Outdoor Housing?

[Justin Carl]

Ok, I'm kind of doing a site poll/looking for answers.

Who houses their chameleons outdoors?
Can a Veiled tolerate being caged in a well planted cage outside in Florida's warm season?
Feb-Oct
How hot is to hot?
Will the temperature change effect them?
From it being 95 up top to 75(AC) at the bottom to a constant ambiet heat from the outdoors?
Will they stress at all?
I was planning on taking my Adult Veiled and soon to own female outside.
I think they would greatly benefit from the natural light.

 

[Dankmeleon]

You want to know if you can house your chams outdoors for a majority of the season

the answer is yes

you'll want to take some precautions to help ensure your cham is satisfied.

One, you'll want to keep his outdoor cage clean, as bacteria breeds alot faster with intense heat and sunlight

2. provide plenty of shade.

the majority of the season is perfect for a veiled but it does get too hot sometimes, keep in mind that when you house them outdoor there whole cage is going to get hot, so you'll want to provide them with an area where they can hide and seek shade, not where they are trapped being sun bleached and dried out.

two, you'll want to be cautious about huge storms, a lil rain is always a plus, a ****ing downpour is not what you seek for your guy, so you'll want to have an indoor cage set up for him where you can just run out, grab the plant he's on and get back in.

you'll want to keep everything raised of the ground

you'll want to build a mister, or buy one and put it on a timer, because the sun is very intense your cham will thrive with spontaneous timed mistings allowing ample time for the cage to dry out in between

i believe i was just told you'll want to switch to dusting without "D3"

if it gets under 60 you'll want to bring your cham indoors, if in the daytime its a generally crappy overcast day, you may want to consider bringing your chams inside as they can generally benefit more from an artificial good day

hope that helps, don't use a nice cage outdoors, its only going to get weathered, a reptarium will be fine

 

[Dankmeleon]

you will def want to bring them inside if the temps get to much above 90

i mean being out there isn't going to hurt them , actually a couple of morning hours of heat are quite nice in helping them digest, so during the heatwave of the summer you may want to consider housing your chams outdoors from say early morning to no later than noon

that way they benefit from the outdoor light everyday, but are not having to deal with the extremely harsh heat, keeping in mind that in a lot of areas people don't get the benefit of such a long season

so a lil is better than almost nothing if you know what i'm saying

 

[Justin Carl]

Wow!
Ok, I think that is what I'm going to do, but the problem here in Florida is the weather.
I nerver know when it is going to rain.
I can say that it rains everyday at 4:00 in June-August.
The only problem is that I work all day.
11-7, so being able to bring them in is going to be a problem.
I think they will tolerate the rain fine though.
Certain parts of Yemen exceed 80 inches of rain a year.

 

[Marc10edora]

My cham seems to over heat when it is only in the 70's sometimes in the summer. Even though it is around 75*F outside, a cham can reach temps higher than that when basking for long periods at a time. I have to keep an eye on him and mist him with water when he overheats every 15-20 minutes. I also try to provide a shaded area where he can retreat to on his outside tree.

 

[Dankmeleon]

i'm not going to lie i left my veiled in some thunderstorms last year, its not going to kill them as they get huge, given they have a good bit of foilage for "some shelter"

I'm also not going to lie, my veiled thrived under those conditions, having that wc appearance

however, its not the best thing in the world to do, but, it would not* kill to have a small piece of plastic over say a 1/4 of the cage to give him some shelter during those intense seasons

i live in tampa so i get the rolling tstorms too its just a way of life, this year i'm going to bring my chams in after say 30 minutes of rain each time


the way i look at it, even if i'm using filtered waters its not natural so you'll want to give them some rain periodically so they can flush and replenish with naturallly evaporated water

 

[Justin Carl]

Well, they are going to be located on the south side of my house.
I plan on putting them right up against the wall too.
I have about an 18" overhang that will supply shade in the afternoon.
Otherwise they will have a very thick planted cage.
Right now my large cages have two sheffleras and 1 hibiscus.
The smaller ones will have 1 shefflera and 1 hibiscus.
I could also but a piece of plywood over half the roof to supply them with a shady spot.

 

[Dankmeleon]

and last but not least i want to emphasize this really easy and critical point, your cham will be a lot more confident and healthy with a lot of vegetation and small trees around his cage to help keep the humidity in!!!!

and also you can getaway with keeping your veiled outside in the summer, but they will def def need irrigation to help them stay cool and hydrated

 

[Justin Carl]

Relocate the mister into a self contained outdoor box with only the hoses coming out of it.
HA! A weekend project! I love it!

 

[Dankmeleon]

you'll want to keep your resovoir covered from light

 

[Justin Carl]

Yea Ill buy one of those outdoor boxes with the "flip lid" and drill a hole for the hose to come out of it.
Ha! I wish home depot was open.

 

[Dankmeleon]

you may want to look into using aquarium airstones and airpump in your resovoir to help keep your water fresh and moving instead of sitting and breeding bacteria