Chameleon heating/ lighting
- Thread starter pwims21
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dshuld
Chameleon Enthusiast
That is what I use. When I got Blue that was the recommendation of @Matt Vanilla Gorilla. Only difference is Matt uses a different temp controller for his then I do. I use an inkbird and I think Matt uses a zoo med (?).
edit: I run multi-tube t5ho though so I have more then 1 uvb bulb plus some 6500k bulbs for the plants.
edit: I run multi-tube t5ho though so I have more then 1 uvb bulb plus some 6500k bulbs for the plants.
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Matt Vanilla Gorilla
Chameleon Enthusiast
Ceramic infrared heat emitters are quite amazing, especially if things cool down too much in the room that you keep your chameleon in at night. The heat emitter puts out no light so keeps the chameleon sleeping and cozy. A natural drop in temperature at night is a good idea as long as you do not go too low. (Each species can handle different levels of low temperatures).
pwims21
New Member
So can I drop the
so should i drop my heat bulb light altogether and just stick with the UVB as lighting while relying on the heat emitter for heat?
I would still use the regular light during the daytime. Your chameleon will look for the light source when heat is needed.
dshuld
Chameleon Enthusiast
What species of cham do you have? Yes, basically Matt agrees with your vet. Use the ceramic heat emitter instead of a regular bulb. The only thing you need to make sure of if you get the ceramic emitter is to get the temp controller.
Many here run a regular bulb though so I don't think anyone will say "omg that's a horrible thing to do" because it is an acceptable and well used variation of husbandry.
What I started to originally say in my edit is on my babies cages I have a quad t5ho that creates a perfect basking area temp wise for them with the temps I keep my house (typically 70) so I only have to worry about my night temps on their cage 99% of the time. On Blue's cage I have 6 t5ho and they keep his enclosure around 83 in his upper area so my emitter kicks on for a few minutes every 20 or 30 min to pull him back to temp most of the time. The bottom of his enclosure is where he typically tucks in and is usually around 68, my typical sleep temp.
Many here run a regular bulb though so I don't think anyone will say "omg that's a horrible thing to do" because it is an acceptable and well used variation of husbandry.
What I started to originally say in my edit is on my babies cages I have a quad t5ho that creates a perfect basking area temp wise for them with the temps I keep my house (typically 70) so I only have to worry about my night temps on their cage 99% of the time. On Blue's cage I have 6 t5ho and they keep his enclosure around 83 in his upper area so my emitter kicks on for a few minutes every 20 or 30 min to pull him back to temp most of the time. The bottom of his enclosure is where he typically tucks in and is usually around 68, my typical sleep temp.
Matt Vanilla Gorilla
Chameleon Enthusiast
Sorry that I did not answer. Was busy, but, you got better answers than I would have given from the other people! Thanks guys!
dshuld
Chameleon Enthusiast
I think to say they won't find the heat from the emitter would be a mistake though. I feel Blue is one smart little guy but if someone thinks they won't find the heat from the emitter then he's a genius in the world of chams lol.
I have to have my dome angled due to space limitations. Not a huge deal as can be seen here back center, kind of. Those 6 t5ho give a bad white blur unfortunately.
I've did rotate the angle more towards the left front/ center because I had gotten a burnt leaf. But, he has had no problem finding where I have pointed the emitter on any of the 4 repositions I did looking for the spot I have now.
But again, I think either way is fine as I mentioned. It is nice knowing I'm prepared for a night time temp emergency though should one ever arise.
I have to have my dome angled due to space limitations. Not a huge deal as can be seen here back center, kind of. Those 6 t5ho give a bad white blur unfortunately.
I've did rotate the angle more towards the left front/ center because I had gotten a burnt leaf. But, he has had no problem finding where I have pointed the emitter on any of the 4 repositions I did looking for the spot I have now.
But again, I think either way is fine as I mentioned. It is nice knowing I'm prepared for a night time temp emergency though should one ever arise.
