New cage

Karancon

Member
A few weeks back I posted on my veiled getting a nasty back burn. He’s fine now. We’ve since got a new 24x24x48 cage 2 new Ficus plants and added a jungle dawn 40 watt to help with the plants. Bought a infrared thermometer, cage temps are good. Using a 60 w halogen flood for basking, 60w mini spotlight for extra heat I think all’s good. Noticed this morning he’s hanging by LED. Might just be because he travels around. Any suggestions?
 

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A few weeks back I posted on my veiled getting a nasty back burn. He’s fine now. We’ve since got a new 24x24x48 cage 2 new Ficus plants and added a jungle dawn 40 watt to help with the plants. Bought a infrared thermometer, cage temps are good. Using a 60 w halogen flood for basking, 60w mini spotlight for extra heat I think all’s good. Noticed this morning he’s hanging by LED. Might just be because he travels around. Any suggestions?
If it’s just the led I wouldn’t be to worried, he may be cold if you notice him trying to get closer to the lights often. But leds give little to no heat. What I would do is Just try raising temp very slowly in his basking area if this behavior continues but if he’s still on his branch not trying to hang off the side of the screen I wouldn’t be terribly worried about him getting close to the led. Do you have a solar meter?? I would recommend checking the level at his basking branch because you want to have the uvb/ heat sweet spot. But just so you know other people will probably ask you to fill out a care sheet just makes it easier to help.
 
Thanks WashingtonCham - his basking temp on the vine is 85 - so I'm assuming a little higher at his casque. the lowest reading I've had in the cage is 72 I need to get the LED clamped on to something. Little croweded on top of cage and weights piling up, plus I want to make sure light is getting to the bottom of the plants. AC will be on soon, so I'll probably add use 2 60 W halogens instead of the 1. Since the new cage he seems to roam more - old one was 18x18x36
 
Thanks WashingtonCham - his basking temp on the vine is 85 - so I'm assuming a little higher at his casque. the lowest reading I've had in the cage is 72 I need to get the LED clamped on to something. Little croweded on top of cage and weights piling up, plus I want to make sure light is getting to the bottom of the plants. AC will be on soon, so I'll probably add use 2 60 W halogens instead of the 1. Since the new cage he seems to roam more - old one was 18x18x36
If you don’t have a solar meter 6.5 there a must buy in my opinion. Will let you know optimal basking spot for your cham and save you hundreds in bulbs knowing that your bulb (that says to change after a year) is still working is a huge money saver
 
All he’s doing now is hanging by the Jungle dawn. His perch site is warmer but the Brightness is attracting him
 
Give me just a few min gonna try to get someone in here that knows more than me. Havnt figured out how to tag someone on here
@Beman can you give this guy any decent advice? I didn’t even see the light at the bottom of your cage though you don’t want that. You want all your lights top down as if it’s the sun. Realize your cham doesn’t know what a light is so he just sees sun all around is prob to much. That’s probably your issue. And just to make sure you don’t have any black light or anything running at night right? All lights are off?
 
I’ve got it on the side because it’s not reaching the bottom of the plants. Rios too thick. Was thinking the roots needed the light. Plus I’m running out of room up there and things are getting heavy.
 
Hi there and welcome. Ok so typically we do not put lights on the sides of the cage. This is why.... He needs a heat gradient going from hottest at the top down to coolest at the bottom of the cage. When you put lights in on the sides then you are creating an ambient heat level that is warmer not cooler. He needs to be able to get down out of the heat. Roots don't need the light just the leaves. Make sure you are running a 12 hour on 12 hours off total darkness cycle with your lighting.

The UVB fixture has to stay directly on the cage. You want the basking spot to be roughly at 8 inches below the screen top. I can not guarantee your UVI level but this will get you close to where he needs to be in a 3-4 UVI range. So if it is showing 85 on the branch you have to account for the temp range going up as his body gets closer to the bulbs. Make sure your getting readings on his casque and watching for gaping. Also make sure he is not sitting on top of those bulbs because you will have thermal burn issues if he is too close.

I can't tell what you have going on for horizontal branches. But the ficus branches are not very large. He may favor one spot in the cage over another simply due to comfort of his grip.

