humidity

[charlieman]

if i could get some tips on keeping the humidity up that would be much appreciated. i have a plant in there, i am spraying 4 times a day for a minute. i have 2 bowls of water in there two. should i put a humidifier in the room? my humidity was upper 30s. thanks




5 month old veiled male chameleon

 

[chambabysitter1]

You should not have bowls of water in there. Chameleons do no recognize standing water as a source to drink from, plus it becomes a cesspool for bacteria.

How large is the plant? What kind?
Where are you located?

If you fill the cage enough with live plants, it should be more than easy to keep 50% humidity, with spikes up to 70-80 during misting.

What are your current humidity readings after misting? How are you taking them?

How long are you misting for? How much volume?

edit: A picture of the enclosure would help with ideas on how to give it more humidity as well.

 

[charlieman]

the bowls of water are for raising the humidity, i do clean them 2 times a day. the plant is a hibiscus and it is 30" high by 5" wide. i live in moses lake WA. sorry but i can not get any pictures. i have a habba mist that is spraying 1 minute every three hours. i also spray by hand once a day. my humidity after each spraying session is 70-80%. i am measuring humidity with a humidity gage. plastic with an arrow pointing to the amount of humidity.

 

[sandrachameleon]

Ways to keep humidity up:

Humidifier
live plants
NOT using a screen cage (enclosures with more solid sides retain heat and humidity better) or covering half of a screen cage with plastic.
Keeping the chameleon cage in a small room where there is also a fish tank, live plants, etc
Frequent misting and dripping of water
improving the relative humidity of the entire house

 

[chambabysitter1]

the bowls of water are for raising the humidity, i do clean them 2 times a day. the plant is a hibiscus and it is 30" high by 5" wide. i live in moses lake WA. sorry but i can not get any pictures. i have a habba mist that is spraying 1 minute every three hours. i also spray by hand once a day. my humidity after each spraying session is 70-80%. i am measuring humidity with a humidity gage. plastic with an arrow pointing to the amount of humidity.

Few problems.
1. Those plastic dial humidity guages are notoriously innacurate. You may went to invest in a probe thermometer/humidifier to get accurate measurements. You can find them for like 10 bucks at home depot or lowes in the weather monitoring section by gardening.

2. If you live by a lake, you should have good ambient humidity to begin with.

3. Ditch the bowls of water, people have had chameleons drown in some rediculously small pools of water. You are putting your chameleon at risk, and the bowls of water won't provide as much humidity as you think.

4. Chameleons need to be stimulated to start drinking. With a 1 minute mist, they have 30 seconds to get stimulated, then 30 seconds to drink. You should be giving them a few minutes to get stimulated, then a few more to drink. If anything mist your chameleon as long as it is drinking.

You need to adjust your misting schedule for the hydration of your chameleon and to increase humidity.

You seem newer to the hobby, reading this will help you research so you can avoid future problems. It is a short comprehensive read, so I suggest killing about 10 minutes reading it, for the sake of your chameleon. I know it helped me learn alot before jumping in, I reference it alot as well.

http://raisingkittytheveiledchameleon.blogspot.com/

 

[cushcameleon]

4. Chameleons need to be stimulated to start drinking. With a 1 minute mist, they have 30 seconds to get stimulated, then 30 seconds to drink. You should be giving them a few minutes to get stimulated, then a few more to drink. If anything mist your chameleon as long as it is drinking.

Chambabysitter is very right about this. For sometime I had 8 misting sessions for only a minute. Several people on the forum suggested that I bump up the time, I now have 4 misting sessions that run from 10-15 minutes. The longer mistings force the chameleons to drink and allow them to "shower" themselves. I have noticed that my chameleons will drink for half the misting and then use the rest of it to help with hygiene (i.e. clean their eyes out).

 

[charlieman]

thanks, i will get the bowls of water out and take in the advice