Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hello all, my girlfriend just picked up a male Oustalets Chameleon and it refuses to drink. If we get out a spray bottle it just runs away as fast as it can to the opposite side of the cage. We're putting a little bit of standing water in the cage now but I really doubt that's going to do anything. Any advice?

Make sure there is a lot of green foliage in the cage and mist the foliage with warm/hot water instead of the cham. It isn't natural for a cham to get squirted directly with cold water and they learn to run from it. Once the cham hides in the leaves, mist gently for a longer time rather than drench everything. It may start licking the leaves after you leave. If your cage humidity stays up the cham may not even drink every day and be fine.

Thanks for the answer, i'll try his and see how it goes. I think it might be that he was just a bit stressed since we just obtained him a few days ago. This morning he didn't drink, but he didn't run away either, so he seems to be calming down a bit about it.

Is the chameleon a hatchling or full grown? If its an adult you can/should run a dripper. It can be as simple as a deli cup with a tiny hole in the bottom so that it drips at the rate of a couple of drips a second. I would still mist the cage too. (I don't trust a dripper with a very young one since some chameleons have been known to aspirate water and can even die from it.

Thanks for the suggestion. We set up a dripper earlier today, and are planning on misting the cage once a day. Still haven't seen him take interest in any water offered, but he appears healthy and is acting fine.

Keep track of the room humidity. If the cage humidity drops quickly after misting your cham can dehydrate just from respiration and you may need to mist more often (especially if you are either air conditioning in summer or using the furnace in winter). They lose quite a bit of body moisture in dry air. If the cage/room is humid the cham will tend to drink less.

i just got one too who is the same way. i seen him drink once when i got him. i read that oustalets perfer drier conditions and are more of a desert cham. never the less i keep a water dish in his cage, he goes in it, i dont know if hes drinking but no doubt he would if he was thirsty. hes a chameleon not an idiot. i also gave up on the misting cause he obviously hates it. Oustalets are kinda new to the pet trade and alot of the care info is based off panthers which are similar. but oustalets are not panthers, they are different. it appears they perfer drier conditions, they are gregarious or social, also they are the only known species to eat fruit, prob cause they live in the desert and eat it for moisture.
anyways. ive had mine for three months now. gave up misting in the first week and my little devil is growing rapidly and healthy as heck. he also bites the crap outta me.
hope this helps
Jason

Be careful when describing any cham species as a "desert" species. Oustalet's are from the drier regions of Madagascar yes, but that doesn't mean they don't need humidity. The areas they are from may be hot, but can be very humid in the specific habitats the chams use such as brush choked river valleys. Veileds are the same way. They may be from Yemen, but they are not really a desert animal. In a captive setup without morning fog or dew, frequent short rain showers in late afternoon, they can still get dehydrated. One reason I use ultrasonic humidifiers on my cham cages is that it provides the humidity without drenching the cham all the time. I mist them for drinking of course, but rely on the humidifier to help keep the air moister. Most of our houses are much drier (because of heating or AC) than the cham's natural habitat.

definitely keep a dripper in the cage, but keep the drip rate slow, but not so slow that you cant tell that the water is moving, sometimes the anticipation of a slow drip rate, (say maybe once every 10-15 sec ), will get them to drink when a faster rate wont ,you want to mist any way because you need him to get used to it, but try not to freak him out with it any more than neccessary, question; do you heat your misting water, misting water needs to be heated and to be monitered (at least until you get your program down)this means cold water brought up to temp not warm water from the faucet,when you atomize water the temp drops considerably, if he is basking,lets say 84 , and you manualy spay him with an unheated spray bottle then you are starting at say 74* water then when you spray it, your 74* water almost instantly drops at least 6 or 7 degrees depending on several variables,add another degree or two for evaporative cooling and your got an almost twenty degree drop in temp for a cold blooded animal whose temp is controled primarliy by eviromental sources thats a pretty substantial drop in temp, it would be the equivalent of some body chasing you with a spray bottle of ice water,about a 95* is a good temp it doesnt make much different beyond that (up to a point),for now try not to spray him directly , but manualy spray his cage every part that he is not in, so he doesnt feel chased by the spray bottle,then as soon as he moves , spray those areas,try and keep most of his cage moist until you get it handled ,even if he wont drink it slows down his dehydration, another thing you can try is the head down trick , jacksons can are notorious non drinkers if they are feeling the slightest bit under the weather, sometimes they may stare at dripping water for hrs and decide not to drink , the way that usualy gets you past this is something i call the head down trick, but first you have got to get him over his aversion to spraying by spraying discretely and regularly with heated water,if you can get him to a point where you can spray him semi directly without freaking out, you are half way there, then the idea is to manually mist him from above keeping a close eye on his behavior, try and slowly COAX him into travelling downward,in the firs second or two of his travelling down ward try and load him up with water but you dont want to freak him out, as soon as you have enough water on him to drip of his chin (while in a facing downward position) then stop , step back so he doesnt get nervous or antsy, the idea is to get him to stay for a few moments in that downward position, if he needs more water to get it dripping off of his chin you can do a long distance single spritz, when water drips off of his chin (while in a downward position and not freaked out by other things)there is a good chance he will drink , its like chinese water torture, the sensation of the water dripping off of thheir chin usualy sooner or later cases them to drink even if they are not thirsty, its like if you have water dripping down your face, sooner or later you are going to try and wipe it off, also if he is still eating, you can water load his feeders with a syringe and very fine needle , you could even inject an appetite stimulant or reptaid ,of course if it reaches emergency status you can always do the emergency fall back , just grab him in a way that pisses him off to the point of gaping and have a dental syringe (the type with the curved plastic tip ) and as soon as he gapes at you, just squirt some into the back of his mouth (not the front thats where his treachea is)and of course the last method is recomended only as a last resort i know hes not a jackson, but jacksons can be stubborn, i feel strongly if it will work for a jackson's ,it will work for a mellors

sorry, i meant oustelets, make it warm water, and he will come around