Sunburn? Time outside?

[Daddio53]

I just spent the last two days building an outdoor enclosure for my little Dwarf Fischers, It's 1/2 inch hardware cloth which I stitched together to make a perfectly smooth seam. It's about 28" tall and round with a 15 1/2 diameter. Anyway, she seemed very much upset by me taking her outside and then by putting her in this cage. It has two branches from a Lilac Bush that are stripped of leaves on the bottom 75% and the leaves left on the top. I carried her outside on another branch that I then set into the cage. She didn't move one inch in over 20 minutes. I could tell she was upset by her color change. I knew she was traumatized by the beautiful colors and pattern she displayed. Poor baby. When I went to pick her up to bring her in, she ran up my arm. It was obvious she had enough outside for today.

Anyway, the reason I'm posting is because I hadn't thought about this before. How long can a chameleon be outside in the hot sun? Can she sunburn like we would? I left the leaves on the branches so she had cover from the sun, and I know that originally her species lived in the high mountain jungles, but how much heat can she take? I live at 5,880 ft above sea level in the high desert country of Colorado. We have very low humidity most of the time, but we've had unusually high humidity recently.It's still not very high, so I wonder how much heat she can take. Thanks for any factual answers you can provide.

 

[kplatvoet]

I lived in Addis Abeba, Ethiopia - which was at 8000 ft. above sea level - the only place I ever saw snow in Africa was on Mount Kilimanjaro which is 19,000 ft above sea level - I'm not sure where you'd find a Fisher's but if it's in the mountains of East Africa they are quite high the temperature never got hot - and it got quite chilly at night.

 

[Carlton]

Anyway, the reason I'm posting is because I hadn't thought about this before. How long can a chameleon be outside in the hot sun? Can she sunburn like we would? I left the leaves on the branches so she had cover from the sun, and I know that originally her species lived in the high mountain jungles, but how much heat can she take? I live at 5,880 ft above sea level in the high desert country of Colorado. We have very low humidity most of the time, but we've had unusually high humidity recently.It's still not very high, so I wonder how much heat she can take. Thanks for any factual answers you can provide.

No cham, especially a montane species such as fischeri wants to be out in hot sun once they've basked to warm up in the morning. They actually spend most of their day in part sun or dappled shade. It's not that they sunburn, but that they simply overheat or dehydrate unless they can get out of direct sunlight as part of temp regulation. I don't think I'd put a fischeri out in full sun if the day is warmer than 80 unless there's lots of dense shade and misting.

 

[Sticktongue]

Whenever I have kinyongia out (fishceri) I tried to keep the cage half shaded. I misted every 20 min or so as well.
Im in utah in very similar climate to you

 

[kplatvoet]

I put some blue bottle flies in with my panther when I take him out - he's been way better about coming out of his cage and doesn't hide when I fill his cricket cup in the am anymore -

 

[tkilgour]

No cham, especially a montane species such as fischeri wants to be out in hot sun once they've basked to warm up in the morning. They actually spend most of their day in part sun or dappled shade. It's not that they sunburn, but that they simply overheat or dehydrate unless they can get out of direct sunlight as part of temp regulation. I don't think I'd put a fischeri out in full sun if the day is warmer than 80 unless there's lots of dense shade and misting.

I like your response!