Yemen Chameleon Night Setup

Hey all... im a newbie to this forum... so Hello to you all

Just wondering on some night setup advice for my Yemen Chameleon.

I've just this weekend upgraded the viv size of my Yemen Chameleon as he's approached 5 months old.

He's now in a mesh Repti-Breeze 4ft(H)x2ft(W)x2ft(D) viv. I have the lighting/heating on the outside on top... 10% UV Tube and 100W Neodymium Daylight spot lamp... as shown below;



So that's his day temps sorted!

At night as it's a mesh viv the temps drop quite easily which triggers the BRIGHT daylight lamp to come on and then have a disco by flick on and off about every 30mins (im using a lucky reptile thermo control pro 2)... im thinking of a secondary night lamp to use which emits no light to use for his night setting. Ive been looking at the 100w exo-terra infa red ceramic heater to use with a Habistat dimmer and setting up timers so that it takes over from the day heating at the correct time... just wondering if anyone is using this setup and if it's good?... or any suggestions for another night setup.

Cheers
Siryamalot

idk what the temps are where you are at but 100W is ALOT! you dont want to cook your little guy. What are your daytime temps with that 100W spot lamp? Its alot easier and safer to use jsut a standard household bulb for heat, or if you want a big bulb like that, me and my monitor friends use the larger flood lights. The spot lamps tend to create one central area of INTENSE heat that will burn reptiles no problem if they dont move out from under it.


also i saw you said your your a 10% UVB which i assume is the same as a 10.0. The generally accepted idea is that 10.0s cause a lot of health and eye problems with chameleons and 5.0s are they way to go.

Agreed, 100 watt is way too much. How old is your cham? The younger ones are more sensitive to heat of course but 100 watt is still too hot for an adult. Also NO light source at night. Heat is fine if the temps get below 60 but they need it dark to sleep. You can get a small ceramic heater if your are concerned about the heat. I would switch out the 10.0 for a 5.0UVB and get a tube instead of a compact bulb if that is what you have. We all have great success with the 5.0 using the same size cage as you.

Im in the UK, just outside of London and so it's pretty cold here..... with the 100W bulb it struggles to keep up to it's set temp of 30c (86F), as like you say he's a Juvi so ive got the heat down for him. I also have about 20cm of gap between the bulb and the nearest basking spot.

Are you saying that 86 degrees is your basking spot or your ambient temp in your cage?

86F is the basking spot heat, the ambient temp in the cage is at different gradients at different spots further down, in total the range from top to bottom is 86F to 77F

i like to give them a night drop, what you might do is get a ceramic heat emitter thats around the 75W mark and have it turn on when your heat bulb turns off and let that keep if in the mid-low 70*s F (sorry i dont know C). I always liked to give mine nighttime drops, regardless of age, but 86* @ night is way to hight, they do need some sort of temp cycle

Unless your house is below 19-15*C you don't really need a nighttime heat source. It's highly beneficial to chameleons to get at least 10* of temperature drop at night if possible. Now with the weather cooling here at night I leave their windows slightly open so they can benefit from what the weather is naturally doing, and they do fine in 12* if it comes to that. If they can warm up during the day (which they can because we have nice warm lamps) then it's benefitial to be a little cooler during the night.

But if you do need some night heat, go for a light-less heat emmitter, and you'll be just fine

heat emitter

I live in the uk and i was just wondering if a 50W ceramic heat emitter is ok to turn on at night (in winter).

I didn't see the nighttime temperature listed above, but unless the temperature is dropping below about 10 C (50 F) or so, I wouldn't worry about nighttime heating. Veiled come pretty extreme environments and can easily handle temps that cool. Also, at 5 months he's not a baby any more, so I wouldn't be worried about him tolerating temps down to at least 10 C or so. If they're dropping lower than 10 C, then I'd get a ceramic heat emitter.

I would position his branches such that he can get a bit closer to the basking bulb. Typically Veiled (along with many other chameleons) choose to maintain body temps in the range of about 29-33 C (~85-91 F). I'd recommend basking temps of at least 30 C, like you have, but I think it's much preferable to allow them to bask at temps in the 32-37 C range. This will allow them to warm up quickly when they want to, just as they would in nature, and go about other activities so that they don't have to spend all their time basking, lest they step away to do something else and can't maintain appropriate body temps. You really want to be sure you're measuring these temps though, to make sure they are in the range you want, and not too high. Having said that, the only times I've ever seen a reptile of any species get so close to basking lights (or sit on heat pads) that they end up with burns is when the ambient temperature is far too low, and the animal gets too close trying to raise its body temp high enough.

And as a side note: lately I have often seen it recommended that basking temps for Veiled chameleons be no higher than the low or mid 80's F (26.5-29 C). It's been a few years since I last bred Veiled chameleons (going on a decade now--sheesh), but this recommendation just doesn't make much sense to me given my experiences with a couple hundred of them (hatchling to adult), and especially considering where these animals come from and their preferred body temps. They can certainly function at these lower body temps, but their physiology seems optimized for closer to 29-33 C, and they actively select those body temps, given the opportunity. They've gotta be able to thermoregulate though. Hotter than they want in a basking area to slightly cooler than they want far from it is the way to go. A range of 32-37 C at the basking spot to 25 C away from it is going to be just about right, and warmer than 10 C at night is just fine.

cj