Nighttime temp
- Thread starter Lucas00-
- Start date
MissSkittles
Chameleon Enthusiast
I’m in Florida where it just isn’t possible for me to get temps below low to mid 70’s. Because of that, I don’t/can’t use a fogger to boost humidity at night. I have the mist king run for 15 seconds during the night, just for a very slight increase of humidity. If my temps were closer to 80, I wouldn’t even do that. I do have all screened enclosures for maximum airflow and if needed, can always run the ceiling fan to improve air flow.
Depending how hot or stuffy your room is, you may want to invest in a room air conditioner or ceiling fan (if you don’t already have one).
Depending how hot or stuffy your room is, you may want to invest in a room air conditioner or ceiling fan (if you don’t already have one).
Lucas00-
Established Member
I’m in the mountains of Oregon, hot days and cooler nights in the summer time. It seems that with the air running through the house with air conditioners and fans I can consistently get it down to about 68° for the night but not until the last half of the night. I have my fogger kicking off more towards the second half of the night to avoid making too much humidity in the following hours of the lights turning off. My living situation makes it a bit difficult but it’ll be better in the future.
PNW_Cham
Member
I do not have air conditioning and during the summer my house can stay rather hot overnight (especially when I lived in colorado). I used to fog mist/overnight and the combo of higher humidity AND higher temp caused 2 respiratory infections early on (first 1.5 year of life) in my panther cham. I slowly backed off of the overnight humidity per advice from my vet who is a reptile specialist. So if it's warmer in your cham room overnight maybe be careful that it's not overly humid as well? It honestly been years now since I misted overnight. I run a mist king during the day and also hand water him since he is rather old (7.5 years) but that is all...
Lucas00-
Established Member
Thank you for your insight this is very helpful.
Lucas00-
Established Member
What times of day and for how long do you mist with the mist king?
PNW_Cham
Member
Sure thing. When my guy was little I read so much about heat, humidity, and everything needing to be just right that I think I over did it. I worried so much about him I had trouble sleeping lol. But I eventually figured it all out, relaxed, and here we are over 7 years later and he's doing great still. Your guy is lucky to have you!
PNW_Cham
Member
This has changed over time. I used to mist every 3 hours, starting at 7:30am and ending at 7:30 pm, for 1.5-3 minutes (longer mid day). Now that he's old and grumpy, he gets real annoyed by the mister so it only goes off twice a day now and I hand water him 1-2 times per day which he much prefers.
Lucas00-
Established Member
I d
Awesome, thank you again and I wish you a good day.
jmerrick27
New Member
So I have this same issue, I do have a nighttime drop of 4-5° sometimes 6° drop is this sufficient enough for the chameleon to obtain all the benefits because right now it fluctuates from 66°f to 67°F, I live in Canada and use a glass cage but will be making a hybrid cage by removing the front door and replacing with a screen mesh, so hopefully I'm able to get it down, but more or less I'm struggling to get the temperature down a little bit more
Hey there. Your temp at night is not outside of an acceptable range... But I would be careful if you fog as your temps sit on the edge of what is recommended.
Hybrids can be great but they can also hold heat which you can see with your glass enclosure. Monitor your ambient room temp... Then compare that to your ambient cage temp to see what your difference is. Sometimes you can reduce the heat in the house a few degrees to get your temps in the cage where they need to be. Also kicking off the basking fixture a few hours before your UVB T5HO fixture kicks off will help start your temp reduction earlier.
jmerrick27
New Member
Oh ok, I don't have timers yet but will be getting them this weekend, I put my fogger on from 230am -430am but I have a fan that kicks on when the humidity gets over 95% but my temp doesn't raise or lower from the fogger it stays either at 66% 67% but I'll try turning off her basking lamp 2-3 hours before shutting off the UVB lamp, hopefully this works
Thank you for reassuring me that she's still getting adequate temperature
You should be good. If adding screen doors does not help with a temp reduction I would look into getting a small PC fan to add to the top of the cage aiming so that it is pulling air up and out of the cage. This will help cycle your air through the venting at the bottom of the front of the cage. An issue with glass and certain hybrids is that you can have too much air flow reduction. This is where it gets harder because you can end up with stagnate air.
jmerrick27
New Member
Oh yeah, I have 2 fans, one that I allow to run all day to circulate the air which is a small 4" USB fan and the other is more complex which I can set the minimum and maximum humidity and once it gets to high during the fogging session it'll automatically kick in to lower the humidity to where I'm comfortable with it being which is 85% and it pulls the excess moisture out so it stays at 85%, but during the nighttime I turn off the air circulation about 30 to an hour after misting before shutting her lights off for the night, I'm still learning as I go and learning how to read her behavior, so I'm almost got everything done pat, because she's eating properly, hydrating from the moisture of the fogging machine and drinking water off the leafs if she wants to
Sounds like you are on the right track. If you ever want to do a husbandry review post your own thread here. https://www.chameleonforums.com/forums/general-discussion.6/
