cooking my chameleons???

[laurie]

I am doing something fairly different and looking for pros & cons. My temps outside are getting into the low 90's. I have 5 cages set up on my back deck with a misting system above them. Yesterday at 89 I had 5 chams outside for 3 hours. They were in cages filled with hibiscus so getting into the shade was no problem. I ran the mister filling each cage with a fine mist the entire time the chams were out. ambient cage temps were about 73. All 5 chams were up at the top of the cage basking. Do the rest of you think I am putting my chams at risk? I had both montanes, 1 veiled & 1 panther.

 

[ajacobson]

Well Veileds are from the desert, so I think they would be okay. I don't know about the others, but if they had shade and mist it's probably fine.

 

[sarah777]

I think if they were basking they're fine. If they were too hot they would be in the shaded parts of their cage.

 

[ColorCham427]

I don't bring my panthers out unless it's a nice 70-85 degrees. Above 85 is getting hot in my opinion, just because, where can they really go to cool down if it's that hot out???

If you have a misting session going for 3 hours long, make sure the mist is only hitting a small portion of the cage so they can get away from it if they have to.

Not sure how the cage temp's got down to a nice 73 if it was in the high 80's low 90's outside??? Where do you keep all the temp. guages?

 

[Dooley1]

Laurie,
You probably know I keep my chameleons outside from the end of May to the beginning of Sept. here in PA. That's 24 hours a day. My cristatus is out in 100F temps. with no problems, just like last year. It's all about placement and misters. I bring the chameleons inside if it drops below 48F at night and haven't brought them inside during heat ever. I've done this for years now. They are in the elements, rain or shine, which makes sense since they can't go indoors in the wild.

Care must be taken of course. They are in partial shade and don't get full afternoon sun. They have heavily planted cages and regular long misting sessions. Provided this, you should be fine.
Kevin

 

[jannb]

A young veiled shouldn't get that warm. Do you have a temp gun? What it their body temp when basking? I would recommend taking them out early morning and evening and not misting except to cool it off when you first take them out and not keeping them wet for 3 hours.

The one baby I still have with me I keep at 80 to 82 tops.

 

[fluxlizard]

huh- I'm double posting for some reason- sorry- don't know how to delete.

 

[fluxlizard]

I for one think you are just fine. You aren't doing anything I haven't done for years in the past.

I keep my chams out like this each summer 24/7 all summer long.

Normally our temps max out around 90- most days are 84-88. Less than a handful of days reach 90 or above.

This year our temps are only occasionally in the 80s. Most days are 90 and above! Many days are 95, and the last 3 days have been 98! This is unheard of for my area and is the most extreme situation I have experienced with lizards. It has been going on like this since late May!

All of my chams are out as usual (along with lots and lots of other lizards) and are doing great. I still have several of the mellers that hatched in December, my adult pair of breeder melleri, another 8 recently imported adult melleri that I aquired several weeks ago, a pair of young panther chameleons about 4- 5 inches long, and my son's pair of veiled chameleons.
(edit- I also have a few bitaeniatus that I got about the same time as the melleri, but they arrived in poor shape and I'm chicken to let them out in the heat, so they are indoors where it is cooler).

They are all doing great.

The important thing is to keep 4 microclimates in the terraria- shade and misty, shade and dry, sunny and misty, and sunny and dry. This gives the lizards choices- the don't have to be constantly damp, they don't have to be sunny and wet, or shady and wet or sunny and dry or shady and wet, etc. They can be whatever they want and need. As you noticed- even the dry parts of the terraria are cooled from the cooling action of the mist.

I leave the misters on usually from 1-5 or 6, but this year many days the misters are on before noon and not off until dusk or even dark because of the ambient heat.

 

[laurie]

I for one think you are just fine. You aren't doing anything I haven't done for years in the past.

I keep my chams out like this each summer 24/7 all summer long. I bring them out in the spring when night temps are above 50 and return them indoors in the fall when night temps drop below 50. In between they never come in whatever the weather.

Normally our temps max out around 90- most days are 84-88. Less than a handful of days reach 90 or above.

This year our temps are only occasionally in the 80s. Most days are 90 and above! Many days are 95, and the last 3 days have been 98! We have already had 3 or 4 98 days this summer prior to these 3. This is unheard of for my area and is the most extreme situation I have experienced with lizards. It has been going on like this since late May!

All of my chams are out as usual (along with lots and lots of other lizards) and are doing great. I still have several of the mellers that hatched in December, my adult pair of breeder melleri, another 8 recently imported adult melleri that I aquired several weeks ago, a pair of young panther chameleons about 4- 5 inches long, and my son's pair of veiled chameleons.

They are all doing great.

The important thing is to keep 4 microclimates in the terraria- shade and misty, shade and dry, sunny and misty, and sunny and dry. This gives the lizards choices- the don't have to be constantly damp, they don't have to be sunny and wet, or shady and wet or sunny and dry or shady and wet, etc. They can be whatever they want and need. As you noticed- even the dry parts of the terraria are cooled from the cooling action of the mist.

I leave the misters on usually from 1-5 or 6, but this year many days the misters are on before noon and not off until dusk or even dark because of the ambient heat.

You have what i am trying to create. I am sure I have 3 of the 4 area, I am not sure that I have sunny dry. All the chams seem to like the outside, and the natural sun is great since I have such a short season. Mine are in full afternoon sun but again they can leave the sun any time they want. My panther seems happiest outside. I am always nervous but maybe I will leave him out tonight. Today it a high of 91 and low tonight of 56, my temps vary that much almost ever day. We always get a good drop at night. You don't think that is too much of a temp difference? But early mornings they are in full shade, do you think that is ok? I would not turn on the misters until they have some sun. Today for the first time I took out my gravid quad, Jet. She is so fat she doesn't even move much but outside she has moved around and actually bit me!! when I tried to take her out of the cage and bring her in. She pretty much jumped back in the cage.

I am going with a few hours outside and I will work up from that. Except Arnold, my panther who will spend tonight outside all alone.

 

[fluxlizard]

Temps in the 50s at night are fine.

I imagine you will need to watch those night temps closer than me mid summer- probably you get 40s occasionally I'd bet in Montana.

Just a guess.

My chams don't get sun until between 10 and 11 am because of a row of tall pines and they have always done fine there.

If you can get sunny dry along with the other 3 you will be set. It will allow them to heat up when they want without remaining damp all the time- as you already know constant dampness isn't a great idea, but they will choose it anyway if that is their only choice for sunning. Plus it gives them a little more warmth in that one part of the cage.

Just check them often during the day at first until you see what is going on with them at various times of the day. It will be obvious if they become too hot- they will go pale and gape and look uncomfortable. Careful with the gravid girl on that count- quads can take colder nights better than panthers, but panthers can take more heat during the day.