New Cham and questions - Page 2

gfisher2002 · 01-25-04, 11:56 AM

TheGino, about the not drinking when your there, I meant while misting. I know some veils we get at work are so shy when your around the won't drink when I'm standing there no matter how long you spray for. But if I leave, when I peek around the corner he'll be drinking off the leaves. I just meant it as apossibility that the cham might be too stressed to drink in his presence.

tHeGiNo · 01-25-04, 12:05 PM

Gfisher2002,

Yep, thats exactly what I mean!

From my experience, I am suggesting that they do not drink while we mist simply because that is not their way of drinking! Some will, right off the bat, drink as you spray. I am not saying it never happens, but I think it is more of a preference thing.

meow_mix450 · 01-25-04, 01:22 PM

ya i find that crikets need a lot of water all the time, and not t much or they die, but i dont think it fish food....but that could also be the cause

Meow

tHeGiNo · 01-25-04, 01:42 PM

Anything could have been wrong with the crickets, it could have been a bad batch, sprayed with pesticides, etc etc. I wouldn't blame the fish food, LOL.

What I do, to give them water, is give them potatoes cut into quarters. Along with my gutload, I rarely lose over 20 crickets with every thousand I buy (I get two thousand at a time, and separate them into two bins).

choriona · 01-25-04, 02:01 PM

you can also give crickets water by having a bowl of water full of cotten balls. Then they walk on the moiste cotton and drink from it without being in deep water to drown in. This is an easy method if you are keeping no more than 50 crix. It will get stinky, so you have to wash the bowl every time you get new crickets.

For my chams, each one has a running water fountain. That way, the morning and afternoon misting allows for a humidity increase, but if they are thirsty they can drink from the fountain. It has worked for me for over 4 years. I have only once or twice seen them drink from their fountain, but they are NEVER dehydrated!

If your little guy is still young, and he sounds small, he will be fine with regular mistings for now. I don't know the size of your water bottle, but approximately 3-6 cups of water is sufficient. Spray that in each time, at least twice a day, if not more. Check your hygrometer to see that you are maintaining a proper humidity level. I would try to keep it around 60% for the times that you are not spraying - so that will tell you how often you should spray. If you are doing that, it wont matter if you never see him drink.

vipervenom · 01-25-04, 02:02 PM

Infection comes in when the chameleons oungue hits the cup and can get harmful bacteria and other germs on his toungue. I am sorry about the post of Veields should drink water inf ront of you. I don't know what I was thinking. I have just talked to many people and they are suprised to ehar that my cham never drinks in front of me. I assumed and I was wrong. But I have been warned about cup feeding in clear plastic because of toungue infection and yes phycical damage like not veing able to retract the toungue. And now that I think about, I have heard of people's chams getting an infectionf rom hitting the cup too hard. I guess just my opinion on that but I wouldn't use a clear container. A solid one will work fine if it is below the cham.

vipervenom · 01-25-04, 02:08 PM

Also, with the crickets, I have tried many batches with fish food and they all died. As soon as I stopped feeding them tyhat they were fine. It could have just been the kind of fish food. Aslo witht he cotton ball idea, justw atch out they don't have any chemicals on them liek alcohol. I have also heard sponges work very well for cricket drinking. But I stand by what I said with a waterfall. I am against them. They are bacteria breeding grounds. And unless cleaned every other day at least, then I wouldn't have it. Spray as much until the humidity is 50-90% or if it is there spray for your cham to drink. Sorry if I offended any one.

vipervenom · 01-25-04, 02:10 PM

Sorry again. Spraying your cham directly sometimes stresses the cham out. Try not directly hitting him. Also, if you fill up the bottle with hot water, by the time you spray the mist and it gets to the cham, the mist has cooled down to at least lukewarm and is much more appreciated by your cham.

meow_mix450 · 01-25-04, 02:16 PM

hehe i use cotton balls for them to drink of off as well it works great

Meow

tHeGiNo · 01-25-04, 02:43 PM

No one was offended, it just bothers me when false or regurged info is given.

Quote:

Spraying your cham directly sometimes stresses the cham out.

Exactly like that, LOL! May you provide what proof you have that spraying them directly stresses them out? Sure, if your spraying full blast with a super soaker. Or if you do not put the water bottle to the misting position. Other then that, I hightly doubt it stresses them out. I don't think, in the wild, Veiled chameleons have the ability to control where the rain does or does not drop, afterall.

I do agree with you, partially, in regards to the waterfall. I used to use them with mine, but because I feed free roaming insects, it definitely was removed as an option. The crickets would constantly drown, get sucked up the water pump, etc etc. Needless to say, THIS was a breeding ground for bacteria.

However, if kept cleaned and changed daily (or regularly), and cleaned immediately if decated upon, I see no problem with using them.

tHeGiNo · 01-25-04, 02:50 PM

Quote:

Infection comes in when the chameleons oungue hits the cup and can get harmful bacteria and other germs on his toungue.

If thats the case, then we should house chameleons in an invisible enclosure with floating bugs, so that it cannot hit anything with his tounge except the floating bugs. Also, again if this was the case, whats the difference if he hits the inside of the cup?

The only problem I see with using a clear cup is that the chameleon will REPEATEDLY try to catch bugs through the cup. Also, 'physical damage like not being able to retract the tounge' is called hyperextension of the tounge, and I doubt hitting a cup is the cause of it.

gfisher2002 · 01-25-04, 03:20 PM

ViperVenom, if you look real close to the bottom left corner of you posts, there's a button that says Edit. If you click it, you can add, delete or change your post. I just noticed that often you make like 3 or 4 posts within minutes of eachother to say something. You can just keep adding it to your original post. Just a thought.

I mean no offence, just keeps the threads easier to read with less individual posts.

vipervenom · 01-25-04, 05:14 PM

Sorry about this post, it accidentally posted twice and it won't let me delete this one.

vipervenom · 01-25-04, 05:15 PM

Oh, thanks! I didn't even think of that! I'll do that for now on gfisher2002. And, okay, I see your point TheGino on if it could catch bacteria fromt he cup then it could catch it anywhere. But, I don't understand why you think that hitting a cup too many times couldn't cause hyperextension problems? Many things can happen if he hit it many many times. My cham used to hit the clear cup I had for him a long while back and some times it took him a little longer to retract his toungue. Maybe if hit enough the cham couldn't retract at all! All in all, stay away from clear containers unless you want to risque a problem. My opinion...

dank7oo · 01-25-04, 05:56 PM

VV,

Hitting the cup too many times isn't the issue (correct me if I am wrong) but it is the tongue sticking to the cup, and when being pulled in stressed the muscles as it is being pulled back into the mouth. That's personally why I have stopped cup feeding all together; stresses the tongue and lazy tongue.

Jason