Guidance on water

[laurie]

My 2 B. transvaalense are not doing as everything and everyone tells me they should. The female happily sits for at least 5 minutes drinking while I spray her, the male does the same thing but only drinks about 3 minutes. These are chams who should like low humidity and light watering. My humidity is about 50% spiking to 65%. My chams are doing just fine. Anyone have any thoughts or ideas?

 

[camimom]

how often do you mist?

 

[coldbloodedAL]

Should be just fine, as long as their urates are white and eyes are nice and full

 

[laurie]

I really wish my silly chams would learn to read so they would know what they should do.

 

[Carlton]

I really wish my silly chams would learn to read so they would know what they should do.

I suspect the chams know just what they should do. What needs tweaking is a human's interpretation/understanding of it.

Maybe they are simply enjoying the novelty of water delivered right to their faces.

 

[laurie]

I suspect the chams know just what they should do. What needs tweaking is a human's interpretation/understanding of it.

Maybe they are simply enjoying the novelty of water delivered right to their faces.

I have the only female transvaalense alive from the import that arrived may of this year. We may not have all the answers. Maybe for some reason they react differently here than in their native South Africa. The biggest problem with these guys in RI, but i don't feel i can not water them if they want to drink.

 

[coldbloodedAL]

Not sure. But I do supply more water than breeders recommendation because i was still seeing a ting of orange in the urates.. About a minute and ten seconds to be exact. Some I see drinj and some I dont, but I dont want to deal with another RI so i try to keep it as minimal as possible without dehydrating them.

 

[Cainschams]

I think the most important part is not letting the air in the room get stagnant. Sucks to hear the rest of the females died. They arent easy chams IMO. Glad to hear yours are still doing well. I say let them drink as much as they like just make sure the enclosure dries out and no stagnant air.

 

[laurie]

I think the most important part is not letting the air in the room get stagnant. Sucks to hear the rest of the females died. They arent easy chams IMO. Glad to hear yours are still doing well. I say let them drink as much as they like just make sure the enclosure dries out and no stagnant air.

They each have a muffin fan(tiny about 3" x3" square) made for a computer on top of their cages and have since the day they arrived. It creates no air movement below the fan but above the fan you can feel the air move. The air is never stagnant. You know me, I always worry, and count on you guys to keep me on tract. Thanks. Where would I be without you and Alex??

 

[deadhd5]

I don't mean to hijack the thread, but what makes stagnant air stagnant? Does all oxygen get used up; perhaps an increase in airborn bacteria? Maybe not too important, but I'm curious...

 

[Cainschams]

I don't mean to hijack the thread, but what makes stagnant air stagnant? Does all oxygen get used up; perhaps an increase in airborn bacteria? Maybe not too important, but I'm curious...

What makes it stagnant is say you have a small room with all your reptiles in it. You keep the door shut most of the time and can also be running a humidifier. If all the air stays trapped it will end up getting stagnant. Good air circulation is needed for all chams especially the species Laurie is asking about IMHO. They always say chams do not do well in an aquarium because of poor air circulation. Well, if you have them in a screen cage but the air in the room isnt circulated well then that would be the same problem. It can prohibit mold, fungus, RI and other problems too.

 

[Julle]

They each have a muffin fan(tiny about 3" x3" square) made for a computer on top of their cages and have since the day they arrived. It creates no air movement below the fan but above the fan you can feel the air move.

Fans and transvaalense is a bad combination.
I had once RI symptoms caused by a fan and the fan wasn't even on all time..
transvaalense just can't stand any direct draft, i keep their cages away even from direct bath of normal air circulation in my cham room.

 

[laurie]

Fans and transvaalense is a bad combination.
I had once RI symptoms caused by a fan and the fan wasn't even on all time..
transvaalense just can't stand any direct draft, i keep their cages away even from direct bath of normal air circulation in my cham room.

Julie can you give me info about how you keep yours? Cages, temps, food?

