You can lead a Cham to water but...

[diegoted]

you can't make them drink!! or can you?? Will a Cham just ignore dripping water until he dies of dehydration? As of late both my Jacksons and Panther have produced slightly orange urates? I drip daily for about an hour as well as have an auto misting system that goes on 4 times daily for about 40 seconds each and then has residual drops for about 15 minutes? I am at a loss on how to get these guys to drink what they need? Any suggestions?

thx Ted

 

[Psychobunny]

I feel your pain!!
It can be a real challenge to get some chams to drink.

You would think that with all those gallons of water, with the mistking and dripper, that they would drink a few drops!!!

Sometimes, I have to dump it on theirs heads for 20 + minutes before I finally see their little mouths open and close to drink

If they are the least bit stressed, they will not drink.
And often, if they think I am watching, they wont drink then either.

With my jax, I found the best way is to use the "rain nozzle" option on the mistking so the drops fall on his head.
But it can take several minutes standing under it before he starts drinking.

 

[laurie]

i have a dripped that goes all day and a mistking that goes 3 times a day for 10 minutes each time. That seems to do it for me.

 

[Psychobunny]

LOL! It takes Noogie 5 minutes just to lumber over to the dripping water, another minute to stand under it before he gets the idea to drink it

 

[andymcballer]

guess im lucky!

I guess i'm just lucky!!! although maybe it's just too early for him to be finnicky lol.

anyways!!! I've had my little panther Sokar (from Brian @crazyeyeschams) he's 5 months old exactly on Tuesday when i got him. and I saw him drink the first day!! and everyday since It's so awesome looking! these are such amazing creatures. I've got an umbrella and 2 pothos in his enclosure and when he drinks from the umbrella plant, its so funny/cute looking. He grabs the little stem with his little glove hands and it almost looks like he's shaking the branch for water to come down. He puts his little open mouth on the stem, shakes it a little and water rolls down into his mouth. AND He's done it a few times while i'm watching.


All i have is a pressurized mister, and i just do a solid misting for a few minutes 3 x a day.humidity stays up and allll the plants in there are perfect for holding water on the leaves, so i make sure each leaf has some water drops on it.and i make sure to kind of tag him just a bit with the water and that usually seems to kick him into drink mode. But ya i was so happy, because this being my first chameleon, i was really worried that when i got him, he wouldnt want to drink or would get dehydrated really quickly and stress himself out.

On a side note, i'm so ecstatic about his enclosure also, i was really worried that in the setup i have him in, it would be hard to maintain ideal conditions. but it ended up being PERFECT! I'm gonna be posting some pics of Sokar's Chameleon Mansion

 

[ferretinmyshoes]

I did have one panther who let himself get really dehydrated despite regular mistings and dripper. He ONLY wanted to drink out of the sprinkler in his outdoor cage. And then after a while he tired of that too and did it again. I had to train him to drink out of a syringe three years ago and to this day he still will only drink that way. https://www.chameleonforums.com/drinking-syringe-100221/

My jackson likes to drink from a big leaf his dripper drips onto, which fills up every time the mistking goes off.

 

[CharolettesKeeper]

I feel your pain!

I'm having the same problem with my veiled! I've been trying for weeks to get her to drink to no avail. I've tried everything except spraying her directly with water. Is this a good method to try??

I have a thread here titled "Dehydration" you can check out what people suggested to me and see if it helps at all.

Good luck!

 

[ferretinmyshoes]

Shower method is also a good thing to try for stubborn drinkers.

 

[Psychobunny]

But at least veileds eat fruit and veggies, so they can get the water they need that way.
I dont worry that I never see mine drink water.

 

[Olimpia]

If mine aren't getting sprayed or dripped on directly they will not wander over to where they see water unless they've been thirsty for a few days. I'm not sure what they would do in the wild lol. But all three of my Meller's will just stare at the water if the rain dome is off to one side of the free-range. I usually have to move the rain dome so it showers down directly on them to encourage them!

 

[CharolettesKeeper]

I've read for the shower method, that just the mist should hit them. Is it okay to be a little more heavy handed and really stick them in the drops bouncing off the side of the shower? So far, the shower method hasn't worked for me.

 

[zsazsa85]

My cham doesn't drink lately as well. I have Mist King, 6 x 5 min mistin evey day and a dripper and still: I go home and she is very thirsty, I have to give her thru a syringe....
But funny thing is, when I put the dripper in, she drank in the first 5 min from it and nothing since. I mean I don't see her drinking. She likes to stand under the mist when it's on.
Do you think warm water would help?