Humidity Problems for panther

[mikeb666]

Hi,

I've recently just bought my first Chameleon a Nosey Be Blue Panther. I live in the Uk and im having a massive problem getting the humidity high enough, I've only have the chameleon for 3 days. hes eating well, I've just bought a ultrasonic humidifier and have used a pvc tube so the mist comes out at the top of the cage, this probably has improved the humidity from 25% - 30% to and average of 35 - 40%. I was told that teh cage should be around 70%. I mist the cage a few times a day too this normally brings the cage up by about 10% for a sort while. The cage is a wooden structure 120cm, 70cm, 50cm. and i use mesh for all the sides, and wood for the top and bottom,. For heat and light i use a powersun 160watt bulb at the top of the cage. When i spray the cage the cham will normally go have a drink off some leafs. It normally just sits near the top and is generally a dark brown/green colour,. although when i put my hands it the cage to sort stuff out he normally goes quite light green/blue.

How important is it that the cage is 70%?

Any ideas on how to improve it?

thanks for ur time

Mike

 

[Brian S]

I would almost recomend a misting system. You can set them to run for like 5 minutes 3-4 times a day, also a dripper could helf keep him hydrated.

 

[mikeb666]

I've just realised that if i move the position of the humidity meter to the center of the cage the humidity is around 50% and after spraying to goes up to around 60 - 70%, so do u think that is a good amount of humidity, I've read that the humidity should always be over 70% but i've also read that it doesnt. What are ur opinions on this?

thanks for the reply

Mike

 

[Brian S]

i believe that the higher the humidity, the better. As long as you maintain good ventilation and supply drinking water, You should try to raise the humidity as high as possible, but your current levels sound fine.

 

[ChameleonsTree]

Misting should go for longer than 15-20 minutes a day. You should have at least 30 minutes total a day for misting. Personally i have 4 15 minute sessions that run daily.

 

[Jordan]

If you have the hydrometer close to the basking bulb it will always give a low humidity rating. Doing what your doing now is probabley your best bet to get a feel of the cage. You want to create micro climates. Places that are drier, moist, cool, warm and varing combinations of them. Then your chameleon can find comfortable spots for whatever mood or needs they have at different times. I would do some more probing around with your measuring device so you can see the real picture of the cage.

Near the top will be drier usually. Near the bottom will usually be weter. Finding a middle area that will not get soaked with misting is a good bet for your mounting of the hydrometer.

 

[mikeb666]

Hey guys ,

thanks alot for your replies, they help!!

 

[Prism Chameleons]

Hi Mike,

In the wild of Madagascar, panthers are used to very high humidity levels such as the 70% to 80% range because of high rainfall. However, in our households, none of us, unless we are lucky enough to live in high humidity geographical areas have that high of humidity in our homes. Typically, we can adjust humidity within their habitats between the 40% to 60% (sometimes higher) with regular misting, humidifiers, and the such. But realistically, when we keep our panthers inside our homes we are constantly fighting with air conditioners and heaters. Plus, I think most of us would be miserable to live in such high humidity conditions even if we could choose to have our households simulated at these ranges of humidity levels.

In a book called, "The Panther Chameleon" by Ferguson, Murphy, Ramanamanjato, and Raselimanana (2004), they did a study on humidity levels with panther chameleons and they found that, "Despite the high humidity of their habitat, panther chameleons do not seem to require this in captive environments as long as they have the opportunity to drink daily. We have observed no low-humidity problems such as shedding difficulties, with indoor habitats of 40 to 50%. At these humidities transfer of airborne diseases to inhabitants of adjacent cages and skin infections (Heatly et al. 2001) have been minimal in our laboratory over the last decade (page 75)."

So according to their studies of over a decade with panther chameleons, they really found no adverse affects with humidity levels between 40-50%. Having said that however, I do think it makes a panther chameleon feel more comfortable with higher humidity levels if we can provide them with it. I find it interesting though that in their studies they found less transfer of diseases and infections with a lower humidity level. It is all something to give us food for thought and I think we worry a little too much about getting to a 70%+ humidity level range than is actually necessary; if not nearly impossible to accomplish.

