Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Today i read your misting posts and decided to give it a try. So I misted down on him and misted for one minute. He never drank and he kept running away from the misting. So after a minute I stoped because i was starting to get worried about stress. When i was finished with him he turned a real dark color when nornaly he is a nice light green color. He is a baby veiled and I need suggestions because i don't wnat to mess this up and end up losing the little guy. I have read information and things about him and did a lot of research. I have heard a lot about mistings and i also have heard stuff about chams. hating to be misted and that the internet never has the right information. Please help me with this.

-paul

you should be misting a few times a day, everyday. this is really the only way chams take in water. they will not drink from a standing source, and waterfalls get gross, quick. Either use a sprayer with warm water, or get a misting system. your cham getting enough water could lead to a lot of seious problems like death.
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1.0 Ambanja Panther Chameleon - (Seppi) - (12/28/03)
1.0 Ghost Phase Leopard Gecko - (12/15/02)
0.1 High Yellow Leopard Gecko - (06/17/02)
0.1 Blizzard Leopard Gecko - (4/14/04)

Your chameleon may have turned dark because it's body temp lowered. Dark coloration is not just a sign of stress, chameleons will also go dark if they are trying to warm themselves. In regards to your chameleon running from the misting and not drinking right away, did he drink at all even after you stopped? Misting the cage accomplishes two things. first and most important misting will keep your chameleon hydrated. Most people and animals can go longer without food then water. That's not saying food ins't important, food and water are equally important. The second thing misting accomplishes is it keeps the cage humidity up. Humidity helps a few things, but the one thing you will notice humidity does is help the chameleon shed it's skin. Also if you have difficulty believing what you are reading on the internet I can only suggest buying a book and reading. I can tell you from my personal experience that I have bought and read books and I have asked for advise on the internet. While the books are good as a reference the internet has "real time" help from a varity of people. It gives you the opportunity to get several opinions and experiences instead of just one or two from a book or books.

Dennis Scott
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I invested in one of those drip systems and it seems to work very well, but when he did start to drink, he also started to what looked like regurgetate the water and he even made a gurhleing sound along with it. Is this normal? Is he (extremly) dehydrated? If so should i seek a herp vet? I'm a little worried because i like this little guy and i don't want anything to happen to him!

Paul

Is the dripper too fast? If he puts his head up to drink and the rate of water is too much it can cause him to sort of choke - not a good thing. Try slowing it down. Do you have it on constantly so he can use it whenever ha wants? You may want to re-post this message a again rather then in this thread since it is long past and most folks have probably passed it.

lele
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0.1 veiled - Luna
0.2 house geckos - Gaia & Tia (both MIA
0.2 felines - Kyndra and Líta
1.0 African Clawed Frog (for summer)
0.5 Mad. Hissers (for summer - all girls, no little ones, whew!)

lol, I figured out the problem and I did slow down the dripper. He was just to eager to drink so he was downing it way tp past, did you ever try chug water at a fast rate, lol you would do the same thing, but anyway thanks for the replie! Also its been about a week and a half since I purchased him so he must be drinking because he would have never made it this far if he had not.

-Paul