Basking bulb and heat?

[Blink]

Hi, everyone. It's pretty cold right now where I am and I'm having trouble maintaining a warm enough basking spot and consequently the rest of the cage. My chameleon is a male veiled chameleon between 5 and 6 months. He is in the basking area almost all the time and seems like he needs more heat. Right now, the basking spot is around 85 degrees fahrenheit and the ambient temperature is between 71 and 75 degrees fahrenheit. I think that is a little too cold for his age, what do you think? I was using a 60w incandescent bulb, but that wasn't really warm enough, so I switched to a 75w bulb (incandescent halogen). Should I keep going up in wattage, or would it be too much for him? I have three lights going right now: a UVB (which doesn't give off any heat), the basking bulb (which I just mentioned), and a daylight blue bulb (60w that does give some heat). The general room that the cage is in is about 70 degrees. Any help or opinions would be great! Thanks in advance!

 

[fluxlizard]

It all depends-

If the problem is only occasional and not often, I'd probably just leave things as they are if they have been working fine for 6 months otherwise. Chameleons do experience weather in nature- some days are cool in the veiled's range, some days are hot. An occasional cool day or night in your terrarium will not cause harm as long as it is not more often than that.

As for the rest- if the lizard basks all the time, it is trying to heat up because it's instinct is telling it that it is too cool. So his instinct can be your guide in regards to that.

For providing more heat- just make sure you are providing a gradient and not a hot spot in a cool room. The former is what chameleons know how to deal with. The latter is a recipe for a burn on the lizard.

To provide a gradient you can try a higher watt bulb, perhaps placed further away, or probably safer- add additional bulbs of relatively lower wattage (for example 2 or 3 60 watt bulbs, clustered so they occupy one half or one fourth of the top of the cage).

You can also try wrapping part of the cage in plastic - solid walls slow thermal loss.

 

[Blink]

Thank you for your help. I will try your suggestions.