Misting Frequency

[CSMGecko]

I was curious on what you guys were doing for misting frequency. How often do you mist your chams and how long do you mist when the system is on. I use a MistKing system and just curious on what should be the proper frequency for my Carpet Chams. I have noticed that every once in a while that they are retaining the shed around the mouth so I am thinking I am not misting long enough since I the system comes on every 3 hours throughout the day. But I also hear that misting too much can be a bad thing. So just wanted to know everyone's thoughts.

Thanks,
Cory

 

[suzi]

I mist my adults 3 to 4 times a day. A long 20 minute misting in the morning followed by 2 more 5 minute mistings about 4 hours apart and then a short misting about an hour before lights out. See what works for you. You want the cage to dry out in between mistings and mist long enough to really drench the cage. When I have a heater running in the room in the winter it dries out quicker so I mist a little more.

 

[webghost]

I was also curious about this myself. Wow 20 minutes, won't the cage be flooded? I do mine for 20 seconds 4 times daily. I'm still a beginner so maybe someone can tell me if I'm doing it too little or if I need to increase the misting. Any help would be appreciated.

Thanks!

 

[Escalade]

I was also curious about this myself. Wow 20 minutes, won't the cage be flooded? I do mine for 20 seconds 4 times daily. I'm still a beginner so maybe someone can tell me if I'm doing it too little or if I need to increase the misting. Any help would be appreciated.

Thanks!

I currently have my mister on 5 times a day for 30 seconds at a time but I am changing it to 3 times a day for 1 minute each, My cham lives in a free range so I can't really drench it but so far my cham is staying hydrated. If your cham is hydrated and the humidity is right I see no prob with your schedule. Does your cham like to be misted?

 

[webghost]

I currently have my mister on 5 times a day for 30 seconds at a time but I am changing it to 3 times a day for 1 minute each, My cham lives in a free range so I can't really drench it but so far my cham is staying hydrated. If your cham is hydrated and the humidity is right I see no prob with your schedule. Does your cham like to be misted?

Initially when the nozzles begin working, he gets scared and hides behind the foliage. I think it startles him but after doing it a few times today, he was starting to get used to it.

 

[suzi]

They really need to be misted for a minimum of 5 minutes 3 to 4 times daily, it often takes that long for a chameleon to start drinking, having a dripper also going for a few hours a day helps give them opportunity to drink. If you have proper drainage the long misting sessions will not flood the cage

 

[suzi]

If you don't have proper drainage yet you can put a plant in the shower and have the water hitting the wall and bouncing on the plant indirectly. Have the plant 1/2 in the water and 1/2 out so your chameleon can move in and out of it.

 

[webghost]

They really need to be misted for a minimum of 5 minutes 3 to 4 times daily, it often takes that long for a chameleon to start drinking, having a dripper also going for a few hours a day helps give them opportunity to drink. If you have proper drainage the long misting sessions will not flood the cage

Unfortunately I don't have drainage. It's just a flat plastic surface with some newspapers stacked. I have the 18x18x36 cage sold at flchams.com.. any modification I can do to create a drainage system?

 

[suzi]

Unfortunately I don't have drainage. It's just a flat plastic surface with some newspapers stacked. I have the 18x18x36 cage sold at flchams.com.. any modification I can do to create a drainage system?

Yes, I drilled 5 holes in the center of the bottom board and hot glued screen to it, I have my cages raised up on PVC piping with plastic buckets to catch the water. If you do a drainage search using the search engine I am sure you will come up with all kinds of ideas

 

[suzi]

Before I had the PVC pipe I had a temporary set up, I just used cylinder blocks to raise the cage up with a pan underneath, I used that for drainage until I had something better

 

[webghost]

Yes, I drilled 5 holes in the center of the bottom board and hot glued screen to it, I have my cages raised up on PVC piping with plastic buckets to catch the water. If you do a drainage search using the search engine I am sure you will come up with all kinds of ideas

Sweet thanks. I will definitely look into that! Thanks all!

 

[suzi]

No problem!

 

[Feebo]

In my enclosures (and I'm new to this) I use a homemade dripper system which I turn on three three to five times a day and I also mist two maybe three times a day. Being as my enclosures are plastic vivariums with glass fronts, the humidity is kept fairly well. Although I've settled into what seems to be the ideal routine with the spraying. Just four or six sprays is enough to leave the tanks at sixty to seventy percent humidity for a good few hours. One of the first things I read about chameleon care was the need for ventillation so I have large patches of eighth inch holes covered by plastic mesh in both my enclosures. I have experience with maintaining humid environments for various snake species and now I've settled into my routine with the chameleons I'm happy with the levels and thier dispersion over time. So here's my question...... Are these ten minute misting sessions purely in the hope of the chameleons drinking or are they a respiratory thing aswell? I do often see both my chameleons actualy taking hold of the little water valves on my dripper systems and dripping the water into thier mouths lol so I do know they are drinking. In any case, if I haven't seen them drink all day they'll happilly take water from a pippette. Huge mistings would definitely not be a good thing for my enclosures but my chameleons do seem healthy and hydrated. What is the native environment like for a veiled? Surely Yemen isn't super wet? Obviously my chameleons come first and I'd like to provide everything they need so I'd just like to understand this issue a little better. My two foot enclosures aren't going to last very long and I'll probably be handmaking thier adult enclosures. By that time I'll hopefully be totally sure of the sort of things I'll be needing to factor into them.......

 

[CSMGecko]

Thanks for all the posts that have been made. I have got a lot of really ideas from these posts. I was misting 8 times a day for 45 sec to 1 min. I have since changed the misting to 3 times a day at 5 mins. I tried different times but I have found that the 5 mins allows for dry time between sessions and I don't get massive flooding. I have some trays on order that will hopefully catch some water so I don't have to worry about drainage because I don't really have the extra space for setting up drainage. Thanks for all the info provided.