BleuSaphir
Chameleon Enthusiast
What do you guys use to buffer out the space for heat fixtures? It getting cold, I am looking to introduce a heat emitter when nights are not sustainable for a Veiled. I don’t want to burn him.
Buffers for heat fixtures
- Thread starter BleuSaphir
- Start date
Mendez
Chameleon Enthusiast
How cold is "cold"? Veiled chameleons are montane chameleons and can take cold nights. But to answer your question, I've used a variety of methods to lift up a fixture off the top of an enclosure. I've created an arm out of pvc that lifts the fixture up. Essentially it was a square frame with 4 legs. The 4 legs can be as long or as short as you want (your leg height will determine how far or close your fixture is to the cage). Then I lay a pvc pipe on top of the square frame, drill a small hook into it, then suspend the light from the hook. I can try to find some pictures. I might have posted it somewhere here on the forums.
Yeah I think it depends on your version of cold... I mean most people have a hard time with temps in their home under 60 so you do not have the need for added heat. If the room however is dropping below 55 I would add a space heater to the room to gently bump the entire ambient temp of the room which will then impact the ambient cage temp. I personally do not trust CHE bulbs and have seen not only them over heat a space but cause intense thermal burns.
I don’t know your situation but I agree unless you have nights consistently lower than 50 F your cham should be fine. If your reptile room is that cold you can hang and angle you CHE several inches above your cage. To avoid overheating you will need to test it extensively before leaving it unsupervised. Additionally don’t leave it on continuously. Do 20 or 30 minutes on and 20-30 minutes off and only during the coldest hours of your night,
BleuSaphir
Chameleon Enthusiast
Noted. I seen my chameleon sign of heat stress. I don’t offer heat during the summer time. His temperature was at 81.
I never dealt with chameleons in winter time. Maybe I don’t have to worry about cooler temperatures.as I thought I would. If I have the heater on, the house stays around 60 degrees. If not on-below 50 at nights.
elizaann2
Chameleon Enthusiast
If you have the heater on and it’s in the 60’s you should be good. Even 55 is ok too
Remember heat rises. If you heat your home, get a step ladder and see what the temp is near the ceiling. since I have my cage four feet off the ground and it's four feet and my ceiling is ten, the top part of his cage gets very warm with using the wall heater. So on nights when its really cold I put my standing fan on and point it upward to move around the hot air at the ceiling. Also I have many sleeping spots at different levels for him too. also there is a little known fact that chameleons internal temp rises one to two degrees when they sleep. I guess that's why the PJ's and it helps them not get too cold!
nightanole
Chameleon Enthusiast
As a heat riser myself, i dont deal with above cage radiant heat. Ill pop a indoor/outdoor DC heating pad under the cage. They are very low wattage, like 15-25 watts and bump the cage 5-10 degrees. But the heat only has one place to go, up...
Ill also(much to the confusion of the cham) move the heat lamp to the side, and even in the middle height of the cage and have it tilting up. This gets the same effect, rising heat and radiant heat. They are morning baskers, so its not like they have never had sun from the side before.
