Runny Urates

[Garrett]

Has anyone else had a chameleon that consistently passes runny (liquid) urates? I have a female that seems extremely healthy, eating and drinking normally, and passes normal looking feces...(clear fecal check) but the urates are always completely liquid, with the normal off white color. This girl drinks a lot of water, so my guess is she's passing excess water with the waste. But.. are there any health related issues that would cause urates to be so runny excluding over hydration? I've spoken with my vet about it, and she seemed stumped. Her guesses were drinking a lot of water, or extreme kidney damage.. which seems unlikely considering this animal is young and has been meticulously hydrated from day one. I've excluded the silk and hornworm theory, as I'm not feeding her those right now. It could also be something in my gutload that's causing it...I'm using the reptayls recipe right now.
I've been keeping chameleons for a long time and have never seen this before.

 

[Tygerr]

I'm afraid I can't be of much help with your urate problem, other than that my personal opinion is that it probably isn't a direct problem with the gutload since any contaminated/problematic ingredient passed through the insect's gut would likely cause full diarrhea, wouldn't it? (runny feces as well as runny urates)
So since it only affects the urates it is far more likely to be a result of high levels of hydration, or some other internal problem (like the kidney problem you mentioned, or a nutritional imbalance, which could in turn have been caused more indirectly by the gutload due to what it does or doesn't contain).

Hopefully one of the more experienced/trained keepers will chime in soon with their opinions.

What I would like to know from you is what that Reptayl gutload recipe is that you mentioned? I checked out their website, but couldn't find any mention of gutload.

 

[Garrett]

After posting the comment about the gutload, that got me thinking...
I'm pretty sure it contains a lot of alfalfa, and beans.. which are pretty high in protein. I sometimes coat my feeder insects with the raw gutload before feeding, now I'm thinking that's not such a good idea! I bet she's excreting extra urates from having to break down all that "extra" protein. I'm going to try cutting way back on the gutload levels and see if that makes a difference.

 

[Ryan Jarosek]

Well I thought I would revive this post as its happening to my 5 month old Panther. Just his last couple of #2's . The urate is white but runny.

He has been eating a lot of silk worms. But other than that nothing else has changes in regards to gut load veggies and cricket food , etc that I feed my feeders.

Everything about him is normal , he is active eats like a pig and drinks lots of water. Like I said the only new thing is the amount of silkies he eats. I used to just give him a few as a treat but now he eats about half crickets and half silkies.

Anyone else experience this?

 

[Chuck G]

Well I thought I would revive this post as its happening to my 5 month old Panther. Just his last couple of #2's . The urate is white but runny.

He has been eating a lot of silk worms. But other than that nothing else has changes in regards to gut load veggies and cricket food , etc that I feed my feeders.

Everything about him is normal , he is active eats like a pig and drinks lots of water. Like I said the only new thing is the amount of silkies he eats. I used to just give him a few as a treat but now he eats about half crickets and half silkies.

Anyone else experience this?

Ryan, It never hurts to bring the goo poo to the vet.Also keep a log,pardon the pun,of the food items,which it sounds like have. I am not a big silk worm fan. In reference to gut loading, I know alot of people have their special formula but I use as much variety as possible when feeding my insects.
It doesn't sound serious.

 

[Ryan Jarosek]

Thanks Chuck , I am going to start logging ... I think I will take some of the "goo Poo" to the vet to rule that out.

Thanks for the reply!

 

[SSimsswiSS]

He has been eating a lot of silk worms.

I'd have to say it the silks in the diet. Have seen this when feeding on silks for few days. All that moisture in the worms has to go somewhere.