help with humidity
- Thread starter brownj33
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C
ChameleonsInMyHouse
Guest
hey man, as far as humidity goes, i wouldn't kick my butt over achieving high humidity with veileds. Veileds can thrive and do fine in humidity down to 50%. they come from Yemen, which is very dry, and gets even drier than 50%.
i would focus on his hydration and urate colors. white urates and full eyes = well hydrated.
white/slightly yellow/orange urates = still ok but a sign of dehydration
pure yellow/orange urates & sunken eyes = bad bad.
do you offer a dripper source for drinking water? or do you rely solely on misting? do you see him drink?
if his urates are fine, i wouldnt stress about a 50% humidity level for a veiled. especially in the colder months when humidity sucks at maintaining.
I have had the same battle with low humidity in the past. With my veileds it resulted in eye problems and pluged tear ducts.(my humidity was 45-55% I picked up a cool air humidifer that worked ok with regular mistings. prior to getting a mistking. These days I keep all my chams in 1 room. I have a aquarium in the room and a mistking that goes off 6 times a day problem solved!! the room stays above 70% and the cages are 80-90%most of the time.
C
ChameleonsInMyHouse
Guest
what were your mistings like when you had these problems? i've had my veiled as low as 40% some days in summer, and last winter as well, and have never experienced any problems like that. i personally have never had any problems with low humidity, though i try my best to maintain it steady. i'm at about a 55% average.
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DavidBuchan
Guest
You keep Veileds at 80-90% humidity all the time? mine are happy with a few live plants and three soakings a day.....all white urate, no probs shedding, no eye issues yet.......
To brownj33- I also wouldn't worry about it if there were no symptoms of any problem, veileds really don't need such high humidity. If you don't have live plants, get some though - they'll help more than you'd expect.....
xanthoman
Avid Member
increasing humidity
of course more large dense live plants will help raise your humidity for a brief time window after misting.
if you are looking to raise and stabilize your humidity on an ongoing basis, this can easily be accomplished with a small $ expenditure, assuming we are talking about starting with a normal aluminum frame screen cham cage, and you are at least a little handy with tools
with less than a couple of hrs work you can easily modify your cage so it is similar in concept to a SANDFIRE DRAGON RANCH "CRESTED GECKO CAGE"
http://www.sandfiredragonranch.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=10&products_id=87
basically, this involves making cut to fit plastic panels that are screwed to the cage frame with small stainless sheet metal screws, so that you end up with a cage that has clear or white plastic sides and back panels but will still leave you with the front of your cage unaltered.
depending on the specifics of your cage const. (and your tool skill level), you can put them on the inside or out. you dont have to do all 3 panels, just doing the back would help some, but doing all 3 panels will significantly increase, and stabilize your humidity, sfdr "crested gecko" cages are great for neonates and any chams requiring a boost in humidity. the cage will still need to be well planted and misted regularly for the modification to have an effect. otherwise your ambient cage humidity is likely to just be whatever the humidity in your room is.
first view the link and decide if its a mod you are comfortable with.
if you decide to do it, you can use 1/16" plexiglass but it is quite expensive, but there is a cheaper alternative, the acryilic light panels that are intended as a lens for in ceiling 4' fluorescent light fixtures are fairly cheap about $5-10
depending. the only drawback is they are usually only 22" wide, so depending on your cage size and construction details you may need to flip them sideways and use more than one piece per side.
once you have your pieces cut to size, just tape them in place inside or out depending on your cage construction details and preference. once taped in place. just determine where you need screws (must be able to screw into cage frame) mark your screw locations and just drill through the plastic and the first layer of the cage frame with a 1/16"drill. then install your #4 stainless sheet metal screws, remove the tape and you are done.
you can put them inside or out depending, there are +/-'s to both
you can use clear, or white , i prefer white, makes a great photo background when contrasted against the color of your plants and your cham, dont used the cracked the texture can complicate the install and dont use black or it will suck the light right out of your cage. be sure to size your screws according to the thickness of your panels and cage frame, you only want to go through the first part of the frame not clear through, #4-6x1/4" inch is usually what i have used.
if you prefer to install on the outside of your cage you can save $ by using smooth white plastic bath panels that are usually about 1/8" thick , the faced white side is pretty water resistant and they come in 4x8' sheets for usually around $12 so that drops the price considerably.
if you feel this mod is important but dont have much cash, you can accomplish virtually the same thing by just neatly taping heavy clear visqueen around the back three sides of your cage with gorilla tape, the down side is that it usually doesnt look as neat. also the visqueen cant hold up to the uvb, so you may need to redo it every 6mths to a year. if you decide to do it and you are having probs, feel free to pm.
if you wanted it to be exactly like sfdrcgc, then you would need to completely disassemble the cage (notice how they have the panels sandwiched between the cage parts), you would also probably need to use slightly longer screws. also the distance between the door and the side of the cage will increase by the thickness of the panel, so you would need to reposition the hinges and maybe even go 1 size larger.
like ep's have said there are also other options like just get a cool mist humidifier, about $30 (not a steam humidifier) just turn it on and point it at the cage , you could also get an ultrasonic humidifier, about $45 put it on a digital timer that has 20 cycles per day, about $15 and just run it for a minute or two each cycle, ultrasonic humidifers produce an instant COOL steam like vapor that will instantly raise the humidity of any small area or even an entire room. i have found walgreens to be one of the better places to buy humidifiers.
