Mister/Dripper/WaterFall/Humidifier?!

[reptilematt]

Hello all,

My fiance and I are the new owners of an Oustalet chameleon. In the past, we have had anoles, tree frogs, tortoise, bearded dragons, and chinese water dragons but this is a whole new ball game!

We have our screen tank set up with lights, a live hibiscus, water dish to maintain humidity, moss covering on the bottom (we are looking at the pellets to put under that as well), but the one thing we cannot agree on is the mister/dripper/waterfall/humidifier debate.

We have heard anywhere from 50-80% humidity for Oustalets and we are keeping it currently around 65% by hand misting and want to up the numbers a bit (We have had our baby for a little over 32 hours now). We've read about getting a humidifier for the room to keep numbers up and then hand misting for it to drink, getting an automated mister, automated dripper, waterfall.... etc. etc.

Any thoughts or suggestions before we make our final decision?


Thanks everyone!!!

 

[chameleonkev]

Tbh you want to remove the water dish, remove the moss or any substrait you may have an go for a mister, I use mistking witch is perfect and don't get a waterfall it's not a good idea for health reasons and adding a dripper is also a good idea

 

[Carlton]

Get rid of the moss. Sphagnum moss has some hard sharp spicules that can lodge in your cham's throat or intestinal tract and cause an impaction or injury. It is best to have NO substrate in a cham's cage other than something he can't pick up on his tongue when shooting at something. Paper towels are easy to change, and they absorb and hold water.

The water bowl is not going to raise your cage humidity much if at all. Get rid of it. The cham normally won't use it and it can just be a drowning pool for loose feeders and a bacteria sink.

Waterfalls are a headache keeping them clean and dead-feeder-free. And, they don't actually raise screen cage humidity all that much. The best way to keep a screen cage humid is to stuff it with a lot of live foliage, hand or auto mist it (the more surfaces there are to catch and hold spray so it can evaporate the better) several times a day, and if you really need it, an ultrasonic humidifier when the room is especially dry. How often and how long you need to spray or fog will depend a lot on how dry the room tends to be and depending on time of year (using an AC in summer or forced air heat in winter). You can also hang clear plastic sheeting on the back and/or sides of the cage to help keep it more humid yet not cut down on air exchange.

 

[erik775]

what types of lights are you using?

 

[Calypso]

Yeah, moss is a bad idea. The waterfall, while claims of running water being able to be seen for water consumption seems like a good idea, I've heard more reports of them being interested in it to use as a toilet. In my experience it seems to be true, but it can be very helpful. As long as you have good maintenance it could do a number of things; catch water as it falls to the bottom to help flooding, create a good reservoir that may raise humidity slightly, and make for an easy way to clean up a large amount of waste in one place. As a reminder again though, without A LOT of proper maintenance it can be a very big problem much outweighing any advantages. Misting system and ultrasonic fogger is the way to go. Reptifogger fan goes out constantly and anything but the Mistking is a waste (even though I don't have one myself).