Choosing night light for chameleon

[felo1812]

So i noticed that my chameleon scrambles to a branch when the lights turn off, since our husbandry is not 100% of what they would receive in nature I thought that i would be a good idea to make some sort of dawn/dusk like they would have in nature. I want to have the bulb on 30 mins before lights on and some 30 after lights off, so hopefully this way I can provide something similar to nature. So this is where I need some advice or maybe someone that already has the set up done can lend me hand. There is a red, dark blue, and black bulb of incandescent night lights, now which one should I go for?? im guessing the red? but they the darkblue one is "moonlight"? Im stuck.....

 

[PabloTheCham]

Chameleon Info:

• Your Chameleon - The species, sex, and age of your chameleon. How long has it been in your care?
• Handling - How often do you handle your chameleon?
• Feeding - What are you feeding your cham? What amount? What is the schedule? How are you gut-loading your feeders?
• Supplements - What brand and type of calcium and vitamin products are you dusting your feeders with and what is the schedule?
• Watering - What kind of watering technique do you use? How often and how long to you mist? Do you see your chameleon drinking?
• Fecal Description - Briefly note colors and consistency from recent droppings. Has this chameleon ever been tested for parasites?
• History - Any previous information about your cham that might be useful to others when trying to help you.

Cage Info:

• Cage Type - Describe your cage (Glass, Screen, Combo?) What are the dimensions?
• Lighting - What brand, model, and types of lighting are you using? What is your daily lighting schedule?
• Temperature - What temp range have you created (cage floor to basking spot)? Lowest overnight temp? How do you measure these temps?
• Humidity - What are your humidity levels? How are you creating and maintaining these levels? What do you use to measure humidity?
• Plants - Are you using live plants? If so, what kind?
• Placement - Where is your cage located? Is it near any fans, air vents, or high traffic areas? At what height is the top of the cage relative to your room floor?
• Location - Where are you geographically located?

Current Problem - The current problem you are concerned about.

 

[PabloTheCham]

This is weird... Chams go to their sleeping spot at least 1 hour before lights out. How long have you had him? Maybe he is still adjusting from his previous sleep schedule.

 

[Beman]

So i noticed that my chameleon scrambles to a branch when the lights turn off, since our husbandry is not 100% of what they would receive in nature I thought that i would be a good idea to make some sort of dawn/dusk like they would have in nature. I want to have the bulb on 30 mins before lights on and some 30 after lights off, so hopefully this way I can provide something similar to nature. So this is where I need some advice or maybe someone that already has the set up done can lend me hand. There is a red, dark blue, and black bulb of incandescent night lights, now which one should I go for?? im guessing the red? but they the darkblue one is "moonlight"? Im stuck.....

You do not want any colored bulbs at all as they are not good for chams. Some will mimic dawn/dusk by having T5HO daylight bulbs go on and off at different times to get the effect you are talking about. Make sure you have a 12 hours on and 12 hours off period. If you would like to fill out the form provided above we can review your husbandry.

 

[felo1812]

• #2

Chameleon Info:

• Your Chameleon - Panther Chameleon, had it for two months, she is about 6months old
• Handling - Maybe twice a week
• Feeding -Feeding couple banded crickets/dubias (like 3 each) and the occasional horn worm/silkworm
• Supplements - Repashy Calcium Plus
• Watering - Mist king, two watering a day, 2 mins each, one 20mins before lights on one in the afternoon.
• Fecal Description - No testing ever done, poop looks good i guess like a turd hah with the white urate
• History - None

Cage Info:

• Cage Type - Cage is 55'' wide, 18''deep and 42'' high, made it myself. Bioactive.
• Lighting - 4ft 6500k t5ho for plants, and one 2ft arcadia 6%, 75w basking bulb
• Temperature - Lower part of the cage is around 72-74 degrees, basking spot is around 86-88 degrees, i have two temp probes lower and basking spot
• Humidity - between 55%-70% throught the day, goes higher after misting
• Plants - Yes all live plants, got ficus, photos, ferns, chameleon plants, spider plants, lots of ground cover plants, and like 3 more that i cant remmeber
• Placement - Living room, but its not in a high traffic area.
• Location - Oregon USA

 

[felo1812]

You do not want any colored bulbs at all as they are not good for chams. Some will mimic dawn/dusk by having T5HO daylight bulbs go on and off at different times to get the effect you are talking about. Make sure you have a 12 hours on and 12 hours off period. If you would like to fill out the form provided above we can review your husbandry.

Im glad we are having this discussion, this is what makes us learn and fine tune our husbandry. I just got finished listening to the Breeder Podcast and on episode 27 "lighting". Towards the end they mention the night light, and they themselves Bill Strand and Todd that works with Arcadia use this technique (night light on for about 30mins after lights off). They state that the "schedule" use of just shutting the lights off in our cages is not the normal "sequence" that is found in nature. They however dont mention what color bulb they use and I have found 3.

 

[Klyde O'Scope]

Unless your chameleon is wild-caught, it's not going to know natural sunrise & sunset from artificial lighting. That said, I just use 2 cheapo ($5) timers; one on the basking light and the other on the UVB. I have the basking light come on 1 hr. before the UVB, and go off 1 hr. after the UVB (half hour is fine if you like).

Reptiles have pretty good circadian clocks anyway.

 

[felo1812]

Unless your chameleon is wild-caught, it's not going to know natural sunrise & sunset from artificial lighting. That said, I just use 2 cheapo ($5) timers; one on the basking light and the other on the UVB. I have the basking light come on 1 hr. before the UVB, and go off 1 hr. after the UVB (half hour is fine if you like).

Reptiles have pretty good circadian clocks anyway.

