Keeping plants alive in cham enclosure?

ssc97

Member
Hi, we are having issues keeping our plants alive in our cham's enclosure. I think the main problem probably stems from a lack of light - we have her UVB bulb on for ~12 hours a day, but I was thinking maybe a grow light might help the plants? We have tropical plants which in theory should withstand the heat / humidity of her enclosure . Any advice on getting a grow light? Also would it be too much for the cham if we added a grow light in for the plants? If a grow light is too much, any suggestions on how to keep her plants alive? Obviously when we switch out the plants its quite an upheaval for the cham who then also gets stressed out... so ideally the longer we can keep her plants alive, the better. Thanks!
 
You really do need a plant light of some kind. I use a dual T5 fixture with a UVB bulb and a 6500K plant bulb. Many of my basking bulbs are also plant lights. The LED bars use less power than my options.
 
I suggest/recommend an LED plant light. LEDs are more cost-effective in the long run, and better for the environment (no lead like fluorescents). Fluorescents will also require a fixture, whereas many LED plant lights do not—they come ready to plug in & turn on.

Quite a few folks have gotten this LED plant light; it's self-contained, has the oomph necessary to reach down into the lower regions of an enclosure, and IME perfect for a 24x24x48 chameleon enclosure. There are also usually many coupons available.

Whatever plant light you choose, your chameleon will likely be drawn to basking under it; they seem to be hardwired to bask under the brightest source available. This can work out very well in a couple of ways....

It's a good idea to set up the three kinds of light (basking, UVB, plant) in a sort of intersecting Venn diagram.
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This allows your chameleon to seek out & bask under whichever combination of light s/he prefers.

It also necessitates tilting the basking light to shine beneath the plant light in an elliptical shape rather than circular. This too provides gradients of temperature for the chameleon to find & choose from. For example (Top View)...
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If you do decide on the jungle dawn led.. I have the 34" that I'm not using and will sell at big discount. Reach out if interested
 
Do you put this on along with your UVB light also or do you just swap your UVB out for this instead? Thanks!
This would be separate from your uvb lighting. You want to make sure your running the T5 linear fixture with the UVB bulb and then you add either T5 fixture with a 6500 daylight bulb or the LED option for the plants.
 
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