An interesting read. I highly recommend that book should any be considering purchasing a panther chameleon or already own one and do not have the book already.

 

[John33871]

i found that wrapping some parts of the cage with a good thick plastic on some parts of the cage, like the back and or sides, will help keep the humidity in the cage. but when you do your usual weekly cleaning, just wipe the plastic with warm rag to kill any bacteria or germs that are on the plastic. its like cleaning glass, but clean it good. hope this might help some, but what everyone said is all good. listen to them before me, lol. good luck with your panther!

 

[Robscratch970]

Hi Mike,

In the wild of Madagascar, panthers are used to very high humidity levels such as the 70% to 80% range because of high rainfall. However, in our households, none of us, unless we are lucky enough to live in high humidity geographical areas have that high of humidity in our homes. Typically, we can adjust humidity within their habitats between the 40% to 60% (sometimes higher) with regular misting, humidifiers, and the such. But realistically, when we keep our panthers inside our homes we are constantly fighting with air conditioners and heaters. Plus, I think most of us would be miserable to live in such high humidity conditions even if we could choose to have our households simulated at these ranges of humidity levels.

In a book called, "The Panther Chameleon" by Ferguson, Murphy, Ramanamanjato, and Raselimanana (2004), they did a study on humidity levels with panther chameleons and they found that, "Despite the high humidity of their habitat, panther chameleons do not seem to require this in captive environments as long as they have the opportunity to drink daily. We have observed no low-humidity problems such as shedding difficulties, with indoor habitats of 40 to 50%. At these humidities transfer of airborne diseases to inhabitants of adjacent cages and skin infections (Heatly et al. 2001) have been minimal in our laboratory over the last decade (page 75)."

So according to their studies of over a decade with panther chameleons, they really found no adverse affects with humidity levels between 40-50%. Having said that however, I do think it makes a panther chameleon feel more comfortable with higher humidity levels if we can provide them with it. I find it interesting though that in their studies they found less transfer of diseases and infections with a lower humidity level. It is all something to give us food for thought and I think we worry a little too much about getting to a 70%+ humidity level range than is actually necessary; if not nearly impossible to accomplish.

An interesting read. I highly recommend that book should any be considering purchasing a panther chameleon or already own one and do not have the book already.

So my female panther chameleon just passed and it happened so fast there was nothing I could do I was hoping when I got home from work if she was still not looking good I could take her to the vet but she had passed by the time I got home. I got her on Craigslist and she was in a small screen cage that was extremely bare. I set up a screen cage 4 x4x2 with live plants and vines everywhere. I thought it was a great place for her and she seemed to be doing fine up until a couple days ago. I had a mister that went off for 30 sec every hour and a dripped. The humidity never got above 50% though. I knew that females would lay eggs and had a trash can with dirt and climbing features ready to go if I saw her digging. My female veiled did this in her enclosure, digging, scratching, at the bottom the cage and when I caught on I put her in the can and she dug and laid eggs. 2 different clutches but I never saw my panther exhibit this behavior? I don’t know how old she was either when got her from the previous owner. I was working a bunch this last month and instead of buying crickets at the store I would throw 4 or 5 hoppers in that I caught from outside. Was this enough food or could the grasshoppers have had parasites. I looked into feeding my chameleon free range insects and it seemed like most avoided it but some said it would be fine. My other reptiles are fine from doing this? I though she may have been egg bound too so I exhumed her Body because I needed to know, but didn’t find any eggs inside her. I’m at a loss? I’m so mad at my self!! But I hope this helps somebody out.

 

[Klyde O'Scope]

Rob,

This is a 13+ year-old thread, but whatever...

Welcome to the forum. So sorry for your loss, but there are so many variables and possibilities that it's virtually impossible to tell what really happened. Since you successfully keep other reptiles, I doubt it was anything you did; as you know, there's always an element of risk and the unknown in this hobby.

For future reference, there are ways to raise & maintain humidity.
raising humidity in a chameleon enclosure
(More below initial vid)

You can also (always) check the archives for more in-depth discussions.