Not trying to argue, but one could say that there just happens to be a heat source where your chameleon likes to hang out
, at the top area of the cage (I know, that is typically where a basking site is ). The idea is for the animal to "seek out" a basking site, not stumble upon it. If the heat emitter cycles on and off as you say, it would be more difficult for a chameleon to self regulate and more likely that it could be missed (especially in larger enclosures). Of course, with genius chameleons this is not an issue, but most of us don't have that luxury .
dshuld
Chameleon Enthusiast
Not trying to argue, but one could say that there just happens to be a heat source where your chameleon likes to hang out
I will semi agree with you there. Using my enclosure and Blue as an example again though, he "sunbathes" on the left side of his enclosure. He roams the right side but only ever sunbathes on the left half. My current angle is slightly down across from back center to left front corner/ left center side wall going across the left three dips in the grapevine garland. As mentioned, my sunblaze 46 throws some heat down which puts me near basking temps already. He has the left two feet as the "heated" side and the right two feet which stays at the 83 deg mark with lights on in my pothos area as an "unheated" high uvb area.
Though my emitter doesn't have to pull as hard of a cycle as others may have to due to the heat from 6 t5ho bulbs and the temps I keep my house he does know where his emitter points. I wasn't insinuating he's a genius, it was a smart aleck way of saying he can't be the only cham finding infrared heat from a non-light infrared source. To me, this is like the glass terrariums vs screen debates. There is no wrong answer and what works for one may not work for all. That is why I added the edit to my original post on the fact I run multi-tube fixtures. That is also why I said many here use regular bulbs like the op already is. Either will work but, again to me, it depends on your overall setup. If I was running a single tube fixture like many do here I'd probably go with the house hold bulb for my heat source too in all fairness if for nothing else other then extra light for the plants.
I'm sure you remember our cold snap from last week. Blue 93% of the time sleeps in the bottom right umbrella plant and the left umbrella the rest of the time. One night last week I didn't have the heat up as high in the house because I was hot and had the house set for 64 instead of my usual 68. My lights go out at 10 pm but the tv is on for another 20/ 30 minutes or so after that. That night he was in his usual spot on the right umbrella when the lights went off. When I got back up at 5:45 am he had moved to the far left dip in the vines. So, did he "seek out" the warmer area for the night or was it just a shot in the dark that he ended up in an area he never sleeps in that happens to be the general area my emitter points? I may be new to this only being two months in but I feel I have a pretty good grasp on his personality and can pick up on when something is different with him as @Matt Vanilla Gorilla can attest to since I've asked him questions each time I've experienced something outside of his "norm". Like you, not being argumentative, just presenting the flip side of the coin
.
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Another benefit is the addition of visible spectrum of light and general health of chameleons kept indoors...
From Chameleons! Online E-Zine...
http://www.chameleonnews.com/10JulWeldon.html
"A Note about Supplying the Overall Visible Spectrum (Including UVA) and Heat Sources:
Most any fluorescent, mercury vapor, and even some metal halide light sources need to be combined with some sort of wide spectrum visible light source. Even a simple household light bulb is usually sufficient to fill-in enough of the missing visible spectral content to promote the healthy growth of chameleons. An incandescent halogen bulb would be an improvement over the standard household bulb since the halogen bulbs have an inert gas and a halogen like iodine or bromine added that produce even more of the visible light spectrum (still no UVB) somewhat closer to the spectral content of unfiltered sunlight. These incandescent light bulbs are also often very effective at fulfilling the basking heat requirements for chameleons too."
In a case where you are using a variety of lighting that provides enough of the color spectrum I guess a heat emitter would not be the worst thing...
