New with chams!! Im not sure he is drinking water :(

[nenitavega]

I´ve recently (1 week) buy a juvenile gracilis at a pet store, I have him in a cage like 40 x 20 x20 inches, he is eating crickets (5 per day) I give crikets carrots and apple and also covered with Reptocal... I have artificial and natural plants. no UVB lamp, I have the cage outdoors so in the morning half of the cage get the sunlight...so the vet told me that was enough light.

I mist the cage 2 times a day, also have a mini waterfall, and a bottle of water leaking into the cage (sorry for my english)... But I havent seen him drinking, the poop is yellow... I dont know how to tell if he is drinking or not!!

He is very shy, so I dont touch him, he wouldnt even eat in front of me, so I hide and peak lol ... How can I tell? What can I do?

 

[Kmw]

If the part attached to his poops are yellow then it means he's not drinking enough.
You want it to be white. The more orange/yellow it is, the more dehydrated he is!

With my rescue veiled I make sure I spray him down really good when I spray the cage, like really get him wet - he usually opens his mouth a bit after and drinks the water running down off of his face.

I've heard giving him 10-15 minute "showers" helps, if you can get him out and you have a small tree or something - placing
it in the shower and him on it, then running the water (warm, not hot) against the side of the wall so the water splashes on to his tree and him.

Also, Does your reptocal have added D3 in it?

 

[chameleonkev]

I'd take that waterfall out for one, it's just going to get poo and dead crickets in it and then if you Cham drinks from it it won't be doing your animal any favors and as long as you give the viv a heavy misting two, three times daily, 3 if you can while young and you have a dripper he/she should be ok but just monitor him/her just in case

 

[DanSB]

I am certain you will get plenty of assistance here. It sounds like he is eating, that is good, but you need to get him hydrated. The shower trick is supposed to work very well, I've never tried it. I have a pump mister ( http://lllreptile.com/store/catalog...umidifiers/-/exo-terra-pressure-spray-bottle/ ) which I really like. I think the quality of the mist is less stressful and would spray him for a good 5 minutes every 30 minutes for half a day.

You will know if he is drinking when you see him open and close his mouth while he is wet or if he starts licking a wet leaf (or wet anything).

As for the waterfall, it will need to be cleaned daily or set up in such a way it is impossible to poo in and there will be no dead crickets in it. (Or just removed as most would recommend)

UVB lamp: You need it, your Chameleon needs it, get one.

Read this site a lot! There is a ton of great information!

 

[Willnevins]

He should get 12 hours of UVB per day, most of us recommend the reptisun 5.0 tube. I have watched it reverse MBD (a bone disease you do not want your reptile to get from lack of sun!) and will never use anything different.

I would take the waterfall out. Put it in your room for some nice feng shui but it's not worth risking your chameleons health.

My chameleon is very shy also and the hide and peek method is a good idea for the time being until he gets used to his environment and you. I have only witnessed mine drink maybe 3 times, but I pay close attention to his poop to make sure he is hydrated. If I constantly stood next to his cage to watch him he would just hide the whole time and never eat or drink.

 

[carol5208]

He should get 12 hours of UVB per day, most of us recommend the reptisun 5.0 tube. I have watched it reverse MBD (a bone disease you do not want your reptile to get from lack of sun!) and will never use anything different.

I would take the waterfall out. Put it in your room for some nice feng shui but it's not worth risking your chameleons health.

My chameleon is very shy also and the hide and peek method is a good idea for the time being until he gets used to his environment and you. I have only witnessed mine drink maybe 3 times, but I pay close attention to his poop to make sure he is hydrated. If I constantly stood next to his cage to watch him he would just hide the whole time and never eat or drink.

Completely reverse MBD? I have never heard or seen a case of that on here. How bad was the MBD?. From what I have learned it cannot be reversed completely but it will prevent it from progressing further. There have been chameleons on here with horrible MBD and unfortunately the UVB has saved them from them dying but they still look pretty bad even after calcium treatments and getting uvb. Do you have any before and after pics? Also, did you use calcium injections?

 

[summoner12]

Completely reverse MBD? I have never heard or seen a case of that on here. How bad was the MBD?. From what I have learned it cannot be reversed completely but it will prevent it from progressing further. There have been chameleons on here with horrible MBD and unfortunately the UVB has saved them from them dying but they still look pretty bad even after calcium treatments and getting uvb. Do you have any before and after pics? Also, did you use calcium injections?

I think he means reversed as in... no longer losing bone mass and regenerating it by proper calcium supplementation and correcting the lighting.

My melleri Henry had started to get MBD... I found that his UVB lamp was junk. That turned into a very large 'why are the new lamps im buying not put out as much UVB as they should..' sort of 'hunt'. Long story short it was the end of the T12 UVB lamps from ZooMed and the new T8 models were un affected.....

But the end story, Henry may still have some fouled looking front limbs, but his bones are no longer weak.

 

[nenitavega]

Hydrated cham ... I hope

Thanks a lot, for all the info, I will definitely get the UVB lamp and change the water falls water every day.
Reptocal has D3. I will mist him more often and watch the poop everyday!!
Im so happy cause today I saw brown poop I gues thats ok!!

 

[Elizadolots]

You really only want to give D3 a couple of times a month. It can interfere with the absorption of Vitamin A which leads to eye problems (it's a very delicate balance).

This board recommends plain calcium with no D3 every feeding, Vitamins 2x/month, D3 2x/month.

 

[nenitavega]

Got it! thanks a lot