 

[Julle]

It's JULLE

I keep mine mostly in pairs.
In 45x45x92cm screen cages, individuals and babies in 42x42x75cm. Lots of live plants and moss on the bottom.
Humidity varies 40-90% higher at night and lower in the day.
Lighting is one 50w HID (i use Lucky Reptile for transvaalense, since they can be kept closer than raptors, for all other bradys i use Raptors) for one cage, nothing more.
UVB is 60-100 uW/cm2.
Temps are day 16-24°C and right under the HID 28-35°C, nights are 8-16°C (rarely it drops to 5°C), hotter in autumn and spring and the coldest in the middle of the winter. Cycle is 14 to 10 hours and i shorter and longer it 15 minutes per week.
In summer they are outside.
I spray only one time a day everything really wet, so that the top drops water and this session only takes 2-3 minutes. If i spray more, they always seems to develop RI.
In summer outside, i might spray few times more lightly, if it gets very hot.
I feed them mostly with small crickets and fruit flies, but i do feed everything i can get my hands on. In summer i mostly feed with meadow plankton.
I give calcium with D3 (miner-all) once a week for adults, 2 times for babies.
I try to gut load as much as possible and try to avoid using synthetic vitamins under HID lighting. When i am lazy with gut load, i might give ZM reptivite/wo D3 once in 6 weeks.
In summer i don't use any supplements.

 

[JonRich]

Fans and transvaalense is a bad combination.
I had once RI symptoms caused by a fan and the fan wasn't even on all time..
transvaalense just can't stand any direct draft, i keep their cages away even from direct bath of normal air circulation in my cham room.

Ok, so this foils my plan to add a fan on a timer to circulate air a few times throught the day.

 

[JonRich]

It's JULLE

I keep mine mostly in pairs.
In 45x45x92cm screen cages, individuals and babies in 42x42x75cm. Lots of live plants and moss on the bottom.
Humidity varies 40-90% higher at night and lower in the day.
Lighting is one 50w HID (i use Lucky Reptile for transvaalense, since they can be kept closer than raptors, for all other bradys i use Raptors) for one cage, nothing more.
UVB is 60-100 uW/cm2.
Temps are day 16-24°C and right under the HID 28-35°C, nights are 8-16°C (rarely it drops to 5°C), hotter in autumn and spring and the coldest in the middle of the winter. Cycle is 14 to 10 hours and i shorter and longer it 15 minutes per week.
In summer they are outside.
I spray only one time a day everything really wet, so that the top drops water and this session only takes 2-3 minutes. If i spray more, they always seems to develop RI.
In summer outside, i might spray few times more lightly, if it gets very hot.
I feed them mostly with small crickets and fruit flies, but i do feed everything i can get my hands on. In summer i mostly feed with meadow plankton.
I give calcium with D3 (miner-all) once a week for adults, 2 times for babies.
I try to gut load as much as possible and try to avoid using synthetic vitamins under HID lighting. When i am lazy with gut load, i might give ZM reptivite/wo D3 once in 6 weeks.
In summer i don't use any supplements.

Info noted. Im curious about the moss floor. Is there a reason for this?

 

[Julle]

It helps hold and release humidity through out the night and dries nicely during the day.
And no, i have't had any problems with anyone eating it, i use it for all my chameleons.

 

[JonRich]

It helps hold and release humidity through out the night and dries nicely during the day.
And no, i have't had any problems with anyone eating it, i use it for all my chameleons.

Thanks for the info. I was considering using moss as a substrate. I have even heard stories of some Bradypodion sp burrowing into the moss. ( for what reason, i'm not sure)

 

[Julle]

They buried in it very often in the summer, when it gets too hot - at least in captivity.

 

[Carlton]

Fans and transvaalense is a bad combination.
I had once RI symptoms caused by a fan and the fan wasn't even on all time..
transvaalense just can't stand any direct draft, i keep their cages away even from direct bath of normal air circulation in my cham room.

This makes me wonder what it is about an artificially produced flow of air that causes problems for an animal that evolved in wild habitats that were subject to weather. I find it hard to believe their microclimates in the wild were so insulated that wind (a draft) never reached them. Please understand, I'm not questioning your husbandry at all, the question came up in my mind. Is there something about the air quality indoors that makes a fan risky or is it the air flow itself? Is it the intensity of the blowing air? The possibility that a fan over a cage is circulating bacteria from fecal matter on the substrate? I'm just trying to understand what the real issue is and how you can avoid it when caring for this species.