Stubborn chameleons...

ferretinmyshoes

ferretinmyshoes

Veterinarian
Staff member
I have 2 chameleons who will not drink. George the veiled just never really liked his dripper but he started eating enough veggies that he stayed well hydrated that way. Ever since we moved to a new state though he won't eat his veggies. Oscar the panther used to be fine about using a dripper and then one day just decided no more. So then he would only drink from the sprinkler in the outdoor cage. That was all fine and good and when it was too cold he would get showers. But then one day he just decided no more of that either. Misting him...nothing...drippers in multiple places for hours...nothing. Even tried a water dish at the bottom for a while (changed daily)...nothing. The ONLY way he will drink is from a syringe. Well sometimes my schedule makes it a challenge to make sure he drinks enough every day, and I don't trust pet sitters to do that safely. And despite other souces being available, if you don't give them water directly they'll just dry up and dehydrate rather than suck it up and drink off a plant leaf like normal. The other two are fine with their drippers happily.

So I splurged and got a fancy new MistKing system for them! It's great for humidity in our dry Colorado environment! I was all excited and got everything all set up (and only had to replace the entire tubing once after the cat thought it was a great chew toy), hooked them into the cages so they sprayed just the right amount on the foliage in their cages and slowly increased the cycle times so they got used to it, got holes drilled and a drainage system in place. And what do they think of it? All 4 run every time it comes on...bah! I've yet to see anyone use it for drinking in the last few weeks. Fail.
 
awww. :(

my guys ran from it too at first.

took bout a month of it spraying multiple times a day for them to finally use it.

now though, they love it.. all of them will sit under the mister and clean their eyes and bathe in it.
 
ferretinmyshoes said:
I have 2 chameleons who will not drink. George the veiled just never really liked his dripper but he started eating enough veggies that he stayed well hydrated that way. Ever since we moved to a new state though he won't eat his veggies. Oscar the panther used to be fine about using a dripper and then one day just decided no more. So then he would only drink from the sprinkler in the outdoor cage. That was all fine and good and when it was too cold he would get showers. But then one day he just decided no more of that either. Misting him...nothing...drippers in multiple places for hours...nothing. Even tried a water dish at the bottom for a while (changed daily)...nothing. The ONLY way he will drink is from a syringe. Well sometimes my schedule makes it a challenge to make sure he drinks enough every day, and I don't trust pet sitters to do that safely. And despite other souces being available, if you don't give them water directly they'll just dry up and dehydrate rather than suck it up and drink off a plant leaf like normal. The other two are fine with their drippers happily.

So I splurged and got a fancy new MistKing system for them! It's great for humidity in our dry Colorado environment! I was all excited and got everything all set up (and only had to replace the entire tubing once after the cat thought it was a great chew toy), hooked them into the cages so they sprayed just the right amount on the foliage in their cages and slowly increased the cycle times so they got used to it, got holes drilled and a drainage system in place. And what do they think of it? All 4 run every time it comes on...bah! I've yet to see anyone use it for drinking in the last few weeks. Fail.
Click to expand...

LOL! they run? thats 2 funny. might take a little while till they get used to it. dont give in!
 
:D Not that I have any experience with any of this but, I did read where someones chameleon will drink from a small animal water bottle. Have you tried them? Just wandering since they would drink from a syringe maybe, they would the bottle.
 
I actually did try a water bottle...Oscar would shoot at it from across the cage, but never figured out how to drink with it.

Glad someone else's used to run from it too! Maybe mine just need some time with it!
 
yea when I first installed it, Kink and Glacier ran away, or fired up whenever it went off.

they did it for at least a month, ANd i was worried that they wouldnt drink and whatnot.

I kept and eye on them, didnt give in, and they started drinking from it.

now it gives me great peace of mind knowing i can be gone all day (as I am when i have work and school 7 am - 11 pm) and they will stay hydrated.
 
I use warm water whenever I'm home it seems to cushion to blow a lot! Stanley seems to enjoy a warm water misting but sometimes the cold water shocks his system.
 
You know that as soon as you leave the room they are drinking constantly :D! I'd set up a surveillance system to monitor them:rolleyes:!!!
 
I just bought the MistKing Rain Nozzle kit...Works like wonders. So far jasper has been drinking water allot more. Also i have a long hose for his dripper that drips near a vine that he can "sip" on :)
 
I put an aquarium heater in my misting water bucket to warm it up and that seems to help. My Jackson's still doesn't like the misters much, but my panther just sits under it.
 
I tried a raindome type of thing before (homemade, but worked well) and still no interest. He knows now that if he sees the syringe then water is coming and will start licking...maybe I will come in with the syringe right before the mistking starts spraying and can retrain him to drink that way...worth a shot!
 
Did you try making them a little "umbrella" thingy? I used a big, wide, fake leaf and arched it so they can sit under it and drink the water that rolls off the other side of the leaf.
 
Yeah...tried that too. My jackson loves his 'umbrella' leaf and knows that's where he needs to go to drink. Oscar just stared at it. I'm telling you, stubborn!
 
Some of my guys go running from the mistking but they do end up drinking, my one veiled Gordon redirects the nozzles on a daily basis it is really weird and funny to watch him do it. Such a smart lil brat
 
Here is a trick I use for my parsons he is just like your 2 boys in that he changes and is very picky on how he drinks lol dang chams got to love them :). Some of our chams run from the mistking so we set all the nozzles to only hit half of less then half of there cages so they have a dryer area on there basking I noticed once we did this all our chams have the misting schedule down and go wait in there basking area until the mister stops. Some would go drink from the leaves after but some still liked the dripper or hand dripping to really drink. So I added a auto dripper Brian aka reptoman is the guy to talk to about setting one of these up he helped me a lot when I was doing mine . Anyways then I had all my chams drinking and doing awesome but Bentley my parsons did not want to have anything to do with either set ups and like you sometimes I get to busy to stop and go and water him. So I took brains auto dripper idea and modified it by adding a few longer hoses in different areas of the cages and I also changed the setting for the auto dripper to go off 10 min. right after there misting schedule. By moving the dripping to after the misting all the chams seemed more stimulated to look and find water and Bentley being Bentley with his modified longer drip lines with drip nozzles hanging at different levels he found areas in his cage that he finally liked to drink from because I think the long hose and nozzles at differnt levels made him fill more like drinking and it was easyer to find ...... Maybe try this set up and see if it helps if it does let me know:)
 
shaunaroxanne said:
Ok, my last idea. What if you wired your syringe that he drinks from to a spot where your water drips?
Click to expand...

I tried this for a while....wanna hear how stubborn and spoiled they are? Oscar will just sit in the same spot despite seeing the syringe and lick his lips. Won't come over to it though! So I give in and take it to him. Spoiled! Or, if I don't give in, he shoots at it from across the cage and pulls the thing apart or through the cage. I'm worried he's going to hurt his tongue doing that.

Ranger - I think I'm going to have to look into a system like that! Can you PM me some more details on it?

Thanks all for the good ideas and helping me come up with some more options! I might have to revisit some of the ones I've tried before and now I have some new ideas to add to it. There has to some kind of combo that works!!
 
None of my guys use the MistKing at all, it's just there to increase the RH I suppose, cost to much to not use it!!
They do use the dripper, each in their own way.
I have always had problems keeping Noogie hydrated and I use every method in the book to get water inside him!!
Now, I started injecting dubia with a insulin syringe!! :eek:
I was surprised to discover they can hold 1/2cc of water before leaking :rolleyes:

I also found that they are much more likely to drink on their own if they have been active, like outside, and free ranging.
 
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