No Drop in Temp at Night - Advice?

AZJ0SH

AZJ0SH

New Member
I live in Arizona, it's a struggle to keep my apartment cooler than 80 degrees during the summer months.

The temp in my apartment does not drop at night, it stays at about 78-80 degrees all night. Can this affect his health?

Also, with the constant A/C running, it's a struggle to keep humidity up in the cage. Can I get away with 3 open sides, top, front, and 1 side? I want to cover the side that gets hit by the A/C vent.
 
As I posted in your other post, to aid in humidity since you already have live plants...

1) You NEED to get it away from the draft because that will cause an RI especially with cold air coming through..
2) Since your climate is MUCH drier than in many parts of the US I recommend a terrarium or at least taking a shower curtain and wrapping it around 3 sides of the enclosure leaving the top, one side, and the bottom of the cage open for ventilation... This will help with humidity levels...

You really do need a temperature drop at night so they may properly digest their food.... It may sound crazy and you really will have to monitor the temps and the location at which your cham sleeps to see if this will work but why not try an ice pack on the top and underneath your enclosure at night... This [may] cool the air inside the cage and [should] conduct cold around the metal mesh of the cage since most are made of aluminum.. Of course since ice packs are so far below what a cham can handle I would suggest if you try this heavily monitor it for the first couple of hours to see what the temps drop to close to where your cham is... Especially the hardier veiled's and panther's can handle drops into the 60's but too is well, too low and I wouldn't want to suggest something that may cause danger so head my cautions...
 
I would get a sump pump, it will cool the room down and help with humidity, along with Sean's suggestion of covering up some sides, you can use plexiglass or PVC and have the sides removable for seasonal changes.
 
Right now I have a cool mist humidifier running in the room as well as I run a window AC unit in the room dropping it to 70 deg at night while the rest of house is 78 deg. I haven't wrapped the sides yet but might at some point.
 
I was having the same problems up here in Ohio, believe it or not. We've been oddly hot this year. The air conditioning helped me get the temperature below 80-something, but it was sucking up the humidity in the cage far too quickly. Just yesterday I followed advice I saw on the forum and bought a $2.98 shower curtain liner at Lowes. It was enough to cover two sides of the cage after I cut it in half. That alone allowed me to keep the humidity around 25% higher than it had been for much longer. I misted three times instead of the usual huge number, and the humidity still managed to get down to average at night. :)

Has the air conditioning been enough to get the temperature more normal for you? If not, I don't have anything to add for that, but other people have given some good ideas. :D If the problem now is just the humidity, I wanted to give you an example of the covering-sides-of-cage trick that worked. I would suggest trying just two sides to see how it works out for you, then cover a third if you need to do so.
 
carol5208 said:
what are your temps during the day then with the lights on?
Click to expand...

During the day the ambient temp is about 78 degrees, his basking area is 82-84.

seanUTD said:
As I posted in your other post, to aid in humidity since you already have live plants...

1) You NEED to get it away from the draft because that will cause an RI especially with cold air coming through..
2) Since your climate is MUCH drier than in many parts of the US I recommend a terrarium or at least taking a shower curtain and wrapping it around 3 sides of the enclosure leaving the top, one side, and the bottom of the cage open for ventilation... This will help with humidity levels...

You really do need a temperature drop at night so they may properly digest their food.... It may sound crazy and you really will have to monitor the temps and the location at which your cham sleeps to see if this will work but why not try an ice pack on the top and underneath your enclosure at night... This [may] cool the air inside the cage and [should] conduct cold around the metal mesh of the cage since most are made of aluminum.. Of course since ice packs are so far below what a cham can handle I would suggest if you try this heavily monitor it for the first couple of hours to see what the temps drop to close to where your cham is... Especially the hardier veiled's and panther's can handle drops into the 60's but too is well, too low and I wouldn't want to suggest something that may cause danger so head my cautions...
Click to expand...

I cannot get his cage completely away from A/C vents, they're all over my apartment. His enclosure right now is about 12ft away from the nearest vent, and it's pointed away from the cage. I cannot physically feel the air from the A/C when standing by his cage.

