Canadian winters

[ColombianUnit]

living in canada we get a lot of great things like free health care, and the avro aero going super sonic first but a problem we all face is the winter months 7 months of cold climate.

so my question is how you all you keep the climate stable for the cham in places like canada I'm taking my cham to the vet tomorrow and the more i know from all of you the more responsible i can be taking care of her

 

[kfactor]

i keep my guy in the basement it seems to hold a better temp but i find with the heater in are house now running all the time its harder to keep the humidity up so i uped my misting but am thinking of getting a humidifier for the winter months i live in sask and it gets pretty cold here i have had my guy for only 4 or 5 months now so i dont no a hole lot yet

 

[tdotcham]

I'm just about to wrap the sides of my cage with either garbage bags or clear plastic. The backs of mine are closed as I built them myself. Yes it's not as humid as usual, but there's not much you can do if they're in a large room in terms of a humidifier.

From last year, my guy did just fine through the winter.

 

[ColombianUnit]

my lulu i got her at 10 months old she has only been with me the last month for the first three days in my care did not eat after that she started eating popping its been a great month but all week she has been acting differently not eating nothing sleeping all day then she stating opening her mouth and yesterday it was like she was throwing something up https://www.chameleonforums.com/strange-actions-70898/ thats the other thred on what happened yesterday so after talking to people they said what i have might not be enough so i went out and bought another light and booked a vet visit

 

[ColombianUnit]

I'm just about to wrap the sides of my cage with either garbage bags or clear plastic. The backs of mine are closed as I built them myself. Yes it's not as humid as usual, but there's not much you can do if they're in a large room in terms of a humidifier.

From last year, my guy did just fine through the winter.

i got pice of card bored and put glue all over it nice and even then i grabbed the foil and put it down all even seemed to reflect and keep the temp up threw the night

 

[kwmc]

Hi ColombianUnit, would you mind to let me know where is the vet in Toronto? Thanks in advance.

I am thinking of getting a humidifier for Winter because humidity at my home was below 28% today!!!

 

[ColombianUnit]

I have a friend who works at Reptilia when i go in to buy food i ask a lot of questions act…i walked in today after telling him what happened gave me the name of a good vet kings dale animal hospital king city i couldn't get a appointment with them so they recommended one by Young and 401 (41 Thelinks RD M2P1T7)

 

[Zen Reptiles]

I am in the process of building cages with glass fronts and a Great Stuff background...bottom, top, and sides will be screen (or permeable by air at least). The two solid sides will help keep temps and humidity a little more stable. I can literally feel the cold air sucking the moisture from my skin when I walk outside lol.

So for the majority of the time they will be in these cages, however in the summer months I have all screen cages that are used for outdoor caging in July/August and most of September.

In the past, a good quality space heater and humidifier have helped me a lot.

 

[kwmc]

Thank you very much ColombianUnit.

 

[sandrachameleon]

living in canada we get a lot of great things like free health care, and the avro aero going super sonic first but a problem we all face is the winter months 7 months of cold climate.

so my question is how you all you keep the climate stable for the cham in places like canada I'm taking my cham to the vet tomorrow and the more i know from all of you the more responsible i can be taking care of her

I dont use a screen cage
and I heat the room to ensure it doesnt dip below minimums

 

[Hoj]

i keep my house anound 75 degrees and up the wattage in the basking bulbs and more frequent misting schedual on the mistking.
they may experience a drop of a few degrees but i feel that is natural for seasonal shifts.
i acctaully worry more about the 100 degree days in summer than i do winter, especially witht the montanes

 

[ColombianUnit]

Thank you very much ColombianUnit.

your very welcome I'm new at this I'm not very experienced but if we can all share out experiences and problems we can better deal with them I'm canadian and i know winters here can be pretty rough

(If anyone is looking for a monsoon i found a cheap one on amazon around 60$ good deal)

(im misting every day but my humidity levels keep dropping and winter is fast approaching

 

[ColombianUnit]

i forgot to ask you all something what should be the water temperature in the monsoon tank for i be adding more hot water to keep it luke warm not too too hot

 

[ColombianUnit]

i keep my house anound 75 degrees and up the wattage in the basking bulbs and more frequent misting schedual on the mistking.
they may experience a drop of a few degrees but i feel that is natural for seasonal shifts.
i acctaully worry more about the 100 degree days in summer than i do winter, especially witht the montanes

i feel concern about the same thing i talk to the chameleon expert over their and he told me that just keeping the fluorescent lights on i could get away with and my room window facing west just at that sweet spot between 2 and 5 pm my room would get very hot so i would put on black sheets over the window

(and i have another question i have a big screen tv in my room as well as my chameleon is having a big tv like that bad for the chameleon in anyway please hurry with this response if i do need to move the cage

 

[kwmc]

I read from other trend that TV shouldn't be a problem to Cham.


Hi Hoj,

Would you mind to share your misting schedule in Winter? I used to mist 4 times a day by mistking and 4 minutes each interval but humidity was still well below 50%. Thanks in advance.

 

[Hoj]

hey, i dont find the tv bothers my chams much. i have one that it will wake up so i just cover his cage with a blanket. just watch your cham to see if he is being woken up.

@ kwmc
my schedual is every 1.5hrs for 1min with 2min at lunch. i have alot of live plants and use a natural carpet in the bottom of my cages to help with humidity, so far i havent had a problem yet this year, it will get alot worse humidity wise before winter is over.
what are you useing to measure your humidity digital/analog?? it should spike waay up after misting and slowly come back down.

 

[ColombianUnit]

there is a benefit for us to share information (kwmc) i read on another tred your cham died sorry to hear that and hon what is natural carpet ? right now i have these about 4' wide rocks really easy to clean up she poops pick it up wash it off. I'm misting every 2 hrs for 1.45m I'm having a hard time with humidity levels too thinking about getting a humidifier for the winter (last week has been a bad week seen very little moment for a whole week very strange thinking it was getting to cold out side she looked like she was going to throw up its in a early tred but long story short got a 100w backlight basking light to help with night temp her colours were all dark like really dark tail turning dark i thought she night had to lay her eggs she has signs on that but thats still a few weeks away after moderating the temperature with the new night she has shown a lot of improvement she has been on the move all day but still not eating but she did eat a nice fat max gut load horn worm so she is hydrated but as soon as funds come in need to take her to the vet
buying a new light improves life but dose not replace a vet visit

 

[kwmc]

@ Hoj. Thanks for sharing your experience. I had difficult to maintain humidity in cage above 40% before. I now covered almost 3 sides of my cage with corrugated plastic (bought from Home Depot) and will see how it goes this time.

I feel so bad to my cham since he was my first exotic pet. I only had him for 5 days...
I believe he died because of dehydration (low humidity on cage most of the time even with mister) and also low night temp. I already bought an ceramic heat emitter just in case.

I have set up my misting schedule this time as follow:
8:15 - 10 mins
11:30 - 10 mins
14:00 - 10 mins
17:00 - 10 mins
Will give it a test next week and I will report later.

I will get my next cham in the mid of DEC and would like to make sure both temp & humidity are okay before I take him home this time.

 

[ColombianUnit]

she is ok just got back from the vet they said she looks good but after showing him the video he said i was right to bring her in its the humidity levels in side the house gave me some medication and found out that chameleons can be baby multivitamin with D3 once a week but i needs to be diluted so wont harm her i do not recommend this unless u have seen a vet i went to going to the pharmacy to ask for help on how to do the math once i find out i will be putting a link on youtube recommend that the liquid be injected into the feeder insect as to not stress out the reptile

 

[kwmc]

It's good to know yours is doing fine.