Basking Light / Branch

Ideally how far away should the basking branch be from the light. Don't want the little guy getting too hot and don't want him not being able to get hot enough! Just wondering whether to move the light or not.

the typical rule is 6 to 8 inches I belive....I think it also depends on the watts of your bulb

I have my basking branch 6 inches from the top of my cage. Just make sure that your cham has enough room to climb on it with out rubbing its back on the top.

It's a 50watt bulb and it's about 4 inches from the top. Maybe we should lower the branch then? It's only been like this about 10 mins we've just re-arranged the tank

yea I would def move it down. veiled are very known for getting casque( cool crown thing around the head) burns

joeandsoph said:

It's a 50watt bulb and it's about 4 inches from the top. Maybe we should lower the branch then? It's only been like this about 10 mins we've just re-arranged the tank

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If you have a thermometer then use it to measure the temps at your basking branch. Everytime I rearrange my cage I measure the temps to make sure its not too hot.

Thanks!!! =D Will move down slightly then. Other than that I think the temperature is pretty good in there

Yeah as said, you should really have a digital thermometer on it so you can tell how hot it is! Saves all the hassle and you can be 100% sure then!

joeandsoph said:

Ideally how far away should the basking branch be from the light. Don't want the little guy getting too hot and don't want him not being able to get hot enough! Just wondering whether to move the light or not.

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Howdy,

It's not so much how far away as it is how hot it is at the basking location . A quick method to insure that he isn't going to get cooked is just stick your hand right where he will be basking. If your hand doesn't feel very warm after a minute of exposure then he probably won't be getting burned. A low cost infrared temp gun is very handy for actually checking your chameleon's skin temp when measured from about an inch away. My adults usually run around 90F while basking in their indoors enclosures and up to a skin temp of 100F outdoors. They can get up to 100F skin temp outdoors even with air temps of only around 70-80F.

Your Veiled is very young so you probably don't want him to have much over a skin temp in the mid to upper 80's F. Too cool and their digestive processes are not optimum and too hot either ends with dehydration or even thermal burns. Bottom line - don't rely on just one way to check temps .