How do I get the humidity up in my enclosure?

[cosmicrain]

I have a mister, fogger, and it's surrounded by shower curtains on three sides. I believe I have plenty of plants in there, so I'm unsure why I can't seem to get it up. Lucky me, my chameleon hasn't arrived, but will soon so I really do need to get the humidity up ASAP. I'll share some photos, but it's night to it might be hard to see.

 

[MissSkittles]

Hi. What kind of chameleon are you getting? 54% is a bit high for a veiled and in the range for a panther. What level of humidity are you aiming for?

 

[cosmicrain]

Hi. What kind of chameleon are you getting? 54% is a bit high for a veiled and in the range for a panther. What level of humidity are you aiming for?

I’m getting a panther and this is me trying to get my nighttime humidity up. So, I’m aiming around 70-80%

 

[BleuSaphir]

Screen cages are hard to maintain a high humidity.

 

[MissSkittles]

It looks like your hygrometer is outside of the enclosure. Try putting one inside and see what readings you get. I don’t know if one of the smart type ones (like Govee) would offer better info.

 

[cosmicrain]

It looks like your hygrometer is outside of the enclosure. Try putting one inside and see what readings you get. I don’t know if one of the smart type ones (like Govee) would offer better info.

It is on the inside lmao it just kind of looks weird due to the shower curtain.

 

[Carlton]

What's the humidity IN THE ROOM like? Find out. Put a humidistat somewhere in the room away from the cage and track the RH level. The level may surprise you.

If the room the cage sits in is dry due to running AC or heat and your local climate is also dry, you are pumping a lot of moisture into a small airspace within a larger drier airspace. The moisture you put into the cage is constantly trying to equalize itself with the room; the moisture gets sucked out. A small room humidifier running in the room itself may help slow down that constant moisture loss inside the cage. Of course, you don't need the room to be as humid as your cage, but adding some RH to the room can help the cage humidity levels stabilize more easily. And, you don't want the cage humidity to be constant...it needs to cycle between drier and moister throughout the day/night.

 

[cosmicrain]

What's the humidity IN THE ROOM like? Find out. Put a humidistat somewhere in the room away from the cage and track the RH level. The level may surprise you.

If the room the cage sits in is dry due to running AC or heat and your local climate is also dry, you are pumping a lot of moisture into a small airspace within a larger drier airspace. The moisture you put into the cage is constantly trying to equalize itself with the room; the moisture gets sucked out. A small room humidifier running in the room itself may help slow down that constant moisture loss inside the cage. Of course, you don't need the room to be as humid as your cage, but adding some RH to the room can help the cage humidity levels stabilize more easily. And, you don't want the cage humidity to be constant...it needs to cycle between drier and moister throughout the day/night.

Thank you! I will try this out since I do have to run an ac unit most of the time, which I did have a hunch, was causing my humidity issues. I'm going to bring the one up from the basement and try to minimize the time I spend running the ac, as well as bringing out my humidifier!