Hatchling Housing Question

[Kerrek]

I am housing 22 panther babies split into 2 groups of 11 in 16x16x20 screen cages. Cages are furnished with bendable branches, fake Pothos vines, and live Schefflera. I have more cages coming so I can split them into groups of 5,5,6&6. I have a mistking misting them 4 times a day for 40 secs each. each cage has a 5.0 reptisun and 25w basking bulb. Room temp is mid 70's during the day and basking spot is 85 degrees. Feeding a mixture of pinhead crickets, Fruit flies, and just hatched silkworms. They all are active seem to be eating and sure do poop alot. Any suggestions on what else I can do.

Thanks
Derek

 

[Zen Reptiles]

IMO reduce the misting. Everything else sounds good.

I have two sets of panthers and was spraying them 3 times a day for only 10-20 seconds each spraying, and I was running into some URI issues. Since reducing it to 2 times a day lightly, they aren't opening their mouths or breathing deeply to expend moisture.

I am using exo-terras, you're using screen, so it might be different. But 40 seconds is a long time and the problems I had were from droplets getting onto their heads, not ventilation.

 

[laurie]

Maybe 40 sec is a bit long, I always misted my babies by hand. Other than that, about all I can tell you is to enjoy them, and watch them grow.

 

[Kodos2150]

you can give me a little male to lighten your load a bit lol

 

[jannb]

I too only hand mist babies with warm water two to three times a day I give them a light spritz just enough to get them and the baby bin wet and not totally soak the paper towels in the bottom. I also think 85 is too warm for babies. I keep babies at 80 and I maintain this temp by using a duel light fixture with a UVB in one side and a regular florescent bulb in the other. I've never used a basking light on babies. You can see pictures of my baby bins here in post #10.
https://www.chameleonforums.com/baby-bins-enclosures-56164/