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I'm setting up a cage for my first chameleon. My 3month old male panther arrives on Tuesday. Yesterday I tried setting up his dripping cup. I'm using Zoo-med's "Little Dripper". I set that on top of the cage screen. Water drips onto the leaves of a ficus plant. I have a small plastic container that catches the majority of the water that drips off the ficus plant. The thing I'm noticing is that some water doesn't drip into my plastic container. I've positioned my container to catch most of the water but the cage bottom is still pretty wet. I had a paper towel in there to catch any excess water and this thing was soaked. (I will take out the paper towel when the chameleon arrives)

Is this water on the cage bottom detrimental to the chameleon or the feeder crickets later on?

Should I stick a larger plastic shoebox container to catch more water? (It would cover about 1/3 to 1/2 of the cage bottom)

Should I forget this container on the bottom and drip all the water onto the 6 inch pot of the ficus plant? (I can't imagine the pot's soil could absorb all the water day in and day out)

Another thing I noticed yesterday was the "Little Dripper" seemed to stop dripping when it still had a good amount of water inside. I tilted the drip nozzle or had to touch it to get it dripping again. Is this normal? I'll work with it a little more to figure it out but if you have any tips for this watering system I'd appreciate it.

Thanks for your input and suggestions ahead of time.

Ken

Ken,

Find a plastic tub that fits the cage bottom not just part of it. There is not way to make the drip always go where you want. Wal-Mart has many sizes to choose from. You will either have to use a water vac, turkey baster, paper towels to remove the water. But this way it keeps the cage bottom dry. Crickets are prone to poop in the water and then drink it. Not good for your cham. We cup feed our juvi's at home to stop this from happening. Our warehouse is all screen bottoms.

We tried the little drippers also, didn't work well, so we now use a deli cups, butter tub, etc on our juvi's cages at home. Make a pin hole in the bottom. Cheap, easy to use and clean.

Yosemite

when I use the cup the water always puddles on the screen and then there are ocassional waterfalls - how do you work around this? I just bought a little dripper and am experimenting with plant drip line (same as the tubing on dripper) and its watering "cane."

>>Ken,
>>
>>Find a plastic tub that fits the cage bottom not just part of it. There is not way to make the drip always go where you want. Wal-Mart has many sizes to choose from. You will either have to use a water vac, turkey baster, paper towels to remove the water. But this way it keeps the cage bottom dry. Crickets are prone to poop in the water and then drink it. Not good for your cham. We cup feed our juvi's at home to stop this from happening. Our warehouse is all screen bottoms.
>>
>>We tried the little drippers also, didn't work well, so we now use a deli cups, butter tub, etc on our juvi's cages at home. Make a pin hole in the bottom. Cheap, easy to use and clean.
>>
>>Yosemite
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0.1 veiled - Luna
0.2 green anoles Jaida & Jetta
0.1 brown anole - Jamaica
0.2 house geckos - Gaia & Tia
0.2 felines - Kyndra and Líta

Lele,

Many screen cages will pool the water from a drippy cup. Just sit the margarine dish or deli cup on 2 pencils. This way the drip has some ooooomph when it hits the screen, and will drip through.

Hope that helps,
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>>Lele,
>>
>>Many screen cages will pool the water from a drippy cup. Just sit the margarine dish or deli cup on 2 pencils. This way the drip has some ooooomph when it hits the screen, and will drip through.
>>
>>Hope that helps,
>>-----
>>
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0.1 veiled - Luna
0.2 green anoles Jaida & Jetta
0.1 brown anole - Jamaica
0.2 house geckos - Gaia & Tia
0.2 felines - Kyndra and Líta

So, in addition to the dripper, if one were to attach a mister, and/or fogger how do you folks keep the spraying water from getting out all over through the screen?

Thanks! Maggie

I use the GLAD PEEL N STICK plastic wrap around the back of the cage and along 1/4 of the sides. I angle my sprayer towards the back area so that the wrap forces the overspray to drip inside the cage and into the catch pan below the cage.
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Raf

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1.1 Nosy Be's (Mars and Roja)
1.1 Veiled - No Names Yet
0.1 Adult Sulcatta (POOPIE,I bought it from Victor at Kobey's in SD)
0.0.2 Baby Sulcattas (frick and frack)
1.0 Home's Hingeback Tortoise (SPEEDY, From Victor as well)
1.2 Red ear slider babies (Hingis, Dingis and Dorkus)
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0.0.1 Gulf Coast Box Turtle - No Name Yet
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0.1 English Bulldog (Alice)
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Saltwater Fish and Inverts too