New Chameleon owner scared of thermal burns

[Starrider303]

Hi there,
I am a new mother to a juvenile Veiled Chameleon named Desmond and I am paranoid about the possibility of my little guy getting thermal burns!

He is usually a pale green and when hes stress his colors get brighter, but i feel like lately his colors have been darker while he basks.

He is in a ReptiBreeze large cage (18"L x 18"W x 36"H) in side he'd got a dwarf umbrella trree, a ficus and a pothos. all of his perches and vines are 6" from the top of his cage and his lights sit on top of the cage.

I have a reptisun 5.0 UVB light and due to my house having fairly low ambient temperature (65 degrees F) i currently have a 50 watt incandescent UVA bulb and a 25 Halogen bulb to get his vivarium to the right temperatures.

His basking branches reach a temperature of 80-90 degrees, the other areas at the top of the cage are about 70-75 degrees and lower areas of the cage range from 68-70 degrees.

Should I raise the bulbs higher even if it causes temperatures to drop?

Please help I dont want to hurt Dezi !!!

Here are some pictures (theyre not the best) the first one is of his colors when hes not basking and the second picture is after hes been basking

 

[Lpsouth1978]

I am certainly not an expert, but I would raise the light off of the screen if you can. I keep my light about 4" above the screen and use a 60w incandescent. This keeps his basking temps where they need to be, but the screen is only warm to the touch, making thermal burns impossible.

 

[Carlton]

This keeps his basking temps where they need to be, but the screen is only warm to the touch, making thermal burns impossible.

Thermal burns are possible whether the cham can touch the screen or not. Most burns don't involve touching hot screen. Burns happen because of a combination of things....from too hot a temperature directly under the basking light and the amount of time the cham sits there. Though it seems odd, many basking lizards don't actually have a good array of temperature sensors in their skin. By the time the cham senses it's too hot the injury has already happened.

BTW, turning a darker color while basking is normal. If he stayed dark the entire time and wasn't moving out of the heat at all, then he might be too cold.

So what to do to prevent burns?

Provide a variety of perches closer or farther from the basking spot beam so the cham has a choice how close to get.

Careful measuring of the basking temp right at the spot the cham will sit to warm up. Many thermometers are not that accurate because they measure the temp of the air or their own housings, not the object sitting in the heat. What you want is to measure the surface temp right on the perch or even of the cham itself. Non-contact temp guns are a great way to do this. LLLReptile and other herp supplies have inexpensive temp guns available. I haven't used a "regular" thermometer in years!

It is safer to err on the cooler basking temp side than risk overheating. Your cham may end up basking a bit longer (think of warming up as a cumulative thing...it may take a bit longer for your car to warm up to operating temp on cold days, but it does get there), but is less likely to burn itself. If the temps you measure are a bit high, move the lamp higher off the cage and re-measure. This distance may change with the season and with room temps.

If there is a little air movement off the top of the cage it will tend to dissipate the heat, so leaving a gap between the bulb and the screen helps.

If the rest of the cage is a lot cooler than the basking area the cham may spend too much time sitting right under the bulb. When the rest of the room is cool you might want to add a second low watt bulb to provide a sort of medium temp gradient.

 

[Lpsouth1978]

Carlton, thanks for clarifying! As I said I am not an expert, but somehow knew that lifting the bulb could help (even if not in the way way I thought).

 

[djfishygillz]

I really don't see thermal burns occuring with a 50-60 watt bulb... If you were using a 100 watt basking bulb then that would be when you should worry.

 

[NHenn]

My Nosy Be got a minor burn when he was younger with a 50 watt bulb in a 5.5 in lamp that was about an inch off the screen so just be very careful with your placement and temperatures.