ReptiRain - How do you know if your cham is getting enough water?

[andrearamirezo91]

Hi everybody!

As some of you might know by now, I’m totally new to chameleon care and husbandry. I just got my first chameleon - a 5 month old male panther about 3 weeks ago, and being the overthinker that I am, I can’t help but worry about everything.

I will be getting some live plants for my guy’s enclosure soon as someone here told me they make a great surface for holding drinking water and retaining humidity, but for now I only have plastic and silk plants in his enclosure.

I have the reptirain automatic mister programmed to go on every 6 hours for 60 seconds right now. Will this be enough as a source of hydration or should I increase the intervals between misting to every 3 hours? I had it on for every 3hrs before, but the cage would get soaked on the bottom so fast that it was hard to keep up with cleaning. Regardless, if it’s better for him, I’ll go back to this schedule again.

Thank you!

 

[JacksJill]

It depends. Every area is different and how many mistings a day will depend on how well you can maintain cage humidity vs your house hold humidity. It will also be affected by other water sources you are using i.e. drippers or hand misting. A good hygrometer thermometer combo is important. I prefer the digital models for accuracy.
You mention in another thread that you are seeing an orange portion in your chams poop. As you have already learned by now panther poop is one part brown fecal mater "poo" covered in a membrane and another part white urate that is the "pee" portion that comes from the kidneys. If you are seeing an orange portion in the urates it is a sign that your chameleon is not well hydrated. All orange urates is even worse and every effort should be made to hydrate him asap. Chronic dehydration can destroy the kidneys and shorten your chameleons life. If that is the case dart with a long hand misting until you see him drink now.
You should consider adding some kind of drainage system to your cage. For starters you can use a deli cup with a screen top to collect excess water falling from your mister or dripper. The screen will prevent drowning in the cup or drinking contaminated water. It will need to be emptied almost daily. There are entire threads on how to make drainage systems for the long run.

 

[JacksJill]

These pod casts should help
http://www.chameleonbreeder.com/podcast/ep9-chameleons-and-water/
http://www.chameleonbreeder.com/podcast/ep-10-chameleons-drainage/
http://www.chameleonbreeder.com/podcast/ep-89-naturalistic-hydration-for-chameleons/

 

[andrearamirezo91]

Thanks again Yeah, I think I'm realizing that my current misting routine is not enough for my chameleon. It's becoming more complicated to keep up with the cleaning since I've been adding more stuff to the cage, and lifting everything up to remove the bottom plate seems to stress him out. I'm definitely gonna look into a drainage system and maybe running a dripper too? At first my understanding was that with the mister alone, a drip system wouldn't be necessary but I think I might be wrong

I was looking at a hygrometer thermometer combo that they had at my local pet store. I'm gonna go get it tonight after work. Is there a specific area of the cage where it should be placed?

 

[JacksJill]

If you had a MistKing or Climist system you could make more adjustments to your schedule than the repti rain allows. It also varies by individual some prefer misters and some drippers. Some prefer to drink after a certain amount of time up to 5 min of misting. You just have to keep adjusting til you find what works in your location with your chameleon.

 

[Curlytails]

Hi everybody!

As some of you might know by now, I’m totally new to chameleon care and husbandry. I just got my first chameleon - a 5 month old male panther about 3 weeks ago, and being the overthinker that I am, I can’t help but worry about everything.

I will be getting some live plants for my guy’s enclosure soon as someone here told me they make a great surface for holding drinking water and retaining humidity, but for now I only have plastic and silk plants in his enclosure.

I have the reptirain automatic mister programmed to go on every 6 hours for 60 seconds right now. Will this be enough as a source of hydration or should I increase the intervals between misting to every 3 hours? I had it on for every 3hrs before, but the cage would get soaked on the bottom so fast that it was hard to keep up with cleaning. Regardless, if it’s better for him, I’ll go back to this schedule again.

Thank you!

check the eyes and urates. also, what is your ambient humidity and temp?