Humidifiers and Uri

Rlc1994

Chameleon Enthusiast
I’ve listened to the breeder podcast on how bill likes to fog his cages at night 12am-4am because that’s how somewhat realistically what happens in the wild. I’m getting a Jackson chameleon soon after my cage setup is finished and was thinking about running a humidifier with a tube blowing into the cage at night but I’m worried this could cause uri infection and bacteria growth? My mist king goes off 4 times a day 9:30 10mins 12:30 5 mins 3:30 5 mins 6:00 10 mins. Lights off at 9:00. This keeps the humidity at good levels with dry out periods but at night the humidity stays low which is why I was thinking of using a humidifier but scared of possibly dealing with uri. I have 4 live plants in my enclosure also. It’s an all screen cage with a shower curtain on the back screen.
 
The thinking is if it is damp while it is cool instead of when it is hot you will not have as much bacterial growth because bacteria thrive in heat. Also your cham will stay better hydrated overnight not loosing as much hydration in a cool damp environment. Hydration = one aspect of health. The key is you have to have the night time temperature drop into the 60˚F range.
 
The thinking is if it is damp while it is cool instead of when it is hot you will not have as much bacterial growth because bacteria thrive in heat. Also your cham will stay better hydrated overnight not loosing as much hydration in a cool damp environment. Hydration = one aspect of health. The key is you have to have the night time temperature drop into the 60˚F range.
Yeah that’s the big thing from me testing it out last night is it seems like it really gets the cage in the low 60s which I hear is good for Jackson’s. I know you need to keep the humidifier clean on a weekly basis too. Just didn’t know if them breathing in that heavy fog would cause lung problems or not. From researching around seems like people say it can cause uri and the other half say it’s fine so that’s why I started a thread.
 
I follow Bill Strands advice on naturalistic hydration. I have been running it this way the last 4 months of the 5 months I have had my cham. I use the fogger between 12-4am and my house low is about 66 at night. In the last 4 months he seems much more hydrated then the first month I had him with just utilizing misting during the day. He has not had any issues with an RI. His shedding is a very fast less then 12 hour process. So I am a believer.
 
I water once a day every day for a good 3 - 5 minutes with half ro half well water, my daytime ambient temp is 85-87 my daytime humidity is 50 °/. My night temp is 57 - 60 my humidity is 85 - 90 °/. And my chams (panthers) are very healthy, I also use humidifiers in the cham room. hope that helps
 
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