium submersible heater in my rez..heats it up to 75 where it stays so at least as its misted it isint as cold as say 65 72 degree water cooling down in the air before it hits my chams