Cages and humidity - an experiment?

[chrisw]

Wondering if others struggle with humidity and how you are solving for it. I am trying out a new strategy and was wondering what others thought of this. First off - my house is generally lower than 50% humidity. I keep 5 chams in a big room and all my cages are on a misting system. The misting system helps - along with live plants. But my guess is that I get little bursts of high humidity just after misting that goes away quickly. I could try to use whole room humidifiers but worry about creating mold in my house. Everything you read about chams say that they need "open air" - and the screen cages we buy certainly provide that - but screen cages do not exactly help retain humidity. You would almost have to have a whole room that you could keep at high humidity which is difficult for most. In order to create a sight barrier between my cages, I started cutting "panels" of black plastic sheeting and attaching them to the sides of my cages. I then read a post on this forum by Chris Anderson that mentioned using glass enclosures or partial glass enclosures for chams in order to maintain humidity. After reading that post, I decided to use the same plastic sheeting on three sides of my cages. I still leave the front and top as all screen to allow cool air to flow thru the front and hotter air to escape out the top. I also trim off the lower 1/4 of all of the plastic panels to leave a "vent" around all of the sides so that cooler air can stream in down low - in theory. Basically, I have cut down on the actual screen surface area of my screen cages. Does this sound crazy? Am I going to kill all my chams? Hopefully, I'm creating an environment where I can raise and retain humidity on a cage by cage basis. I don't have an accurate way to measure changing humidity levels(min/max) over the course of a day - if anyone out there knows of a good, reasonably inexpensive humidity gauge - please let me know. Would be great to be able to measure humidity levels hour by hour over the course of a day.

 

[NC Chams]

Hey Chris,
I'm doing the same thing but I haven't trimmed the lower 1/4 because I'm trying to not have water get everywhere during misting time. As far as the humidity gauge, I have the accurite temp/humidity gauge purchased from Walmart for $12. Works great and has a high/Low function, though it will not record your temp or humidity on an hourly basis.
Michael

 

[RPCV]

Sounds like an interesting project. Your plan sounds fine. Decreasing the air exchange rate between the enclosure and the room is one way to help retain moisture vapor and keep humidity levels from dropping off too quickly. But, as you mentioned, this also means a decrease in ventilation so there is a balance and care needs to be taken not to over do it.

To really keep and maintain levels a whole house humidifier is the way to go but in my experience the risks of using these (condensation - mold growth, bacteria growth in the humidifier/ducts,etc.) out weigh the benefits.

Also, keep in mind that moisture vapor always moves from warm to cold. Considering your basking spot is a higher temp than the surrounding room - moisture will naturally try to migrate from the enclosure so all you can do is decrease the rate of the movement. Also - relative humidity is relative to temperature. Taking measurements in a hotter area (basking) will provide lower readings than measurements taken in cooler areas of the enclosure.

The most affordable data logger that I'm familiar with are the HOBO models (google HOBO U10-003) . It will run you about $85 for a basic model. They work really well and will record levels every minute if you want. The catch is there is no visible display so you'll need to plug it into a computer then it will spit a graph at ya. Keep us informed - I'd be curious to see the data if you decide to collect it.

 

[chrisw]

Thanks for the input folks. "NC"...makes sense to use plastic to keep the misting system from getting your whole house wet. Another good reason to try it. Hopefully it works for humidity as well. "RPCV" -very informative update. That's why I love this forum. Wish I could spend more time on it than I do...3 days on...6 months off...3 days on...

 

[Seeco]

"3 days on 6 months off ..." what's the deal?

How is your drainage system? Please describe it in terms of how it catches water and how much it can hold.

 

[chrisw]

3 months on....6 months off...sorry, i get busy! My drainage system is a bit sketchy - all water drains thru the bottom of the plant and a few small screen holes. Drainage bin can hold about a quart of water. I mist 4 times a day for 1 minute each time. I have since read posts from montane keepers who mist 5-10 minutes at a time! Ouch! If that is what my guy needs he must think he is in the desert right now. Any guidelines would help. Interesting thing is that misting freq really has another variable...cage size. Misting 1 minute in a 2'x2'x4' is a lot different than 1 minute in a 15"x15"20". Right now he is in a small enclosure so 5 minutes seems like it would drown him.

 

[Seeco]

Yeah, work on more drainage and longer misting. They can survive on what you are doing (they are reptiles after all) but if a health problem comes up then you might see that it is not enough water. Make sure your crix are eating moist fruit and veg too. I got you message about the sales. Yeah, it is slow, I don't know why.