I have a custom built enclosure, the back and bottoms are not open for veniliation, only the front, sides, and top. I figured this would have helped with the humidity levels but it's not doing much.

I added a humidifier today, which actually cooled his cage down a lot and got the humidity to level out at 50%, up to 80% with mistings.

Thanks for the advice, if I see another drop in humidity I will look into the shower curtain option.
 
Welcome to the world of cham keeping in regions they are not native to! If you can continue to soften the climatic extremes of your home that's really all you can expect.
 
I ended up blocking off one side of his enclosure (the side nearest the A/C vents) with some plexiglass instead of the screen.

With the side blocked off, I get more consistent temps during the day, and it drops about 8 degrees at night now so I think I am all set.

Thanks again for the replies.
 
Evaperative cooling is the best way to cool a room in AZ. I would lookinto a swamp cooler, window unit or in room unit. Window units will work better because they draw in dry air and cool it rather than recirculating air that has could already be saturated. If you can get a mobile AC unit that hooks up to your window with a hose, that works well. I have a 900BTU unit that I use in my bedroom with my free range. it can maintain the temp during the day. if it's 85-95 it can keep the temp inside at 78. At night if i leave the AC on it'll drop down to 73-75 with the outside temp at 78-83.

At my last apt I used to hang misters outside the window and pull the air from outside in.... it worked sorta like a swamp cooler does and really cooled the air as it came into the room... but it sorta got things wet :eek:
 
If it's a Veiled (i.e., the male listed in your sig.) I wouldn't be at all concerned with those sorts of nighttime temps. This species lives in a huge variety of habitats in their native Yemen, including those near sea level where nighttime temperatures may be relatively warm, as you're experiencing. There are also feral populations in South Florida where the nighttime temperature is often in the upper 70's during the warm part of the year. The idea that chameleons require a substantial drop in nighttime ambient temperatures (as opposed to having no option but to tolerate it in the real world) is an unsupported idea at best, and incorrect, dogmatic, nonsense at worst. A nighttime temperature of 78-80 F is not a problem for this species.

I'd be more concerned with the humidity and keeping the animal adequately hydrated, and why its basking area is comparatively so cool. These are definitely heliophilic critters--I'd bump the basking spot (NOT the ambient temp) by at least 10-15 F.

cj
 
Chris Jury said:
If it's a Veiled (i.e., the male listed in your sig.) I wouldn't be at all concerned with those sorts of nighttime temps. This species lives in a huge variety of habitats in their native Yemen, including those near sea level where nighttime temperatures may be relatively warm, as you're experiencing. There are also feral populations in South Florida where the nighttime temperature is often in the upper 70's during the warm part of the year. The idea that chameleons require a substantial drop in nighttime ambient temperatures (as opposed to having no option but to tolerate it in the real world) is an unsupported idea at best, and incorrect, dogmatic, nonsense at worst. A nighttime temperature of 78-80 F is not a problem for this species.

I'd be more concerned with the humidity and keeping the animal adequately hydrated, and why its basking area is comparatively so cool. These are definitely heliophilic critters--I'd bump the basking spot (NOT the ambient temp) by at least 10-15 F.

cj
Click to expand...

I check his poop daily for hydration, it's always bright white which I read means he is hydrated.

For the basking spot, some sites day 90 degrees, some day 95, some say 85. I can't really find a straight answer for a male veiled.

Right now he seems to be doing fine at 84 degrees in basking, 78 ambient. Drops to like 76 overall at night now, so 8 degrees drop at night now.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

PetNcs
OVERHEATING OF THE YEMEN CHAMELEON
Replies
5
Views
205
kinyonga
K
elizaann2
Check out my temps & feedback for humidity support
Replies
13
Views
451
elizaann2
elizaann2
elizaann2
URI or paranoid? (again....)
Replies
10
Views
504
elizaann2
elizaann2
R
New Veiled Chameleon Owner, would like helpful advice on anything I should fix?
Replies
8
Views
538
Beman
Beman
annefirth12
Skin issue help - burn? Fungal infection? Or just bruising?
2
Replies
23
Views
683
annefirth12
annefirth12
Back
Top Bottom