The Herp/Reptile Thread

[WarmAndSCSI]

Originally Posted by Jeffblue

Warm, how difficult is it to regulate the temp/humidity of the cage/aparatus. obviously, if i'm in my own house i can control the temp and humidity easily, but once i move out of my parents place, i'll likely be in an appartment and that makes things a little more difficult. is it easy to regulate the conditions in the cage if you have the right setup, or is it going to be really hard in an appartment situation in which it can get a bit cooler/warmer/dryer than you may want.

It's relatively difficult for a chameleon since they are arboreal creatures and need 360 degree airflow through their cage - i.e. they need a complete screen cage. I have a small fountain right now which helps introduce humidity - but you must make sure to keep it clean because a clever chameleon will learn to drink from it. A constant water drip introduces a bit more humidity if you allow it to drop near your light/heat source. Manual misting (I try to do this 3x daily) does the rest. But since our heater is kicking on now (it freaking snowed all night ha!) I have a humidifier on right next to his cage (but not blowing through his cage) that comes on and goes off with his lights so he has extra humidity during the day. When it gets real cold, I'll be leaving it on 24x7.

I'm able to maintain his cage humidity to about 60-65% doing all of this. Without any measures, it would be about 25% which is dangerous to a chameleon.

[Jeffblue]

Originally Posted by WarmAndSCSI

It's relatively difficult for a chameleon since they are arboreal creatures and need 360 degree airflow through their cage - i.e. they need a complete screen cage. I have a small fountain right now which helps introduce humidity - but you must make sure to keep it clean because a clever chameleon will learn to drink from it. A constant water drip introduces a bit more humidity if you allow it to drop near your light/heat source. Manual misting (I try to do this 3x daily) does the rest. But since our heater is kicking on now (it freaking snowed all night ha!) I have a humidifier on right next to his cage (but not blowing through his cage) that comes on and goes off with his lights so he has extra humidity during the day. When it gets real cold, I'll be leaving it on 24x7.

I'm able to maintain his cage humidity to about 60-65% doing all of this. Without any measures, it would be about 25% which is dangerous to a chameleon.

so seasonal changes, requiring heat and AC to be used a lot make it more dificult to manage the conditions in the cage?

[WarmAndSCSI]

Originally Posted by Jeffblue

so seasonal changes, requiring heat and AC to be used a lot make it more dificult to manage the conditions in the cage?

Yes, heating and refrigeration-type AC reduce the humidity in the air that travels through the system. We use swamp coolers in Utah for the most part due to the low humidity, so I don't have to do much during the summer since it's like 80% in the house anyway.

[tomnavone]

Getting ready to hibernate my tortoises. They go into the garage fridge (4 males and 5 females) for three months. During this time the temperature is at 40 defrees f and they do not eat,drink or really move. The picture is the individual boxes that they will be in for the next three months.

[tomnavone]

Picture 1. Ten different babies from the three i showed before hatched this year
Picture 2&3 My females Testudo hermanni hercegovinensis (smaller sub species of Testudo Hermanni Boettgeri)
Picture 4 My females Testudo Hermanni Boettgeri (The female on the left was wild caught and if u look closely u can see fire damage on the top of her shell. Basically she didnt dig down deep enough during a wild fire.)