humidity/dehydration

[that guy]

Hi,
My chameleon is getting a little dehydrated. He has a lot of shed skin flakes sticking to him that wont come off.

Basking temp: 90-95

Ambient temp: 72-74

I'm having a very difficult time keeping his humidity up during the winter, especially at night. I have 3 live plants in the cage, 2 of them are trees. I have a mist king system with 4 nozzles and it goes of 4 times a day for 1.5 minutes each time. I currently have 2 cool mist humidifiers running for the cage during the day. The humidity reaches a max of 60% during the day and he doesn't seem to like the temp of the cool mist when it comes into the cage. Most forums i've read recommend cool mist over warm mist. At night the humidity drops to 30% or even lower, and when I tried to run humidifiers at night, it just ends up soaking everything. The cage is in my living room because it'e too large to fit through my bedroom door :/ but I have curtains that I use to cover the cage so it's dark whenever my roommates are using the room and the cham is sleeping. the humidifier soaks the curtains at night as well as the cage interior, at least on the bottom. I can try moving the humidifier to the very center of the cage, but I wasn't sure if it was alright to have some of the cage be wet throughout the night.

Any suggestions for my humidity issues??

thanks

 

[that guy]

Also he's a male veiled. And I've been feeding him silkworms and dubia roaches most recently, but switch up his diet frequently

 

[jamjam]

I think you can try running your mist times a bit longer prob 3-5 mins in time. do you see him drink at all? sometimes it can be a lil while before they chose to drink and 1.5 mins seems like it could be a bit short. Might also help the humidity a bit too as well since water wont be drying as quickly

 

[that guy]

I've only seen him lick his lips from time to time. I'll try increasing the mist times. I wish the water from the mist system was warmer for him, he doesn't like the cool mist at all. Do you think a submersible aquarium heater in the bucket reservoir help to increase the temp of the mist? I'm just not sure if those would get hot enough

 

[jamjam]

I've only seen him lick his lips from time to time. I'll try increasing the mist times. I wish the water from the mist system was warmer for him, he doesn't like the cool mist at all. Do you think a submersible aquarium heater in the bucket reservoir help to increase the temp of the mist? I'm just not sure if those would get hot enough

Ive never used a mist system, but i know i have on the forums things people have done to make the water warm, search around and hopefully someone with experience may chime in

 

[JaclynCali]

I've only seen him lick his lips from time to time. I'll try increasing the mist times. I wish the water from the mist system was warmer for him, he doesn't like the cool mist at all. Do you think a submersible aquarium heater in the bucket reservoir help to increase the temp of the mist? I'm just not sure if those would get hot enough

I have a heater in my water reservoir and it made a BIG difference for my guys. They actually sit in front of the nozzels now rather than hide from them when they turn on like they use to. I bought a heater big enough to heat a 10 gallon tank and its more than enough to keep the water at a nice temp.

 

[pssh]

In my experience, veileds aren't all that sensitive to low humidity as long as they get enough to drink. I don't really worry about the humidity with mine anymore as they always have white urates and drink plenty. If his urates are white, I wouldn't worry too much.

 

[that guy]

His urates are white and he eats just fine. The only problem I see is that he doesn't completely shed his body, he's shedding small patches at a time and there are flakes of skin attached too him too. I assumed it was probably the humidity, or could something else cause this?

Also JaclynCali What water heater do you have?

 

[TruBlu]

you could line one or two sides of the cage with correx or other plastic sheeting..this will keep the humidity in and at a higher level instead of having all 4 sides exposed (assuming you have it in a screen cage that is)

 

[pssh]

How old is he? My adult animals never do whole sheds. It's always a section of the body/head or a limb. Most of the time, they are in almost constant shed because they only shed small sections at a time.

 

[Mijah139]

Veileds in the wild often experience droughts and resort to eating vegetation to get water. Try feeding him some fresh fruits or veggies and see if he goes for them. To increase humidity, you can pick up a relatively cheap ($30) humidifier from walgreens and place it near him enclosure. Some people even use pvc tubes to direct the humidifier straight into the enclosure.

 

[that guy]

How old is he? My adult animals never do whole sheds. It's always a section of the body/head or a limb. Most of the time, they are in almost constant shed because they only shed small sections at a time.

he's about 11 months old

 

[ridgebax1]

Veileds in the wild often experience droughts and resort to eating vegetation to get water. Try feeding him some fresh fruits or veggies and see if he goes for them. To increase humidity, you can pick up a relatively cheap ($30) humidifier from walgreens and place it near him enclosure. Some people even use pvc tubes to direct the humidifier straight into the enclosure.

The OP already has a humidifier running but the PVC pipe is a good idea. It could direct the mist more centrally in the cage and not wet the covering at night. I used the heat shrink window film insulation on my guys cages but it is still tough to keep humidity up in the winter. My house is like the dark side of the moon, cold and dry! I would just keep up with the increased mist times. You could also periodically put the chameleon in a warm shower. Many folks will do this to facilitate a shed. You could search the forums for how to do this. Omar who is about 6 months old sheds piecemeal and Clouseau just had his second full body shed completed in a matter of hours.

There are lots of different kinds of submersible heaters for small aquariums that you could use in your reservoir bucket. I keep my monsoon reservoir sitting by a heating vent and that helps warm up the water and I run the tubing from the dripper under the basking light to heat up that water.

 

[pssh]

Is he nearly adult sized? If he is, I think his shedding is probably just starting to happen in a more adult-like way.