Humidity problem

mimibozzo

Member
I live in the country in a rather small cottage and right now it's very cold and the only heat source we have is a potbelly stove fireplace. We just got our new little addition, T-rex, last week from Kammerflage Kreations. This is our first time owning a chameleon. We have a screen cage and all the appropriate lighting. The only problem we are having is keeping the humidity at 30 or above like it's suppose to be, we can't get it past 20 even though we use a dripper and mist all the time. The fireplace is sucking all the humidity out of the air. We were advised to get a room humidifier - we got one, as well as a vaporizer, we set the humidifier on the end table in the livingroom and have it on all the time when we have a fire going and we put the vaporizer right next to his cage aiming directly into it - and with both of them on, we still can't get the humidity to go up enough! We don't know what else to do. We were thinking of putting saranwrap or some kind of plastic on the top and about 3-4" down the sides all the way around to keep some of the moisture/humidity in. Will that work maybe? Or does anyone have any other ideas? Help, please....
 
Keeping the humidity up can be a real challenge in the winter!!

Our gas heating system also sucks all the moisture out of the air.

Get yourself a cheap shower curtain liner and cut it to size on the back, and
one (or both) sides of the cage. Tape in place with duct tape.

Sounds like you will need better then a table top humidifier, I have a 10gal
floor standing unit on casters. Plus I have 2 smaller, tabletops next to the
cages.
In the winter, I have to fill it every day, so this thing is pumping 10g's of water into the room every 24 hrs!! :eek:

I only have them on during the day, when I have the heat up.

You may need to move your cham to another room, as far from the heat as possible.
 
When I was using a woodstove to heat I always had a pot of water on it in a cast iron kettle - I doubt it will help enough - but it's free and easy and might help a little.
 
I like the shower curtain idea if you are looking for a cheap fix.
Dollar store sells them.

Also- check youtube for videos of how dart frog keepers use pvc pipe to capture and direct the flow of the air/mist from a humidifier into their enclosures. Same principle can work for chameleons and you already have the expensive part when you got the humidifier . A good one done by a forum member:

httphttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lKTbUaOQ0aA://

I wouldn't run it constantly though, which is what he seems to say he is doing. You invite mold growth and bacterial problems if you don't let things dry out between soakings... I don't necessarily agree strongly with everything he says about husbandry, but you can see how the humidifier is hooked up to piping and redirected into the cage.
 
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