Pees Alot?

[pocketheart]

Hello, I'm new! My brother got a chameleon a few days ago, and after only a few day the bottom mulch/dirt seems to be soaked in urine? It is vaguely yellow, but I wasn't sure what else it could be. It's everywhere on the bottom, and theres tiny pools of it!
I'm not sure what is wrong with her; everything else seems to be fine. But my brother fed her 5 store-bought crickets covered in white vitamin powder the first day he got her, so could that have been the problem?
Or are these just messy pets with a 3 day cage cleaning routine?

 

[Syn]

Get rid of the mulch/dirt. You should have paper towels down (unless you have something that absolutely requires mulch/dirt.. you haven't told us what kind of chameleon you have).

If it's yellow, and it's the urates, they should be white. You are not hydrating your chameleon enough.

 

[cushcameleon]

A chameleon poop contains both the digested food and urine (a.k.a. urate). They do not pee in liquid form, in fact I believe the yellow liquid you are seeing is coming from the soil. When plants/soil absorb to much water, it is released from the plant/soil in liquid form and often has a yellowish color to it. I believe that is what you may be seeing. Chameleons pass urine in a solid form. If your chameleon is hydrated it should be passing a half brown and half white poop. If your chameleon is dehydrated, it will pass a half brown and half yellow/orange poop. See if you can locate any urates in your chameleon's cage and please post some pictures of your enclosure and your soil.

 

[kinyonga]

What you are describing as pee is not likely pee...the urates should look like this...
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v661/dave_weldon/Panther/PantherUrates.jpg

Here are some good sites...
http://www.uvguide.co.uk/
http://adcham.com/
http://chameleonnews.com/
http://web.archive.org/web/20060502...rnals.com/vet/index.php?show=5.Vitamin.A.html
http://web.archive.org/web/20060421.../index.php?show=6.Vitamin.D3.and.Calcium.html
http://raisingkittytheveiledchameleon.blogspot.com/

 

[GooglezNvincent]

PLEASE! read this. There is nothing wrong with not knowing everything about chameleons when you get one, but I am under the empression that you don't know anything. I am not attacking you, I was in your position once so I am not passing judgement.
http://raisingkittytheveiledchameleon.blogspot.com/
Read this link please so you know how to take care of a chameleon. You made a great decision coming to this forum.

 

[Pure]

The yellow is tannic acid leached out of the dirt and or the mulch. Most garden mixes have peat in it. One of the best sources for tannic acid. People with amazonian fish tanks use it to soften the water and raise the acidity.

Like what has been said, get rid of the substrate. You risk impaction of the intestine if the cham eats it or any feeders that may have it stuck to them.

 

[pocketheart]

Thanks everyone! She's just a vale chameleon (thats what the pet store person told me today when I went into talk) and I cleaned the cage, it was water from the soil and I think it was actually from the little dripper system. I'm definetly going to read up on that link because I am a newbie!
Also what do you mean by the paper towel? Instead of mulch have paper towel, or have paper towel under the mulch?

Thank you all for help again!

 

[cushcameleon]

Instead of mulch have paper towel, or have paper towel under the mulch?!

Instead of mulch, use paper towel. Or you can setup a drainage system and then you won't need to have anything on the bottom of the cage.

 

[kinyonga]

Many substrates (like mulch) if ingested by the chameleon can lead to impaction...so to be on the safe side/avoid the risk, no substrate is usually used when keeping (most) species of chameleon.