Mesh enclosure has a problem with maintaining heat and humidity, placed shrink film on 3 sides to see if that helps can I go upto a 100w for added hea

[Honzo's mom]

Any input would be great! I did buy shpagnum moss and reptile soil for the bottom to help the humidity.

 

[kinyonga]

Welcome to the forum!
How old is your chameleon? Male or female? Species?

Please post some photos of your cage including the lights on top of the cage. Is the cage near a window?

Where do you live?

 

[Honzo's mom]

Mine is about 10-1 year it's a male panther chameleon I do have him in front of a window but I'm thinking of moving him to a walled off corner in my living room as it the warmer side of the house

 

[Honzo's mom]

Sorry forgot to add I live in northeastern PA

 

[GrannyK]

I would not go to 100w bulb if it can be avoided. Chameleons are very susceptible to burns because they do not recognize they are being burned. I would consider moving the existing bulb closer until you get correct temp readings at basking branch. They really only need basking to warm up and digest food. The shrink wrap should help with humidity and keeping heat in. I’m in ny, the winter struggles are real on this side of the us. Lol

 

[Honzo's mom]

I would not go to 100w bulb if it can be avoided. Chameleons are very susceptible to burns because they do not recognize they are being burned. I would consider moving the existing bulb closer until you get correct temp readings at basking branch. They really only need basking to warm up and digest food. The shrink wrap should help with humidity and keeping heat in. I’m in ny, the winter struggles are real on this side of the us. Lol

Thank you very much his basking branch is pretty close to the top so I made sure to raise his light about 6-8 inches because I was afraid of that I'm wondering if I should lower it by an inch or so to start or, I'm contemplating moving him into my living room where there are less drafts. Do you ever have a problem with water from the mister and dripping soaking the substrate in the bottom? I am changing it out today and switching to sphagnum moss with soil underneath, have you anyone had better success with that?

 

[Honzo's mom]

Thank you very much his basking branch is pretty close to the top so I made sure to raise his light about 6-8 inches because I was afraid of that I'm wondering if I should lower it by an inch or so to start or, I'm contemplating moving him into my living room where there are less drafts. Do you ever have a problem with water from the mister and dripping soaking the substrate in the bottom? I am changing it out today and switching to sphagnum moss with soil underneath, have you anyone had better success with that?

Also I'm thinking I may have to move his basking branch down further so the light can reast on the top of the cages the heat goes directly in.

 

[GrannyK]

Thank you very much his basking branch is pretty close to the top so I made sure to raise his light about 6-8 inches because I was afraid of that I'm wondering if I should lower it by an inch or so to start or, I'm contemplating moving him into my living room where there are less drafts. Do you ever have a problem with water from the mister and dripping soaking the substrate in the bottom? I am changing it out today and switching to sphagnum moss with soil underneath, have you anyone had better success with that?

You could consider bringing him into another room to help with drafts. It may stabilize his basking temps a little and his humidity. I have a dry bottom no soil, I use a wet vac and take the misting water out daily. Unless it’s fully bioactive with plants, it’s safest with bare bottom. I would remove all bottom soil and moss. It’s bacteria haven unless kept correctly. Maybe buy a pothos plant and put it at the bottom in the pot. It will help keep humidity up and will grow around the enclosure.

 

[GrannyK]

For the light, I would begin with an in or so if you have no way of measuring temps. I have a temp gun I use that was like 25$ but it’s not the best to measure. The petstores usually carry a temp and humidity gage with a stick piece that you connect to the basking branch to measure temps, if you can find one.

 

[Honzo's mom]

You could consider bringing him into another room to help with drafts. It may stabilize his basking temps a little and his humidity. I have a dry bottom no soil, I use a wet vac and take the misting water out daily. Unless it’s fully bioactive with plants, it’s safest with bare bottom. I would remove all bottom soil and moss. It’s bacteria haven unless kept correctly. Maybe buy a pothos plant and put it at the bottom in the pot. It will help keep humidity up and will grow around the enclosure.

I did hear to be careful with anything in the bottom, I did add the moss just to see if it would help humidity is up this morning to 73 heat is also up since I moved the sensors. Thank you! I will get a pothos to add to my other plants, until then I figured since the moss is so cheap I would wring it out daily and change it out every other day until the plants arrive. I have a wet vac, so having it bare makes the most sense so I can avoid molds or bacteria.
I really appreciate all the help, I did a lot of research before ai got him but some things didn't seem to work, everything you all have suggested worked great! I will be moving him. The only other question I have that I can't find an answer to would be, we have air conditioning, so I'm a bit concerned for the summer, any suggestions on that? I don't want him anywhere near my unit obviously but do I need to be concerned about that? I can move him to the opposite corner which would be about 8 feet away from the unit. Honestly I am prepared not to use it at all if it will be a problem. I would think it would make heat maintenance much harder. It's pretty humid here in the summer so hopefully that's not an issue.