From part one of the same source...
http://www.chameleonnews.com/04AugBeveridge.html
"Behavioral factors. It’s a chameleon, it knows what to do with sunlight right? Well, not always. For a start, notice that the numbers you have been seeing are from looking directly at the sun. If you turn away from the sun the figures would be very much lower. Under normal circumstances a healthy chameleon would position itself to take maximum advantage of the sunlight as required. The rest of the time it would be following basic urges to look for food etc and during that time it’s exposure to direct sunlight could be very much lower. That sounds simple enough but consider how this behaviour is affected by your cage and feeding patterns. It is not normal for a chameleon to be confined to one small space. What will a chameleon do if there is nothing new to explore. Consider also that if your chameleon is “given” food rather than being encouraged to natural hunting/searching behaviour what will it do instead? Will the fat chameleon sit and sunbathe in the nice warm light all day? I know I certainly would. Not only would such a sedentary chameleon get rather fat but it would also probably receive a much greater exposure to direct sunlight and UV-B than it’s hungry wild counterpart. Which is the healthier?"
Just a few things to get us thinking!!!
From Chameleons! Online E-Zine...
http://www.chameleonnews.com/10JulWeldon.html
"A Note about Supplying the Overall Visible Spectrum (Including UVA) and Heat Sources:
Most any fluorescent, mercury vapor, and even some metal halide light sources need to be combined with some sort of wide spectrum visible light source. Even a simple household light bulb is usually sufficient to fill-in enough of the missing visible spectral content to promote the healthy growth of chameleons. An incandescent halogen bulb would be an improvement over the standard household bulb since the halogen bulbs have an inert gas and a halogen like iodine or bromine added that produce even more of the visible light spectrum (still no UVB) somewhat closer to the spectral content of unfiltered sunlight. These incandescent light bulbs are also often very effective at fulfilling the basking heat requirements for chameleons too."
In a case where you are using a variety of lighting that provides enough of the color spectrum I guess a heat emitter would not be the worst thing...
From part one of the same source...
http://www.chameleonnews.com/04AugBeveridge.html
"Behavioral factors. It’s a chameleon, it knows what to do with sunlight right? Well, not always. For a start, notice that the numbers you have been seeing are from looking directly at the sun. If you turn away from the sun the figures would be very much lower. Under normal circumstances a healthy chameleon would position itself to take maximum advantage of the sunlight as required. The rest of the time it would be following basic urges to look for food etc and during that time it’s exposure to direct sunlight could be very much lower. That sounds simple enough but consider how this behaviour is affected by your cage and feeding patterns. It is not normal for a chameleon to be confined to one small space. What will a chameleon do if there is nothing new to explore. Consider also that if your chameleon is “given” food rather than being encouraged to natural hunting/searching behaviour what will it do instead? Will the fat chameleon sit and sunbathe in the nice warm light all day? I know I certainly would. Not only would such a sedentary chameleon get rather fat but it would also probably receive a much greater exposure to direct sunlight and UV-B than it’s hungry wild counterpart. Which is the healthier?"
Just a few things to get us thinking
!!!
That's good enough for me
...Just kidding, you don't need to agree or disagree, I just saw the use of a bulb as more beneficial.
I just think that the range of visible light would make it easier for the animal to identify the source as a warming area.
dshuld
Chameleon Enthusiast
That's good enough for me
Just kidding, you don't need to agree or disagree, I just saw the use of a bulb as more beneficial.
I just think that the range of visible light would make it easier for the animal to identify the source as a warming area.
Another benefit is the addition of visible spectrum of light and general health of chameleons kept indoors...
From Chameleons! Online E-Zine...
http://www.chameleonnews.com/10JulWeldon.html
"A Note about Supplying the Overall Visible Spectrum (Including UVA) and Heat Sources:
Most any fluorescent, mercury vapor, and even some metal halide light sources need to be combined with some sort of wide spectrum visible light source. Even a simple household light bulb is usually sufficient to fill-in enough of the missing visible spectral content to promote the healthy growth of chameleons. An incandescent halogen bulb would be an improvement over the standard household bulb since the halogen bulbs have an inert gas and a halogen like iodine or bromine added that produce even more of the visible light spectrum (still no UVB) somewhat closer to the spectral content of unfiltered sunlight. These incandescent light bulbs are also often very effective at fulfilling the basking heat requirements for chameleons too."
