Veiled Cham need to rehydrate

[Patrice]

First. Let me feed you my story

I just move in 5 days ago at my friends house who own a chameleon. In fact, his former roomate gave it to him to take care of because he went travelling.

But now I saw that the chameleon looks a lil' skinny and I think he suffer of dehydratation as my friend did not take care of him. he did not gave him water everyday, and fed him once or twice a week.

First when i moved, i did not even notice the cham for two days as he's sitting in a plant-tree in the corner of the room by the window.(no cage). Thereafter, I notice that he underfed him and that he was probably not in good shape...

He's still active, moved around in the tree to regulate his body temp,and have a firm grip. He have no water set up.

He lost his tongue in the past too where he was left in a untaken care of state for a while... he still have a tongue, but he can't use it to catch : I have to feed him manually. I gave him so far 3 waxworms and i gave him water manually 4 times since yesrterday. He drank 4 days ago water and orange juice. I know he is old but i would like to give him some care to make him happy.

So Im gonna set up some water source, and start feeding him crickets and worm daily.

But can you give me advice to how to help him rehydrate and give him some water fat? (rehydratation). A way to make him assimilate better and faster water?

Can i mix calcium with water? (hard to powder the worm and crickets while i have to feed him manually?

Thank you very much and sorry for the poor care, but sometime people wants animal but they should have toys instead because they are not serious enough. Now i want to fix. Try to post a pic later while monitoring.

 

[LovitaVelvet]

Try giving him Pedialyte from a medcine dropper.

 

[jojackson]

No more orange juice, very acidic, not good. Water is best, perhaps you could suspend a cup above the plant with a tiny hole in it and let it drip. If you wet an insect, calcium powder will stick better, just shake off excess.

 

[Murrdox]

Poor guy.

To Rehydrate him, try giving him a shower. Take his plant and place it in the shower, point the showerhead at the wall of the shower (you don't want the water spraying directly at the plant) and turn the heat up until it's hot but not overly so. The water should cool down when it hits the wall and a nice warm mist should hit the plant.

Put the chameleon on the plant, close the door to the bathroom and let the mist build up as well. Make you you baby-sit the chameleon in case he falls off the plant or anything.

At first the chameleon will likely try to shelter himself, but eventually the high humidity and the water should trigger a drinking response.

If the chameleon is VERY dehydrated, do this twice a week for a couple weeks.

Also try feeding the chameleon horn worms or other insects with a high water content.

 

[summoner12]

Does the cham have any kind of lighting above it? heat lamp? UVB lamp? Chameleons need UVB exposure. This needs to come from a UVB lamp or from direct, unfiltered sunlight. UVB does NOT go through glass or plastic. and screen does filter out UVB.... but it isn't enough to worry. as for rehydrating, get a plant or stick or just hold the guy in the shower. spray the water against the wall (an area that is clean with no soap or chemicals that can splash on him) and you will see him drink and bulge his eyes. the eye stuff you'll see him doing is fine, he is just cleaning them out, it just looks weird and unusual. Use warm water, but not hot. He might not want to get wet or start to move away from the water... just sloly move his body into the splash (tail first helps). let him hang out for at least 10-15 minutes. let the room steam up and if its cold outside of the room don't take him into the cold area of the house without putting him under a heat light.

as for food. get some crickets and if he doesn't have supplements you need to get some. Check out Brad Ramsey's site.

Get back to us on the UVB lamp. if he has none you need to order one or give the guy direct sunlight. since you don't have a cage do NOT put the cham outside alone, he will disappear before you know it.

 

[Patrice]

Thanx guys for replying!

I got a lamp set up, it is a Repti Glo 5.0 UVB branded Exo Terra, 26 W. He get a bit of direct sunlight in the afternoon too. So I guess he is all right for the lighting.

I'm gonna try to suspend him somewhere in the shower away from direct water but I can't move the whole tree, since it's 5 feet high and pretty heavy. I think too that moving the tree would stress him too...

I will try with a smaller plant of mine. for one of your question guys, I don't think he is very dehydrated, but he definitely needs to pack some weight and water fat as he did not drink on a regular basis for the last month at least.

And thanks for the advice : wetting the insect will make the calcium stick better.

For me, I think it's already a miracle that he is still alive, for sure he is a pretty lil tough green guy!

thank you guys !!! back to you soon