House is getting hot..cage is getting hot too

[JlaPinska]

the hot weather in NC here is kicking my air conditioner's butt. it has been 83-85F in the house lately, causing his basking spot to hit 90 and his cool spot to be 80. He sat on the screen half the day with his mouth open until i let him out. ive been misting very often but it's not helping the temperature. would it be okay for me to turn his heat light off during peak daylight hours? like noon-4pm

 

[laurie]

With those temps don't even turn a basking light on. a basking light is to allow your cham to get warm - I think your weather will do that just fine. What kind of cham do you have? Some chams would be loving those temps.

 

[junglefries]

the hot weather in NC here is kicking my air conditioner's butt. it has been 83-85F in the house lately, causing his basking spot to hit 90 and his cool spot to be 80. He sat on the screen half the day with his mouth open until i let him out. ive been misting very often but it's not helping the temperature. would it be okay for me to turn his heat light off during peak daylight hours? like noon-4pm

I am right above you, literally in VA. IT HAS BEEN HOT! The past couple weeks. It was 116°f on my outdoor gauge last weekend. I even stopped shipping. I use the outdoor misting fans from Walmart ($79 reg. Or $40 clearance). They spray water through the fan with a hose hookup. It can make a big difference. Aim the A/C and/or fans away from the cage(s) and turn off the basking light(s). Don't create a cold draft on them. I run T5 HO bulbs, as they produce minimum heat. I prefer to adjust the house to the chams, than vise versa. (Might want to do a freon check on your A/C unit or invest in a cheap window unit ($146) to offset the heat).

 

[OldChamKeeper]

I live in southern California, it gets hot. Despite that I keep a lot of animals that like it cooler.

The A/C does a good job but on days that hit over 100F my home will heat up. By that I mean the house gets into the low 80's.

If my chams are showing the need to cool off I place ice cubes on top of the cage along two sides, cold air sinks, the temp drops by about 5 degrees.


There's your quick fix.

 

[ridgebax1]

I just turned off one of CJ's basking lights, his temp yesterday was 87F and today 83F and the afternoon sun hits the corner of my house in which the cage is kept. The humidity has been awful too. I try to avoid using AC and it is not usually a problem because I have a pool (but that is not functional yet).

 

[JlaPinska]

thank you for all the replies! don't know what i would do without you all and this forum. I have a veiled, who should be happy with the 90 degree basking spot, but he isn't. he is also irritated because his shed is going slow. just his tail left. so he is moving about constantly. i will turn his light off on hot days for sure now. it was kinda cool letting him come out though, he allows me to pick him up and he turns all pretty for me. one day it got up to 85 in the house so he happily sat up on a cool curtain rod next to me for a few hours until it started to cool down. he actually tries to push on the door with his head when he wants out now instead of just sitting on the perch at the front.


a tornado tried to touch down on top of my house a few days ago. it never did hit the ground so it was classed as an EF0. it sucked on the back part of my house for a good 5 minutes or so and scared the living hell out of me! it dawned on me i had no way to transport him in an emergency. i'm going to buy a small bird cage and put dowel rods in it for emergencies now. Or do they make carriers for chameleons? If not, someone should lol

 

[JlaPinska]

I am right above you, literally in VA. IT HAS BEEN HOT! The past couple weeks. It was 116°f on my outdoor gauge last weekend. I even stopped shipping. I use the outdoor misting fans from Walmart ($79 reg. Or $40 clearance). They spray water through the fan with a hose hookup. It can make a big difference. Aim the A/C and/or fans away from the cage(s) and turn off the basking light(s). Don't create a cold draft on them. I run T5 HO bulbs, as they produce minimum heat. I prefer to adjust the house to the chams, than vise versa. (Might want to do a freon check on your A/C unit or invest in a cheap window unit ($146) to offset the heat).

our problem is that we have a glass sliding door on the side that faces the sun the longest. There are blinds on it, but the heat still goes through them. we're about to tear down the blinds and buy a massive blackout curtain.

I read about the t5 bulbs. they are tubes and fit into a strip fixture right? i just have a 75watt zoo med basking bulb set in a large round ceramic fixture. how much do the t5 & fixture cost?

 

[junglefries]

A single Zoomed fixture with LED reptisun bulb should cost about $25-40. Order off Amazon. If you can't locate one, pm me. I will find you one. Ditch the basking light. Some of my cages I have to move 3-4 times a day to keep in shade. Lots of work these chams.

 

[JlaPinska]

i'm actually looking into getting halogen floodlights when i'm out of these reptisun bulbs

 

[junglefries]

i'm actually looking into getting halogen floodlights when i'm out of these reptisun bulbs

Halogen won't produce UVB, as far as I know. They also are very hot.