Cham outside on patio in San Diego, California...will this work??

[EmanSami]

I read a previous thread about people keeping their chams outside in Southern California, but I was a bit skeptical. I can see the beach from my house, a 20 minute drive...so there is some humidity. Overall, how do you maintain humidity and heat? Do I get a misting machine? How about in the Winter time when it gets cold? Do I need a heat lamp. I have so many questions, but first of all, I would like to know if this is a possibility to keep my cham outside without it getting sick. I am thinking of getting a veiled cham, ambanja or jackson's.

it seems obvious that I would need a heat lamp but I want to confirm everything. This is my first post, and please excuse my ignorance. I will do proper research on this forum until I am ready to DECIDE if I am ready to make the dedication and have the right space for the chameleon.

Another concern is keeping it in my cramped room which already gets humid enough. I figure with a mister going on all the time my room would get really steamy. Where does all the water drain to? I should limit my questions for one post, but any information would be useful.

 

[summoner12]

I would choose the veiled. But if the temps get down into the 50's at night your gonna need to find a way to keep heat in the cage. ReptileUV sells a nice heat emitter that would work well for keeping the cage warm at night. You don't want a heat lamp on at night, you want darkness so the cham will sleep. If you were to build some panels that could go on the sides and back of the cage at night when it's cold and then you operate the heater at night you could prolly get by. But night temps in the 50's regularly could get the cham's immune system down if he/she can't get up to 'operating' temp in the day time.

 

[Lancecham]

Temperatures along the pacific coast can very greatly. The temperatures at my home are an average 8 degrees warmer than at my work which is closer to the beach. And my work is only 12 miles from my house. So it would depend on your temperatures to what would be the best cham for outside. It would also depend on how many months of the year you wanted to keep a cham outside.
Right now, my chams have been outside 24/7 for a few months now.
In my location, my ambilobes come inside much earlier in the year than the jacksons and veileds. Also, the ambilobes are put outside much later in the spring than the veileds and Jacksons.
Our winter was pretty mild and I was able to keep the jacksons and veileds outside 24/7 for the whole winter. The cage placement for the veileds and especially the jacksons are very important. In the warmer months, jacksons are kept in the cooler/shadier parts of the backyard. In the winter, jacksons and veileds are placed where they get first sun in the early morning, allowing them to warm up quickly.

 

[EmanSami]

Thanks for your responses. So why the veiled? Also, if I chose to keep the cham indoors, is there a misting solution I can use that is self-contained, meaning it won't drip near my bed and shelf? The problem with keeping her outside is that I have to run an extension chord to the heater/mister and this might be a problem.

 

[summoner12]

I would keep the cham inside. That way the night time temps don't drop too much.

Veileds are more 'robust'. They can tolerate large temp swings and are pretty tough to 'beginner' mistakes.