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.