imo, generally speaking, hydration is more of an issue than humidity, jmo
of course more large dense live plants will help raise your humidity for a brief time window after misting.
if you are looking to raise and stabilize your humidity on an ongoing basis, this can easily be accomplished with a small $ expenditure, assuming we are talking about starting with a normal aluminum frame screen cham cage, and you are at least a little handy with tools
with less than a couple of hrs work you can easily modify your cage so it is similar in concept to a SANDFIRE DRAGON RANCH "CRESTED GECKO CAGE"
http://www.sandfiredragonranch.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=10&products_id=87
basically, this involves making cut to fit plastic panels that are screwed to the cage frame with small stainless sheet metal screws, so that you end up with a cage that has clear or white plastic sides and back panels but will still leave you with the front of your cage unaltered.
depending on the specifics of your cage const. (and your tool skill level), you can put them on the inside or out. you dont have to do all 3 panels, just doing the back would help some, but doing all 3 panels will significantly increase, and stabilize your humidity, sfdr "crested gecko" cages are great for neonates and any chams requiring a boost in humidity. the cage will still need to be well planted and misted regularly for the modification to have an effect. otherwise your ambient cage humidity is likely to just be whatever the humidity in your room is.
first view the link and decide if its a mod you are comfortable with.
if you decide to do it, you can use 1/16" plexiglass but it is quite expensive, but there is a cheaper alternative, the acryilic light panels that are intended as a lens for in ceiling 4' fluorescent light fixtures are fairly cheap about $5-10
depending. the only drawback is they are usually only 22" wide, so depending on your cage size and construction details you may need to flip them sideways and use more than one piece per side.
once you have your pieces cut to size, just tape them in place inside or out depending on your cage construction details and preference. once taped in place. just determine where you need screws (must be able to screw into cage frame) mark your screw locations and just drill through the plastic and the first layer of the cage frame with a 1/16"drill. then install your #4 stainless sheet metal screws, remove the tape and you are done.
you can put them inside or out depending, there are +/-'s to both
you can use clear, or white , i prefer white, makes a great photo background when contrasted against the color of your plants and your cham, dont used the cracked the texture can complicate the install and dont use black or it will suck the light right out of your cage. be sure to size your screws according to the thickness of your panels and cage frame, you only want to go through the first part of the frame not clear through, #4-6x1/4" inch is usually what i have used.
if you prefer to install on the outside of your cage you can save $ by using smooth white plastic bath panels that are usually about 1/8" thick , the faced white side is pretty water resistant and they come in 4x8' sheets for usually around $12 so that drops the price considerably.
if you feel this mod is important but dont have much cash, you can accomplish virtually the same thing by just neatly taping heavy clear visqueen around the back three sides of your cage with gorilla tape, the down side is that it usually doesnt look as neat. also the visqueen cant hold up to the uvb, so you may need to redo it every 6mths to a year. if you decide to do it and you are having probs, feel free to pm.
if you wanted it to be exactly like sfdrcgc, then you would need to completely disassemble the cage (notice how they have the panels sandwiched between the cage parts), you would also probably need to use slightly longer screws. also the distance between the door and the side of the cage will increase by the thickness of the panel, so you would need to reposition the hinges and maybe even go 1 size larger.
like ep's have said there are also other options like just get a cool mist humidifier, about $30 (not a steam humidifier) just turn it on and point it at the cage , you could also get an ultrasonic humidifier, about $45 put it on a digital timer that has 20 cycles per day, about $15 and just run it for a minute or two each cycle, ultrasonic humidifers produce an instant COOL steam like vapor that will instantly raise the humidity of any small area or even an entire room. i have found walgreens to be one of the better places to buy humidifiers.
imo, generally speaking, hydration is more of an issue than humidity, jmo
Last edited:
D
DavidBuchan
Guest
Also, is it an all mesh cage or not? You can increase humidity easiest if you just cover a couple of sides with a plastic sheet......I think xanthoman said that already.....
C
ChameleonsInMyHouse
Guest
you can always save yourself the time and money. buy a sheet of corrugated plastic board and cut it to size. drills easy to any frame, water resistance. and sells for about $20 for a 4'x8' sheet
xanthoman
Avid Member
corrugated plastic sheet
corrugated plastic sheet thats genius, why didnt i think of that.
where would you get something like that , dont think ive ever seen it at hd. but wasnt really looking for it. there is a national plastics distributor here in seattle "tap plastics" that sell just about every form of plastic sheet you can think of, but generally speaking, they want rediculously huge cash for everything, will check it out just the same, thanks for the idea.
corrugated plastic sheet thats genius, why didnt i think of that.
where would you get something like that , dont think ive ever seen it at hd. but wasnt really looking for it. there is a national plastics distributor here in seattle "tap plastics" that sell just about every form of plastic sheet you can think of, but generally speaking, they want rediculously huge cash for everything, will check it out just the same, thanks for the idea.
When the eye problems came up It was just in my male, the females had no issues. After my 2nd trip to the vet with the eye issues. My vet recomended that I increase my humidity so I did and the eye issues went away..... If your chameleon is happy with a 50% humidty great!!! Mine was not. BigNasty is over 6yrs old,crusty!!!!, grumpy as hell, eats anything in sight, and still has an eye for the ladys.We all come up with our own conclusions threw our personal research. I feel my husbandry is spot on.
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Elizadolots
New Member
The product is called Coroplast. You'll need a fairly large sheet of it. You should call the plastics company and check. If they are too outrageous, you might check shipping/paper suppliers like Xpedx.