Youre right wild caught chameleons would better know the sunrise/sunset then the CB counterparts. Then i guess there would be no harm if I try a light, along as they get total darkness 11+ hours. I messaged Bill Strand so he can shine some more light (no pun intended)on the matter. I know we cant 100% replicate nature but I guess I want to mimic as much as I can possibly can without going overboard.

 

[jamest0o0]

Always had my chams in a windowed room so I could have lights go on after sunrise and off before sunset. I also adjusted them so I'd have different lights come on at different times, for example, t5 6500k first, then little later uvb, then led grow lights and basking.

 

[felo1812]

Always had my chams in a windowed room so I could have lights go on after sunrise and off before sunset. I also adjusted them so I'd have different lights come on at different times, for example, t5 6500k first, then little later uvb, then led grow lights and basking.

Wish I had a window to place her like that! dont think the daylight time i have over here in Oregon is good for chams (15+ hours) right now and 7 or less hours in winter. Im gonna go grab couple timers and a couple lights see what works best

 

[jamest0o0]

Wish I had a window to place her like that! dont think the daylight time i have over here in Oregon is good for chams (15+ hours) right now and 7 or less hours in winter. Im gonna go grab couple timers and a couple lights see what works best

That's what we have here in PA, the 12 hr on 12 off is more of a general guideline. The times in the wild change throughout the year. My cham lives outside in the summer gets the long days, inside in the winter his lights are off after 8-10 hrs.

 

[felo1812]

That's what we have here in PA, the 12 hr on 12 off is more of a general guideline. The times in the wild change throughout the year. My cham lives outside in the summer gets the long days, inside in the winter his lights are off after 8-10 hrs.

Thats such great insight! I didnt know that can be done with chams at out latitudes.

 

[Beman]

Im glad we are having this discussion, this is what makes us learn and fine tune our husbandry. I just got finished listening to the Breeder Podcast and on episode 27 "lighting". Towards the end they mention the night light, and they themselves Bill Strand and Todd that works with Arcadia use this technique (night light on for about 30mins after lights off). They state that the "schedule" use of just shutting the lights off in our cages is not the normal "sequence" that is found in nature. They however dont mention what color bulb they use and I have found 3.

Yeah that was the episode with Todd Goode... At the time the Odyssea fixtures were quite popular and Todd sold them. They had a pale blue LED light built into the fixture. It could be programed with the T5's to create the effect your speaking about. Todd has since stopped selling them probably because they kept blowing bulbs and catching on fire. The quality of the product went down hill the last year. In fact I bought the fixture 2 weeks ago from another seller and mine tried to catch on fire.

If they are on a 12 on 12 off schedule they will typically always go to a sleeping spot prior to lights out. They learn their schedule. Not really a need for a moonlight.

 

[jamest0o0]

Yeah that was the episode with Todd Goode... At the time the Odyssea fixtures were quite popular and Todd sold them. They had a pale blue LED light built into the fixture. It could be programed with the T5's to create the effect your speaking about. Todd has since stopped selling them probably because they kept blowing bulbs and catching on fire. The quality of the product went down hill the last year. In fact I bought the fixture 2 weeks ago from another seller and mine tried to catch on fire.

If they are on a 12 on 12 off schedule they will typically always go to a sleeping spot prior to lights out. They learn their schedule. Not really a need for a moonlight.

Was this a recent issue that arose with the odyssea fixtures?

 

[Sewellau1]

So i noticed that my chameleon scrambles to a branch when the lights turn off, since our husbandry is not 100% of what they would receive in nature I thought that i would be a good idea to make some sort of dawn/dusk like they would have in nature. I want to have the bulb on 30 mins before lights on and some 30 after lights off, so hopefully this way I can provide something similar to nature. So this is where I need some advice or maybe someone that already has the set up done can lend me hand. There is a red, dark blue, and black bulb of incandescent night lights, now which one should I go for?? im guessing the red? but they the darkblue one is "moonlight"? Im stuck.....

I recommend using no light at night. Chameleons like total darkness and a temperature drop at night. It’s good for them.

 

[Beman]

Was this a recent issue that arose with the odyssea fixtures?

I wanna say like the last year or so they have gone down hill. @snitz427 had one catch on fire... I had bought one from Todd that kept blowing bulbs. Then display panel issues. They just aren’t made well now.

 

[jamest0o0]

I wanna say like the last year or so they have gone down hill. @snitz427 had one catch on fire... I had bought one from Todd that kept blowing bulbs. Then display panel issues. They just aren’t made well now.

Yeah I remember hearing about hers, I think someone else's too. That is very scary, I feel like fire risk is something you can't chance. Wonder what they've done different for them to do that. Cutting costs somewhere eh

 

[Beman]

Yeah I remember hearing about hers, I think someone else's too. That is very scary, I feel like fire risk is something you can't chance. Wonder what they've done different for them to do that. Cutting costs somewhere eh

Yeah probably... I’m going to send back my 30 inch next week. The display panel is barely readable now and I’m freaked after the 48 sparked and burned through the bulb. This was the replacement I bought for the one I got from Todd back in 2018. It started blinking the lights on when they were off.... lol so I give up now

 

[DeShawni Green]

I simply turn off my big UVB overhead first and leave the basking light on and softly glowing for 30min or as the sun goes down... I know what youre talking about and my cham seems to appreciate the subtle change rather than the harsh change from light to instant dark.

 

[Klyde O'Scope]

I simply turn off my big UVB overhead first and leave the basking light on and softly glowing for 30min or as the sun goes down... I know what youre talking about and my cham seems to appreciate the subtle change rather than the harsh change from light to instant dark.

Give you a little chammy did he?

TBH, I don't know exactly how a reptile can or would show appreciation. Closest my beardie has come is not trying to bite my fingers off when I get too close. However, when hand feeding, all bets are off (CHOMP!) ?