Automatic Mister vs Dripper/Hand Misting?

[Styx]

So, here's my situation, I have Dante, a male panther chameleon. He lives in a 46" tall, 18" deep, 16" wide enclosure with a removable PVC tray at the bottom and a ficus that fills the entire cage. With an auto mister, I would need to hack up my ficus and move it up to install a drainage tray INSIDE the enclosure, I cannot put it on the bottom of the cage and just lift the cage itself as the top of the lights are about three inches from the ceiling. In essence, it would be extremely difficult for me to install a drainage tray, and this is the only location I have to put the enclosure, so I can’t move it.

I really don’t mind hand misting it, it’s doesn’t bother me. I work at night, so when I leave, he goes to bed, and when I get home, I wake him up. So, he’s asleep when I’m gone and I’m home all day when he’s awake. However, he does NOT drink with someone watching. He’s just weird like that. He’ll stop if someone comes in and looks at him. He’s in my bedroom and cannot see me most of the time though, because I have a piece of plastic over the side of his enclosure that’s exposed to the room.

Typing all this I realize it would be easier if I just took a photo…

But anyway, to continue. He gets a shower once a week and a bath once a week to make sure he’d hydrated. He likes showers and baths. A LOT. He takes a nap in his towel after he’s all bundled up after his bath of shower and he gets super colorful.

But I’ve read contradicting things from many different sources. Some say you’ve gotta have a misting system, just you have to, nothing else works. Others say naw; it’s not essential to have a system.

Does he HAVE to have an automated misting system? What would be best for us, in our situation? I don’t mind buying foggers, humidifiers, mini misting systems, etc, I just would need to redo everything AGAIN if I were to go all out on one of those fancy misting systems. And Dante HATE HATE HATES change. Maybe even more than is average.

Ideas, suggestions? I’d just like to hear what everyone has to say, and any suggestions anyone has that would work for us.

 

[LaserGecko]

I'm confused. (Pictures might help.) Why would you have to hack up the tree to install a drainage system? A good automated misting system should mist as finely as your hand mister does now.

Once you get it programmed, it shouldn't create any more water in the cage than you do now. Installing nozzles is a breeze and only takes about a minute each.

 

[Dyesub Dave]

Well I'm nowhere near an expert in this field at all since I only hand mist daily and shower my chams occasionally.

However I recently saw some photos on this forum where somebody had made a plastic bottom for their enclosure and slightly tilted it to one corner where there was a hole that I presume to lead to a drain. So maybe if you could just drill a hole in the back corner of the PVC flooring and slightly tilt the flooring or even the entire cage in that direction then you would have your drainage. Then you could attach some sort of tubing or PVC piping from the hole to a container on the floor near the enclosure and let gravity do the work. This way any excess water either from a misting system or from hand spraying would run off into your resevoir. It is hard to visualize exactly without a picture though.

That's really cool that your cham likes showers and baths because mine certainly don't! I haven't tried a bath yet but maybe I should as my veileds seem to be having a hard time with shedding lately. Do you put him in the tub with a couple inches of water or do you have a plastic container that you use?

Let us know if you find a solution and show some pics as it may give the rest of us some ideas for our enclosures as well.

Dyesub Dave.

 

[Styx]

LaserGecko, lol, I know. I'll take some when I get home. Basically, the ficus fills the enclosure, and the drainage... box/tray/whatever would have to go inside the enclosure, which I would need to lift the ficus and set on top of it. Since the ficus is so large, I would need to cut it back to fit the tray inside the enclosure, since it's so tall and the space vertically is so limited outside the enclosure it’s not possible to put it just under the entire cage.

...It should? For some reason I was under the impression that it would be like... a downpour that would create like buckets of water at the bottom I would need to deal with. (It is now obvious I have never really seen an automated misting system in action.)

Dave, thanks. Oh, he is so cute when I give him a bath. He's got his mouth hanging open 90% of the time when I'm looking at him (gaping/hissing), but he relaxes in the bath so he's not piercing my flesh with his claws as his feet deathgrip my hand. He closes his little eyes and just sits under the water. His bath is more like a sink shower, with him under the faucet and me cupping my hand under his vent so he can absorb more water.

 

[TRI0N]

Like DD mentioned. Drain slope is not very steep any how a 1/2 foot per second based on your enclosure size is pretty much raising one corner of your tray about 3/4 of and inch up. Even 1/2 inch up is about 3/8 of a foot per second drain slope. Which is enough slope by standards to be used as housing drain pipe from your toilet.

