UBV and heat source

[tdadarwala]

Do you shut off the lighting at night or do you need to keep the heat source on all the time? Can I use a night glo lamp at night and turn off the heat source lamp?

 

[VeiledKarma]

A heat source is really unnecessary at night unless for some reason your house gets below like 60ish.

 

[carol5208]

They can take temps in the 50's so unless your house is freezing you should not need any heat! Also, no light either as they like it dark to sleep. My chameleon will not close his eyes until I cover his cage as my computer is next to his cage and he sees the light from that. If you are keeping it in a room with activity and other lights will be on in that room, you might want to throw a cover over the cage. Just make sure if your lights are on a timer, that in the morning the cover is removed so you dont start a fire!

 

[ChameleonsInMyHouse]

Do you shut off the lighting at night or do you need to keep the heat source on all the time? Can I use a night glo lamp at night and turn off the heat source lamp?

a lighting schedule typically is 12hrs on/12hrs off

unless living in cooler areas where night temps fall below 55 degrees, a ceramic heat bulb is necessary. beyond that though, a cooler night temperature will aid in giving your chameleon and other herps better sleeps.

another downside to night time heat lights, is it will cause the humidity level to not properly rise as much at night like it naturally does in the wild.

so to answer your question in common best experience is nothing on at night

 

[seanUTD]

They can take temps in the 50's so unless your house is freezing you should not need any heat! Also, no light either as they like it dark to sleep. My chameleon will not close his eyes until I cover his cage as my computer is next to his cage and he sees the light from that. If you are keeping it in a room with activity and other lights will be on in that room, you might want to throw a cover over the cage. Just make sure if your lights are on a timer, that in the morning the cover is removed so you dont start a fire!

I had thought about doing this but got worried it may mess with the airflow of the cage at night? What types of cover would you recommend because this would also help with my cat problem at night trying to "hunt" the cham in his cage... waking it up by bumping the cage.

 

[dagy24]

A dark sheet or curtain would be fine.

 

[k9monkey]

I had thought about doing this but got worried it may mess with the airflow of the cage at night? What types of cover would you recommend because this would also help with my cat problem at night trying to "hunt" the cham in his cage... waking it up by bumping the cage.

I vote you get rid of the cat! Just my two cents. I am a dog person and ours don't bother our chameleon.

 

[seanUTD]

I vote you get rid of the cat! Just my two cents. I am a dog person and ours don't bother our chameleon.

WAY ahead of you were giving the cat back to my parents... We have begun raising a rabbit and were getting another along with probably 2 more bearded pygmy chams and a female panther so I figured its about time to stop providing prey for my cats imaginary hunts..