Reptile & Amphibian Forums

How often and how long do you guys run your auto misters to make sure your chams are getting all the water they need?

Depends the species and ambient humidity of your location.
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CANADIAN SILKWORMS

If you have lots of foliage in the cage that the cham can reach to lick water droplets from it won't matter as much in terms of time. The foliage can get totally wet and dripping in a short time. But, if he can't reach lots of water droplets before they evaporate after the misting cycles ends, he could be missing out. If your cage humidity level is correct the cham won't dehydrate as fast and he may not drink as heavily. I guesss my answer is "it depends". Some clues to look for if he's dehydrated (more subtle and earlier than sunken eyes) include:

heavy drinking whenever water is available
drooling and excess salivation during drinking (clear strings of saliva hanging from his lower jaw while he's drinking)
skin tenting
collapsed casque
wrinkly skin

I have a female panther chameleon and am living in dry Colorado where the humidity doesn't seem to get above 25% much. She is in a mostly screen cage (front and back are solid, sides and top are mesh) with a lot of foliage for water to collect on. Do I need to run the mister just until water has collected on everything or does she need to see dripping water for a few minutes before she drinks?

It usually takes a few minutes of soaking to stimulate the chameleon to start drinking, as sometimes they are away from the mist location, or they are startled by it, etc. if your misting duration is too short, then you may not allow them to become stimulated, or they may not have a chance to get consume an adequate amount before the water dissapates.

With the new cages I am building I will be looking for a pump that can run for 15 minutes solid. It will also be on a time to go periodically thoughout the day.

Hope this helps.
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CANADIAN SILKWORMS

I run my misting system directly off of my hot water heater, it is fairly simple and allows me to run my sytem whenever and for as long as i like, plus i dont have to bother with a pump. Just my 2 cents

If you have good cage coverage with your misting system, running it long enough to give the cham stimulation and THEN direct drinking may flood your cage. Make sure you have a good way to drain off the excess. I find I use the misting system more to keep humidity and produce droplets the chams can spend some time licking whenever they want, but I don't expect the cham to drink during the mist cycle itself. I usually hand spray my chams directly at least once a day and let the misting system produce droplets during the rest of the day or when I'm not home. Also, I noticed once they get used to the spray cycle they get geared up to drink sooner once it starts. As with most things, you'll have to spend some time experimenting to see what works best for your particular cham. My melleri and veiled never licked droplets produced by the mister...they did best with direct hand spraying as they are slow long drinkers. My fischeri, jax, and deremensis prefered the mister droplets so they could hide and be secretive and never really liked hand spraying.

I have a hand-pump mister. I enjoy it cause I can contol the amount of water delievered. One problem I have seen with any "watering" device is the excess water! My cage bottom is a drip tray used for large planters. I can easily mop up the excess. I have learned to avoid any type of substrate on the bottom of the cage. Also, some plants don't fair to well if they get a ton of water....yellow leaves is a sure sign of this.

Stimulation is the key! I have Squig's spray in the same spot all of the time...he know's exactly were it is, but still takes him several minutes before he drinks. When done, I can just turn it off and limit the run off. A fair amount still remains on the leaves, and I often find him rubbing against them to moisten his skin.

Good luck.

Kris
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