Question about water / drip systems

[CoolioChameleon]

Hello all, I just joined the forum and have been enjoying browsing the topics ... however, I don't see my particular issue being addressed anywhere, so here goes:

I've had my five-month-old veiled chameleon for about four months now, and have figured out most of the basics of his care, but I still worry about whether he is getting enough water. I manually mist his cage between 2 and 4 times a day (at the very least a generous misting in the morning and a generous misting at night), and I have a manual drip system set up as well.

The thing is, I very rarely see him drink at all, and I don't like to leave the drip system going when I am not in my apartment to keep an eye on it. (What I did was drill a hole in the top of the cage which I inserted a two litre water bottle into ... however when the bottle is empty I worry that he will be able to push his way out of the cage and escape. When there is no water in it, I put a weight into the empty bottle so as to make sure he can't get out. Therefore I really only like to use the drip system when I am around to keep an eye on it, if that makes any sense.)

It seemed that this was working fine, but this morning when I filled the bottle with water, Coolio (the chameleon) immediately started to lap up as much water as he could, as if he was dying of thirst. This made me worried that he has not been getting the water that he should.

Anyway, I guess my question can be summarized like this: One, how often do these animals really need to drink, and do you think Coolio is getting enough water by me offering him the drip system either in the morning or at night (i.e. when I am not at work), and two, does it sound to you that I should invest in a better misting and/or drip system. I would like to save as much money as possible, having already spent a few hundred dollars on the cage set-up, but of course not at the expense of depriving my chameleon of what he needs to be healthy and happy.

Any advice you could give would be much appreciated. Thanks!

 

[chameleonman57]

You should fined all answers to your question in this http://www.chameleonnews.com/?page=article&id=73 and if you wanted to spend a couple bucks on mister or dripper then go ahead. I just have the Big Dripper by Zoomed and the Mist'r Lizard for my veiled

 

[nick barta]

If the eyes are not sunken in, hydration is happening. Be sure the drips hit leaves so the cham has a surface to lick off of, do not drip straight into the pot of the plant.
Some chams drink when you aren't watching, so watch the fullness of the eyes.

Nick

 

[cushcameleon]

These animals needs lots of water, basically the more you provide the better. They can dehydrate quickly and the large amounts of water help keep the cage more humid (like their native homeland). If your drip system worries you so much that you don't run it during the day, then yes you should get a new one (like I said they need lots of water). The best way to check if your chameleon is hydrated is through the coloring of the urate in the poop. Roughly each poop should half a brown half and a solid white half. The white half is the urate, if it is all white then your chameleon is hydrated. If the urate is yellow or orange, then it is dehydrated.

 

[LittleLionLover]

If you want to check his hydration take a look at his poo, white urates signify that he's hydrated, yellow or orange urate show dehydration.

Properly gutloading your feeders is one good source of hydration, silkworms and hormworms are also a good source seeing as their a much "juicer" feeder. I recommend taking a look at sandrachameleon's blog, it's pack full with a ton of great information, some about proper hydration, gutloading.

Personally I feel you might want to look into getting a better dripper. it doesn't necessarily need to be some fancy shmancy hoohah of a thing but something the works a bit more efficiently then what your using. You want to be sure that you are able to create a steady continuous drip, I like to manually handspray until my plant is heavily misted and is creating a steady stream of dripping water. I do this once in the morning and a few times throughout the afternoon. I make sure not to mist at least 2 1/2 hours before lights off, this way the cage has time to dry (You do not want your cham sleeping in an overly moist area it can and most likely will lead to sickness).

A mist system is also something you might want to look into, but it's not exactly something mandatory, if you are able to mantain a stable percentage of humidity within the cage throughout the duration of the day then you can most likely go without out it. You can save a bit of money this way. But regardless it's always better to be safe then sorry.

In the end though, if you find that none of this seems to be working and his urate isn't the proper color you might want to try implementing an oral syringe and perhaps look into injecting feeders.

Best of luck
-Jaz

 

[sandrachameleon]

Misting and dripping a couple or more times a day is likely fine, along with well hydrated prey. As previously mentioned, if the urate is 95% pure white (not yellow or orange) and the eyes are not sunken, the chameleon is likely getting what it needs.

 

[writh]

I feed it the crickets on the water pillows I know they have water in them, automatic mister and lil-dripper. I work 40 hours a week its a peace of mind