Replicating Weather Indoors

Sammy Grigio

Avid Member
I wanted to hear about what you guys do to recreate the natural weather patterns in your chameleons habitat. Has anybody ever played with covering the top of the enclosure with a gray fabric to simulate an overcast sky? Or done anything else along those lines?

A couple of days ago I forgot to turn on the basking light before leaving for work. I turn on his UV light in the morning after he's had a chance to wake up with the dawn/sunrise light I have in my room. I mist him, put food in his feeder and get ready for work. Right before I walk out the door I turn on the basking light. Well a couple of days ago I forgot. When I got home I noticed that in spite of this he was extra colorful and active. He seemed like he enjoyed having an "overcast" day. Or a least that's what I like to tell myself.

I've thought a lot about having one day a week where his basking light is on for maybe an hour during the day, and another day where I shroud the lights with gray fabric to make it look like a really cloudy, dreary day. Along with it I was thinking I could increase the misting to really make it feel and look like a rainy day. What do you guys think?
 
Can you set the mist king to do a long rain once per week? There’s your rain storm

That's what I do... around 2 hrs once a week. Then different times each day for different lengths. I adjust the light schedule to the light outside so he gets the natural sunrise/sunset. Some days are colder or warmer than others. I set the lights on at different times, so like a grow light turns on first, then little later the uvb comes on and the brighter grow lights. I try to have it so the brightness is like it would be during that time of the day(so fully lit up at 2pm, dim in the evening). I have the lights go off or most of them when mister goes off.
 
I installed one of those huge pot growing tents to keep winter humidity up.

The "medium" has a 5ftx5ft base and is 7.5ft tall. That is good enough for 2 reptibreeze XLs and 3ft of swingin room for the human in front of the cages. I can easily create morning fog by running the ultra sonic mister for 20min. I bet i can create a thunderstorm by turning off the lights and just having a few strobes and the nozzles going :)
 
Back
Top Bottom