Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hey guys: we dart froggers have to use either RO water, or Spring, or rain water for our frogs. I was wondering what your Chams drink, are sprayed with? Do I need to do the same for the Cham or is tap water Ok? Whats the best? People say to use 2 ice cubes at the top of the cage to provide a drip, is that ice cubes from regular water or other kind of water? Couldn't find any info on this in the archive. Thanks for your input-Maggie

If your using RO for your frogs,just use RO for your chameleons. I have been using RO/DI that I make at home and I have to believe its better than tap. WIth tap, you'll have to let it sit over night.

I thought I read somewhere that using RO water for chameleons was not good due to the fact that it loses all it's minerals...is this nor true? I'll have to go find where I read it.

I've been using either bottled water or tap water with Reptisafe added to it. Not sure if the Reptisafe is a bunch of bunk or not though.

Kristen
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1.1 pygmy leaf
1.1 carpet
1.0 jackson
0.0.3 red eared sliders

Well, duh, it was right here on Kingsnake that I read it. Reptayls mentioned it in some posts w little while back.

Kristen
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1.1 pygmy leaf
1.1 carpet
1.0 jackson
0.0.3 red eared sliders

Hi Kristen,

We have a R/O unit too (for fish)
We thought about using it for the chams too... no brainer, there. But after some research, we found that it was not recommended. We found several posts and an article in Reptiles mag about not using the R/O process for watering most lizards.

We have plastic barrels (55 gal) and we let the water sit. The chlorine usually evaporates the quickest... withing 24-36 hours. In the house, I still use milk jugs to "sit" the tap water. Since we don't have much else added to our water - this seems to be fine. Store-bought spring water would bankrupt us...

Hope this helps,
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Ice cubes of any kind are not good to use as drippers. Ice is extreemly cold, chameleons do not like cold water.
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From Sunny Florida
Jovana's kids listed below
1.1 Veileds
1.0 Ambanja Panther
1.1 Tamatave Panther

Hi-

I also use RO/DI water. Yes when you use RO/DI water it strips the water of 99.9% (in my unit) of impurities and bacteria. My water has a ph value of 5.0-6.5 out of my RO/DI system (more natural), out of the tap the water comes out at 7.5-8.5. My tap water is very hard and has a bunch of junk in it, tap water will differ from sate to state. When I use tap water my chameleons have allot of excess salt secretions from there nose, with RO/DI not much. Another advantage is with auto misting systems you don't have to worry about clogs from the water. When you mist 3 times daily with my tap water a white hard water film will accumulate on the leafs which doesn't look good. If you are using RO water it is the same as much of the bottled water. If you think about it chameleons would be drinking the rainfall drops not water from streams/rivers/lakes that have water with more minerals. If you are concerned about minerals your vitamin dust should take care of it.

I do use tap water as well for my outdoor misting system, and have had no problems other then the white film the water leaves behind. With the indoor cages I try to keep the way the cages look better then the outdoor cages I.E. the hard water stains. In the colder winter months the chameleons are indoors 24/7 in the hotter summer months they are outdoors 24/7. To setup a system that I have indoors outdoors is not hard just expensive and takes up allot of space. The outdoor cages are misted 4 times daily for 30 min each mist. To do this I would need a large reservoir that dose not leach toxins from the plastic (food safe) and a large pump to handle the 30 min misting. After looking long term the system I have in place now will be just fine.

So I think it comes down to a personal preference when choosing the water type and where you live. Bottled water is filtered water, in some cases it is just filtered tap water. What ever minerals that are filtered out I am sure are replaced with your supplement dust and gutload. I would think that all the harmful stuff filtered out of the water would out weigh what little good things are in the water. Hope this helps!

P.S.- Avoid ice cubes and cold water altogether.
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John W. Lucas

CHAMELEON PARADISE

CHAMELEONS ONLINE E-ZINE AUTHOR

Feeding Baby Chameleons
Caging Baby Chameleons

got SILKWORMS!

Photo © Chameleon Paradise 2003

WOW! That's a lot of Misting at the outdoor Cage. Is it a low volum mister? How much water does it go through. I'm starting out with a Panther Chameleon. I have a Mister Moisture Jr. that I could hook up to it, but in the meanwhile, I'll just use a dripper, supplemented by hand misting. Is that OK? I thought that the ice cube idea was really odd. Thanks-Maggie