Daytime room temps in cold weather

[radstusky]

I am wondering what room temps you maintain during the day in the room where your chameleons reside? In particular I'm interested in those who live in colder climates like me. This is my first fall/winter with a chameleon in quite a while, and I have a programmable thermostat with the heat normally turned way down during the day since no one is home. I have radiator heaters and there's a heater right next to my panther's cage. I am debating whether to set up a space heater on a timer in the room, or to just keep my heat at a higher temp all day. My house is normally around 66-67 degrees even when I'm there, as heating bills in New England can be outrageous. For now I have my daytime thermostat set at 60, but I think temps are going down to about 64-65 at the lowest. I'm fortunate though that last year my landlord switched over to natural gas from oil, as this has made it much cheaper.

I'm interested to know others in cold climates handle this?

 

[pssh]

Either heat the whole room or use another lower watt bulb to make the top of the cage warmer. My veiled and adult panther don't seem to have a problem with cooler temps as long as they have a basking temp. In fact, even in cooler weather my panther pretty much never basks. 67+ and he's good. Any lower and he starts to bask quite a bit. My veiled also begins to bask more at cooler temps. Normally he basks for a total of 2 or so hours throughout the day. When it's cool he basks 5+ hours a day.

Of course I wouldn't subject the animal to cool temps for long periods of time especially if it's preventable. It was just a test.

 

[sandrachameleon]

I also turn the house heat way down when I am not home (and when I am asleep). I keep all my chameleons in one room, and use an oil-filled (safe and efficient) radiator/heater (which you plug in to a normal electric socket) in their room. It has a built in dual timer, set so that during the day the ambient room temperature is kept around 69F, and at night about 62F. For my males, I also change the wattage of the heat bulbs from 40Watt (lower watt on females) in summer, to 60Watt in winter. I believe changing the heat bulb only would not be good, as they would be forced to spend a lot more time basking. I also dont like the temperature difference between the basking area and the rest of the cage to be too drastic (unnatural).
Its worth noting that I keep panthers, which are a little less tolerant of low temperatures than Veileds.​

When I lived previously in a house that had no insulation and no central heating, I also added sheets/boards of rigid foam insulation along the inside walls of the chameleon room, along with the same oil-filled radiator, in an attempt to keep at least that room somewhat less drafty and cold.​

 

[radstusky]

Thanks for your comments. I think I will have to raise the daytime room temps somehow. At night I currently let the temp go down to 60, but it's the day time temps I'm most concerned with. I think I should get the ambient temps up to at least 67. I'll have to figure out the best way to achieve that, either with space heaters or just turning up the thermostat. My chameleons are a panther and a Jackson's and they're in a rather large room which makes it harder to keep them warmer without also warming the whole house. I guess the choice will have to be based on costs, and whether I want to pay more for my gas bill or my electric bill. Adding insulation around the cages is probably a good idea too.

 

[carol5208]

Hi Stuart! How is Leo doing? I checked your blog out. I am sooooo glad I live in Florida!!!!! Romeo is out sunning in his cage right now! We are very lucky that we do not have to deal with winter!!!!

 

[sandrachameleon]

Adding insulation around the cages is probably a good idea too.

Are you using screen cages?
A semi-solid-sided enclosure would retain heat better.

 

[radstusky]

Hi Stuart! How is Leo doing? I checked your blog out. I am sooooo glad I live in Florida!!!!! Romeo is out sunning in his cage right now! We are very lucky that we do not have to deal with winter!!!!

Hi Carol, yes you are lucky to live in Florida, at least during this time of year! I think it'll be a while until Leo can go outside to get some sun again.

Are you using screen cages?
A semi-solid-sided enclosure would retain heat better.

Yes I do use screen cages, and switching to semi-solid at this point isn't really something I'm willing to do. I have some ideas about adding some siding to at least one of the sides in order to help retain the heat, however I think a space heater will help the most.