Hope this helps. If you want to fill out the help form we would be happy to check your husbandry. Just copy and paste the form into your thread from this link if you are interested https://www.chameleonforums.com/threads/how-to-ask-for-help.66/
 
I’ve got it on the side because it’s not reaching the bottom of the plants. Rios too thick. Was thinking the roots needed the light. Plus I’m running out of room up there and things are getting heavy.
Yah that’s just something we all have to deal with they make these spotlights that can reach lower plants but that’s more for a large atrium style cage where the cam can get away. what you’ll prob have to do is Just rotate the plant or change it out for another kind of low light plant. (Pothos work great) Because you never want your lights anywhere but the top no matter what. Like beman said heat and moisture gradients are hugely important and you can’t make that with bulbs positioned like that. You gotta have your cham be able to get every kind of light uvb heat etc from his basking spot or you will have health problems rapidly.
 
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Hi there and welcome. Ok so typically we do not put lights on the sides of the cage. This is why.... He needs a heat gradient going from hottest at the top down to coolest at the bottom of the cage. When you put lights in on the sides then you are creating an ambient heat level that is warmer not cooler. He needs to be able to get down out of the heat. Roots don't need the light just the leaves. Make sure you are running a 12 hour on 12 hours off total darkness cycle with your lighting.

The UVB fixture has to stay directly on the cage. You want the basking spot to be roughly at 8 inches below the screen top. I can not guarantee your UVI level but this will get you close to where he needs to be in a 3-4 UVI range. So if it is showing 85 on the branch you have to account for the temp range going up as his body gets closer to the bulbs. Make sure your getting readings on his casque and watching for gaping. Also make sure he is not sitting on top of those bulbs because you will have thermal burn issues if he is too close.

I can't tell what you have going on for horizontal branches. But the ficus branches are not very large. He may favor one spot in the cage over another simply due to comfort of his grip.

Hope this helps. If you want to fill out the help form we would be happy to check your husbandry. Just copy and paste the form into your thread from this link if you are interested https://www.chameleonforums.com/threads/how-to-ask-for-help.66/
Also I’m sure beman will agree the podcast called chameleon breeder podcast you can find it on iTunes or at chameleonbreeder.com has some of the most helpful info in the chameleon hobby in my opinion. Bill has over 100 episodes on pretty much anything you can think of cham related. How to mount plants what plants to use etc. also he’s a great guy who’s genuinely happy to help people. Can’t say enough good things about Bill strand and the chameleon breeder podcast. Just start putting an episode on in the car before you know it you’ll Be hooked.
 
I’ve got it on the side because it’s not reaching the bottom of the plants. Rios too thick. Was thinking the roots needed the light. Plus I’m running out of room up there and things are getting heavy.
The leaves of plants are the main part of the plant that contain chlorophyll to absorb the light and turn it in to energy for the plant. That energy will be transferred from the leaves to the roots. So it's a good thing that you have heavy leaf cover, it means more surfaces for your plant to absorb that light :) Photosynthesis! Thanks Bill Nye
 
Yah that’s just something we all have to deal with they make these spotlights that can reach lower plants but that’s more for a large atrium style cage where the cam can get away. what you’ll prob have to do is Just rotate it or change it out for another kind of low light plant. (Pothos work great) Because you never want your lights anywhere but the top no matter what. Like beman said heat and moisture gradients are hugely important and you can’t make that with bulbs positioned like that. You gotta have your cham be able to get every kind of light uvb heat etc from his basking spot or you will have health problems rapidly.

There's no reason to change that bulb out. It's an LED and doesn't get hot enough to cause a burn. It wouldn't warm the bottom of the cage enough to make an significant change. The ambient heat would still rise to the top. That said, the reason for it being up top is to get light to the leaves(plus those bulbs are powerful and easily supply light to even ground cover in spots it dappled through) and to create a natural overhead basking area.
 
There's no reason to change that bulb out. It's an LED and doesn't get hot enough to cause a burn. It wouldn't warm the bottom of the cage enough to make an significant change. The ambient heat would still rise to the top. That said, the reason for it being up top is to get light to the leaves(plus those bulbs are powerful and easily supply light to even ground cover in spots it dappled through) and to create a natural overhead basking area.
I never said anything about changing his light?
 
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