Drilling a small hole big enough for water to escape but small enough that live feed can't should do the trick.

LaserGeko has a nice video you can see of one of his misting systems he sells. I'm suprised he didn't even mention it. Check it out: http://herpmist.com/video/HerpMistSystemDemo.wmv

Also if the PVC tray you have is very flexable you might need to add small support under the center of it so that puddles are not present. I'm sure you will get something working. Just keep in mind that it doesn't take much of a slope to make a good drain as long as the surface is nice and slick. You can even treat the tray with Epoxy Resin or 3M Gloss Coating will help improve drain surfaces.

 

[Brad]

Does he HAVE to have an automated misting system?

No, you do not need an automated misting system. If you are going to hand mist, definitely get a $5 pressure sprayer. They are so much better than the manual type.

--added--
What I should have said is an automated misting system is not a requirement for success. If you are going to be around and can spend the time properly misting the chameleon you should be ok. When you can't be around all the time and/or when you have many animals an automated system can be very beneficial.

 

[Styx]

Trion, the only thing I'm worried about with a slope not working is the tray comes right out, so water could just spill right over the sides also, not necessarily draining into the hole.

And that video helped a LOT. I see now the mist is very fine, I was thinking it was more like... well, as I said, a downpour. And ha, angry cham.

Brad, thanks. That's what I was worried about, some sites made it seem like without a mister, you're cham is doomed.

 

[TRI0N]

Best thing to do is set the slope.. Put about 1/4 cup of water in the tray and let it settle at the bottom corner where you what the water to drain out. Reference where the water is once its settles, pull the tray out and drill a hole or even a couple holes before the rim so that water should never get to the edge beyond the drain and go out the drain. With misting and a drip you should not have much of a problem defeating the spill over edge problem if the holes are well place that even if water gets beyond the drain against the edge any build-up should fall back and down the drain so that if anything is spilt would be a mater of drops rather then tablespoons of water.

 

[Jamie]

A,
Like I mentioned before, you might want to invest in a misting system. Dante` has been on one since he was small... he doesn't drink/eat well in front of people. So with hand misting, you may stand there for a while and he still may not drink... (untill you walk away ;-) ) But..... there are always options..... You could do like Brad mentioned and get a pump up sprayer- pump it up, set the nozzle where you want it then walk away.....a few times a day....

I have a x-tra Rainmaker Jr. here if you want to give it a try and see what options you can come up to handle the extra water..... before making a purchase

J

 

[maverick88]

hi
New guy here. Im in the process of building a Chem cage and I found a very easy way to build a misting system. Using a 2gal pump up sprayer, 20.00 timer, and a 3.00 valve. add in some tubing Total cost 40.00. I really dont want to type it all out but if someone wants the info send me a PM. BTW great site.

jason

 

[Styx]

Trion, I think I get what you're saying. That the water should slide into the drain and not over the sides with the slope.

Jamie, that would be a huge help. I'm just kind of at a loss because I bought such a big enclosure! lol I didn't even think about the water when I bought it. He actually drank in front of me just before I left for work tonight, but I think he didn't realize I was still there. I was pleased though, because he looks so freakin cute licking the water off those leaves. But really... everything he does it cute to me. Ha.

And here's the enclosure. Argh, cut off the top. :/ But you get the idea from this and the description. Photobucket wasn't working and I got tired of waiting.

 

[Fate X]

if you got a tray just put a 1/2 inch barbed to 1/2 female thread fitting connect it to a pvc 1/2 pipe fitting drill 4 holes on the sides first,then use a knife to cut a 1/2 hole in your tray.
then get 2 o rings so it dont leak then you can run 1/2 tubing from the tray to where you gotta drain the dirty water into the cellar drain etc.

once you get alot of mist action in the cage the water rolls off the sides of the pvc bottom then with a high cage you get splashes from the dripper also which after awhile gets the floor wet.

i spray mine by hand and with the mist system because while i hand mist them i can check them out for something going wrong.

 

[Styx]

Thanks a lot Fate. I'm getting all kinds of ideas!

 

[bg77]

I hand mist. The only thing I notice is it is still a very hard mist and my cham hates it. Now when I was at the petstore the other day they turned on there misters and it was such a fine mist all the chams did not really know it was misting. So from that point on I was sold. Plus, by using a misting system you can keep more moisture in the cage I would think. And you can do it more with using a timer.

 

[Styx]

Yeah, I am really liking that it looks like such a fine mist.