Messy Misting

[Tiki]

How do y'all mist for 20 minutes without creating a wet smelly mess on the floor of your cage? My cage is a very large screen cage with a fiberboard bottom painted with some sort of white water repellent stuff. The live plants sit in tall " dishes" and I aim the dripper to land in the plant pot to keep water off the floor. Any extra water on the floor makes a smelly mess and needs a lot of claening.
I worry about the chameleons getting enough water and mist them whenever I go by the cage but for only 5 mins.

 

[chrisandpugs]

Use kitchen towels and big sponges to collect water!

Hi!
First, I put kitchen towels on the very bottem of the cage floor. On top of the towels, I lay down big size thick sponges.(Cut to size if necessary). Excellent absorber of water and in addition, the wet sponges(after you do heavy misting around the cage) will increase the overall humidity.
Just remember to remove the damp kitchen towels on the bottem of the cage and put in dry new towels every 4-5 days depending upon how much you do misting because the sponges don't capture all the wet water and the access water underneath the towels can cause water damage to the bottem of the cage floor over time.

Christine

 

[Cherron]

If the water has a smell to it, then you likely have a bacteria problem. Aiming your dripper into the plant sounds like a good idea but if the plant is sitting in water all day it will develop root rot, which also has a pretty pungent smell. A lot of keepers who do not have a drainage system in their cage use a water collection container.. which can be as simple as a bucket with a screen top so that your chameleon and insects don't fall in and drown. Just position your dripper so that the water runs down a vine or plant and drips into the bucket.

Remember that your cage should dry completely in between mistings. Standing water breeds bacteria and drowns feeders.