Reptile & Amphibian Forums

hello again!

I have my chameleon now, and have taken the advice of all and placed a dripper system in the cage among other pieces of advice. But I never see him drink from it. he does like to hang out and get wet, though, so maybe i'm just missing him actually drink.

currently i'm keeping the dripper going at a constant rate, but it's very, very difficult to keep the bottom of the cage dry. i've gotten a loofa sponge to soak up the drips that i place in a shallow bowl, but still, it's a problem. i'm very worried about bacterial contamination if I keep this up.

so...is it necessary to keep the dripper going constantly? should i worry i don't see him drink? i've tried to adjust it so it doesn't flow so quickly, but the valve doesn't work that well. it's either a drip about every 5 seconds or none at all. hardly a finely tuned device! is there a better option? i'm using the "little dripper" by zoo med.

on the positive side, he's eating like a champ and isn't too grumpy at all. in fact, he's pretty mellow so far as i can tell. also, i've got some things to create a wall-less terrarium--good idea?

thanks for whatever help you can give.

if you mist 3 times a day leave the dripper on while you're gon( work school etc.)if it is a veiled they won't even use it much, panther a couple of hours and other speceis have longer times.
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1.2 veiled chameleons(Rocket, Jenevive, and Sally)
soon to get a leo.

Veields dont even need the three mistings, twice at most, unless it's terrbily dry and you have a sick cham.

Wall-less vivariums/terrariums are a bad idea for newer cham owners and I would say a bad idea for anyone except a very experienced keeper, and only then should they be a large planted corner or a small room, for one cham.

Simply, they can fall and hit themselves on furnitures etc, run away, temp and humidity are hard to control, and it can be harder to feed.

No the dripper doesnt need to be on all day, just as veiledchamlvr said, maybe a few hours a day while you're at school, or even just an afternoon (i often fill up beer cups while home for lunch and leave them for an hour or two)

Drippers every day arent necessary AT ALL expecially for veileds. Drippers are a high-intake way of watering, and chams will usually only drink from them at most 5 or 6 times a week (those are the more tropically found species) but veileds on the other hand, two or three times a week at most, do they drink! It's insane!!! Offer the dripper 4 or 5 times a week to allow for a chance to drink. Any other little water "snacks" he can get from misting the leaves.

good luck with your new little friend, hope he turns out a nice one, veileds are often MEAN (like mine! eek!)