Humidity, airflow, and drying out in a dry climate?

[clarkrw3]

I have a 3 mo old panther and live in Arizona where the general humidity in the house is anywhere from single digits to 25%. His cage is a small screen cage from LLL set up with a Mistking. I have yet to plastic off sides of his cage or run a humidifier, both things that would help with humidity. I also have the cage set up with a drain system which drains back down into a sterilite container. Right now I have the mister going off 8 times a day starting 30min after lights on and ending 1hr before lights off. I got the schedule on CF from a member and run his mister for 45sec to 2.5 min depending on the misting. His is set up with 3 live plants with vines and "freeway" branches. Humidity in his cage runs from 48% in the morning and at night up to 75% during the frequent mists. Temps are maintained at 83 deg at his basking spot. I also run a really slow dripper onto a large leaf that has water for him to drink, however, I notice him drinking off of vines and the screen after mists more than off of leaves.

I would like to spark some conversation on the frequency of misting. Find out what the ideal humidity is for panthers. And discuss benefits of airflow verses drying out.

I know that the cage looks dry between mistings. The leaves are dry and the screen is dry. This I am sure would not be the case in higher humidity locals and, I am sure if I had 2-3 walls covered with plastic that would not be the case. So is it better to have less airflow and mist less frequent? He doesn't seem to like the mistings and usually hides under a leaf. I know that many people mist 2-3 times a day and for up to 2hrs at a time. I have done a ton of searching and research and ideas are all over the place about the "best" way and I know that humidity challenged areas like AZ are difficult. I love orchids and have NEVER gotten one to bloom again in AZ which I attribute to the low humidity.

So lets hear it!! What's your schedule? What is your ideal? What is your philosophy?

 

[Hoj]

i would suggest a cool air humidifier in that room..
i mist 5 times a day for 45sec to 2min. and i keep my panther's humidity around 50-60 on average..

 

[Midnighthwk]

this is the first time i heard of misting for 2 hours at a time but i guess it depends where u live.

i mist like 30-50oz at a time 2-3 times a day. i just mist till it sounds like its raining and when the ground is dry i do it again.

my guy prefers to drink off the screen where the dripper is over a leaf or vine unless he is in the shower. he has a shower 1-2 times a week for 10-15 mins and seems to love it.

when i hand mist he will half hide but in the shower he will try to get in the mainpart over the splash

 

[clarkrw3]

Very interesting...I will have to try some showers when he gets a little older. All very good ideas.

One of the questions is I am running the mister more often to keep humidity as high as possible (with still letting it dry out) but are longer mistings better with less frequency?

 

[Texas Ranger]

I would recomend a Mistking. It really helps with humity. But yes you need to let the cage dry out inbetween mistings. And make sure it has enough time to dry out before the lights dry out. My mistking goes off 4 times a day. And the last misting is very short. Its just for a evening drink before bed.

 

[azgnoinc]

I assume you probably live in or around Phoenix- if so, I raised numerous species of chams in Phoenix including Panthers, my first 4 panthers in fact. A lot will depend one the room it's in; I lived in both apartments and a house, but the chams always had their own room. Typical Phoenix area homes often have tall ceilings- this will make it harder to keep the ambient humidity high. The best way I found to localize humidity was an cool mist ultrasonic humidifier/mister that I got at walmart and set on a digital timer - which was trial and error- and I ended up using pvc to be able to direct the mist where it was needed, this was also accompanied by hand mistings of a couple minutes a couple of times a day minimum. I set my cages up over sweater boxes with holes drilled all over the lid, it worked very well - and for my panthers I used a 1 gallon dripper that I would fill about half full 2x a day and set to where it dripped at least once every couple seconds - the motion of the water will often attract them to drink and it lasts plenty long enough for them to get their fill. Make sure you are letting your water dechlorinate if using tap, and if you have a water softner system in your house let the water sit to room temp before putting in your dripper, I used a couple of gallon milk jugs to rotate & have usable water available. Good luck

 

[clarkrw3]

I assume you probably live in or around Phoenix- if so, I raised numerous species of chams in Phoenix including Panthers, my first 4 panthers in fact. A lot will depend one the room it's in; I lived in both apartments and a house, but the chams always had their own room. Typical Phoenix area homes often have tall ceilings- this will make it harder to keep the ambient humidity high. The best way I found to localize humidity was an cool mist ultrasonic humidifier/mister that I got at walmart and set on a digital timer - which was trial and error- and I ended up using pvc to be able to direct the mist where it was needed, this was also accompanied by hand mistings of a couple minutes a couple of times a day minimum. I set my cages up over sweater boxes with holes drilled all over the lid, it worked very well - and for my panthers I used a 1 gallon dripper that I would fill about half full 2x a day and set to where it dripped at least once every couple seconds - the motion of the water will often attract them to drink and it lasts plenty long enough for them to get their fill. Make sure you are letting your water dechlorinate if using tap, and if you have a water softner system in your house let the water sit to room temp before putting in your dripper, I used a couple of gallon milk jugs to rotate & have usable water available. Good luck

Thanks so much for your seasoned advice! I am living in the phoenix area. The "Cham" room is in the basement thus has a pretty low roof which as you say does help with temp and humidity. I have been thinking about getting a humidifier and most likely will do that. I think if I am running the humidifier I could back off some of the mistings (i am currently misting 8 times a day with a mistking) which I don't think would work many places in the US other than AZ and very dry climates. I have also been reading that "humidifying" at night simulates what they get in the jungle in the wild...it would also keep the humidity up when I don't mist. Great food for thought that is for sure.

I was hoping to get a lot of input on misting/humidifying schedule from people in the know. How do you do it and why? Also it would be great to know humidity changes throughout the day...we chould even compare graphs of humidityI think my science background is coming back out

 

[azgnoinc]

I left Phoenix in '07, but raised 6 different species there - so the humidifier is a must. I never charted anything other than sheds, and if the cham is shedding 1x a month or so, with no issues and continues to grow you are on the right path. My room also always contained numerous cages and tons of plants - which all helped to keep higher than average humidity levels too. After you get your humidifier set up initially plan on playing with different set ups, it took quite a bit of trial and error to get consistent levels where I wanted them- almost never less than 50%, and averages of 65-70%. If the plants (Pothos, Shefflera, and Ficus) are thriving with your cham then you are doing good.

 

[Midnighthwk]

Make sure you are letting your water dechlorinate if using tap, and if you have a water softner system in your house let the water sit to room temp before putting in your dripper, I used a couple of gallon milk jugs to rotate & have usable water available. Good luck

right now i am lucky i dont have to worrie about humidity. i have turtles and other aquatic pets so i keep around 50-60 galons of decorinated water at hand for then i do watcher changes

first 3 pics are from when i was still in cali before i made the cham condo in oregon but they are all in my room for now

125 galon

80 galon

40 galon breeder

then theres my 30galon tall cricket cage, 20 galon frog cage, 10 galon worm cage, 80gal beardie cage, and my huge cham condo. my next place i will be setting up my smaller screen cage for another cham.

cham condo

so its not hard for me to keep the humidity up, but not everyone has that much water in thier room and i have umteen live plants in his condo