In a case where you are using a variety of lighting that provides enough of the color spectrum I guess a heat emitter would not be the worst thing...
From part one of the same source...
http://www.chameleonnews.com/04AugBeveridge.html
"Behavioral factors. It’s a chameleon, it knows what to do with sunlight right? Well, not always. For a start, notice that the numbers you have been seeing are from looking directly at the sun. If you turn away from the sun the figures would be very much lower. Under normal circumstances a healthy chameleon would position itself to take maximum advantage of the sunlight as required. The rest of the time it would be following basic urges to look for food etc and during that time it’s exposure to direct sunlight could be very much lower. That sounds simple enough but consider how this behaviour is affected by your cage and feeding patterns. It is not normal for a chameleon to be confined to one small space. What will a chameleon do if there is nothing new to explore. Consider also that if your chameleon is “given” food rather than being encouraged to natural hunting/searching behaviour what will it do instead? Will the fat chameleon sit and sunbathe in the nice warm light all day? I know I certainly would. Not only would such a sedentary chameleon get rather fat but it would also probably receive a much greater exposure to direct sunlight and UV-B than it’s hungry wild counterpart. Which is the healthier?"
Just a few things to get us thinking
This goes to my comment on if I was only running a 1 tube fixture like some here comment
. It will help give you more red distribution since the reptisun bulbs are lacking in that. I haven't looked for/ at the spd for the arcadia bulbs but I would imagine they follow a similar curve to the reptisuns. Though, I do find it interesting that we are all told not to use red infrared bulbs at all when that is a good majority of what we are making up by using an incandescent bulb anyway with a tiny touch of blue, and a bit of yellow, green and orange for heat but hey, what do I know . With fluorescent bulbs we can play with the spectrum a bit to allow for gaining more in certain areas of the distribution chart. This is the main reason I try to look for the spd of the bulbs I'm buying. I run the reptisun 5.0, ge starcoat 6500k and rotate a tru lumen flora every so often with one of the ge bulbs.
pwims21
New Member
Okay, so i think I'll just store the heat emitter and use it for winter if you say the light is that beneficial to them, even though the UVB gives off light? you two sort of confused me haha im new to chams so im trying to figure things out as a i go along. If I were to use a bulb what would you recommend? my vet said to get a 100 watt.
dshuld
Chameleon Enthusiast
How many tubes do you have? If you have a single tube then yes, I would stick with the incandescent bulb is basically where I was trying to go with all my typing lol. I was also making a point that ceramic emitters do work if you have enough of a spectrum (think rainbow colors plus some outside what humans can see) via multiple t5ho tubes over the enclosure. If you've already bought the emitter then stash that for "cold nights" if your chams room will be below 55/ 60 depending on what cham you have of course. As far as what incandescent bulb you need, that I'll leave for @Decadancin to answer since I don't use them.
pwims21
New Member
what do you mean tubes?
So here is a basic of what is needed. UVB bulb... this is necessary for indoor enclosures and comes in linear (tube) or compact styles. Also needed is a basking source. I use a regular incandescent bulb usually around 60 to 75 watt to provide the desired temperature range. The next thing is plant bulbs. I use 6500k tube lights, but there are other options.
Sorry for any confusion, but the basics are not always so basic.
In the wild chameleons are exposed to many spectrums of light. Often in captivity we must utilize multiple sources of light to provide the basic requirements.
Sorry for any confusion, but the basics are not always so basic.
In the wild chameleons are exposed to many spectrums of light. Often in captivity we must utilize multiple sources of light to provide the basic requirements.
Unless your house gets extremely cold (think sub 60F), you don't need heat. You need a linear UVB bulb for UVB during the day, and no light at night.
dshuld
Chameleon Enthusiast
Perhaps you should rephrase what you said here because as worded it is not true. Though I don't completely agree with not using a ceramic heater if multiple tubes (t8/ t5ho) are being used to provide a wide spectrum range, chams most certainly do require a form of heat lol. More then a single uvb bulb can offer unless you have no ac in your house?
