Garage?

[ayiaskepi]

I was wondering what all of you think about housing your cham in a garage. Has anyone had success? Any drawbacks? I have a lot of space and as long as I keep the temp/humudity correct, I believe the cham will be fine. What do you think?

 

[Julirs]

Not sure where you live, but my garage easily attains and maintains temps in the 100's here in the summer. Then there are things that you have to think about like gas fumes from vehicles, lawnmowers, etc..., and anything else you store in there.

 

[xoiceox]

OMG my garage is like death! I have to go separate the clothes to do laundry right now actually and im dreading it! lol

 

[Julirs]

OMG my garage is like death! I have to go separate the clothes to do laundry right now actually and im dreading it! lol

So true! I am doing the same thing-I so wish I had an indoor laundry room! For those of you not familiar-in Florida houses that are not very new, the washer and dryer is in the garage!

 

[ayiaskepi]

I live in SC. I do not recall it getting "that" hot in the garage here, but I better make sure. No sun really comes in either. I will have to rethink that and make sure. I am not as worried about the fumes, since the car is never started without the garage door open and I never start the lawn mover inside either. Any other reasons on why a garage might be bad? Btw, we have indoor laundry rooms.

What about on a screened in porch. It gets pretty cold in the winter though. What if I kept heat on him in the winter out there in the evening as well?

 

[JoshCrane1]

no garage!!! fumes are still present in the parts per million!! stay clear!!!

porch or inside is a far better alternative.

 

[Tokoloshe]

I kept my chams in the garage exclusively a few years back, and it was doable but had a LOT of setbacks. I lived in CO. so take that into consideration.

There was no way to insulate the garage from losing humidity, gaining heat, and getting too cold. Which led to a lot of money spent on Humidifiers, heaters, fans, sprayers etc...and a ton of effort dragging cages outside and back in. The runoff from the cages was nice that I didnt have to deal with lugging out buckets of water every day it just ran off.

I personally believe it had a lot to do with a lot of the losses I had (URI's, Heat etc...)

I also didn't make the best decisions about which species to keep-I had a lot of montane sp. which didn't like the heat much.

If you do decide to keep in the garage, choose a species that need similar heat/humidity requirements (remember it is a lot easier to heat up that to cool down!) to where you are living. Choose tough species that can handle temperature variation.

or keep smaller species inside

T.

 

[ayiaskepi]

I am going to really have to think about this. Someone please give me some advice regarding the screened in porch idea for winter temps in South Carolina.

The cham is going to be a Panther no matter what (regarding the garage and what type of cham, etc.), however, I am a bit worried about the fumes. BTW, temps in winter rarely average below 58 f where I am, but it can get cold for a couple weeks.

Ahhhh. Any suggestions?

 

[JoshCrane1]

screen porch would be good, just move the cage inside for the winter or invest in a thermostatic heating system.

 

[ayiaskepi]

More details about thermostatic heating system please... price, usage, etc. Also, how low can temps get for a panther. I have read different things. My last panther was kept indoors and was always in room temps at night.

I have been purposely going very slow in getting set up for my new cham (my first in a decade!) and want to do the right thing. I'm also waiting for the right cham to pop up!

Thanks a bunch.

 

[Julirs]

So why not keep it in the house???

 

[ayiaskepi]

yeah I know. That is the obvious, normal thing, right? Well... 3 children and bulldog can make a cham's life a bit stressful, and let's just say that my wife really likes the idea of it not being in the house if possible.

Work with me here, I'm strugglin!!!

 

[Julirs]

I have 3 kids, a bulldog, a lab mix, a great dane, and a cockatiel. And all the chams in my signature. Works well enough here! The only issue I guess is the rogue crickets and the spiders that live here that are big enough to catch and eat FULL SIZE CRICKETS! Don't tell your wife that! I vacuum alot of spiders!

 

[ayiaskepi]

Wow, We used to have two cockatiels as well. We have a 2.5 yr old English Bulldog.

Do not get me wrong, my wife has no problems with chams. She actually likes them. She just would rather I figure out somewhere else to keep it.

 

[JoshCrane1]

More details about thermostatic heating system please... price, usage, etc. Also, how low can temps get for a panther. I have read different things. My last panther was kept indoors and was always in room temps at night.

I have been purposely going very slow in getting set up for my new cham (my first in a decade!) and want to do the right thing. I'm also waiting for the right cham to pop up!

Thanks a bunch.

talking gettin a reptile thermostat (round $35) and gettin a safe heating source with a safety cutoff. plug em in set the temp and whenever the temps drop below ur specified temp the heater will kick on bringing temps back to ideal.

but depending on size of porch,cage,fire hazards, etc... will dictate what kind of heat source you will need that will safely heat the area around the cage but not burn it up or catch fire. relatively easy setup; considering ive designed and built temp control boxes for industial oven and pump systems and built my own incubator.

 

[Cainschams]

I would say keep him in the screened porch and have a back up cage inside for when the temps get to low. Or to save room you can put the kids in the screened porch Just kidding Just make sure there is no possible way for him to get out. Cracks, rips etc. They are pretty good escape artists. Good luck with your decision and what type of panther are you looking for.