New Cham Owner

[cpllongjk]

Hi,

My name is Jared and I am a new Cham owner. I am switching hobbies from reef keeping (roughly 15-20 years). While reef keeping was a great hobby the meticulous attention to detail, cost, and family life further prevent me from keeping my tanks.

My wife let me switch hobbies provided I am able to keep my Cham at work with me most of the time. I am an 8th grade science teacher and as such I am allowed to have pets is my class. I would however need to bring my Cham home for extended vacations and holidays.

So far I've purchased the reptibreeze chameleon kit, a little dripper, misting bottle, ordered a mistking, and am using a cheap vanity with sink from Home Depot as a drainage setup.

Questions:

1. Humidity is a problem right now since I can only mist while home. I mist 2-3 times a day which keeps humidity on low side of 35-40. I'm hoping the mistking solves this issue. How often and at what interval should I mist with the mistking?

2. How often should I change out the uvb and heat bulb?

3. I am using a Benjamin ficus plant to help with humidity and provide some hiding places for the Cham. Do I ever need to rotate plants since it will be mostly indoors?

4. Coming over from reef keeping I am used to monitoring and semi-automation. Has anyone any experience with controllers like "Digital Aquatics Herpetkeeper?"

More questions and pictures will follow. Thank you all so much in advance for your help and advice.

Jared

 

[MSMorgan]

Hi,

Welcome to the site Jared,


To facilitate a quicker response, fill out the attached "asking for help questionnaire."

https://www.chameleonforums.com/how-ask-help-66/

This will help ensure you're off to the right start and the wonderful folks here can tweak your husbandry to optimize your chams. well being.


What type of chameleon will you be keeping?

What size is your repti-breeze?

What does your lighting look like?

Post up a few pics, so that we can see what we're working with.

So glad you found the site. It's jam packed with info. and folks that are just simply the best at keeping these magnificent creatures. Hope to hear from you soon.

So far I've purchased the reptibreeze chameleon kit, a little dripper, misting bottle, ordered a mistking, and am using a cheap vanity with sink from Home Depot as a drainage setup.

Questions:

1. Humidity is a problem right now since I can only mist while home. I mist 2-3 times a day which keeps humidity on low side of 35-40. I'm hoping the mistking solves this issue. How often and at what interval should I mist with the mistking? Depends on cham. you're keeping. Kudos for the Mist-King. Talked with the at the Sac. rep. show yesterday and recommend the brand whole heartedly.

https://www.chameleonforums.com/care/chameleons/
2. How often should I change out the uvb and heat bulb? 6 mo.

3. I am using a Benjamin ficus plant to help with humidity and provide some hiding places for the Cham. Do I ever need to rotate plants since it will be mostly indoors? Rotate as soon as they are looking in need of freshening.

4. Coming over from reef keeping I am used to monitoring and semi-automation. Has anyone any experience with controllers like "Digital Aquatics Herpetkeeper?" Someone should chime in with this one.

As said above, glad to see you here. A wealth of information is found on the site for the taking.


Jared

Hope to see you post soon.

 

[MissLissa]

Mmmmmm. As someone who does reptile education with kids of all ages, I can't really see a cham being happy in a classroom. Kids are loud and energetic and most have no idea how to act around a reptile at all, let alone one with such a sensitive nature. I monitor our "Critters In The Classroom" program, where we temporary place pets in schools and let me tell you, when I do my weekly visits I almost always see a kid or two interacting inappropriately with the pet- thankfully we use leopard geckos, crested geckos, betta fish and similar so their ability to handle stress is much higher, and the animals are only in the classroom for 14-21 days before they are taken back and given a "rest" period.

I've been taking various reptiles and exotics, like parrots and birds of prey, into classrooms for programming for years, and one of the main requirements for the animals I accept into the program is "bomb-proof". While I have an extremely sociable male panther chameleon, even he stays at home and does not travel to classes with me, as chameleons stress easily and it can really affect their health and longevity, as well as quality of life.

A better pet for a classroom setting might be something like a Leopard Gecko, Bearded Dragon, Blue Tongue Skink, Cornsnake, etc, even if you are responsible for the care of the animal and not the kids. Its not that you can't provide the right care for them; it's that the environment probably would not be conducive to a happy, calm chameleon.

 

[cpllongjk]

Ok, I got the mist king setup and everything is working great. I am using the rain dome from mistking instead of the supplied mister where you rip a hole in the screen.

My humidity cannot hold 40%+ during the lighted hours. At night it's holding at 50%.

My timing schedule is as follows:

Basking light and uvb 5.0 on at 7am off at 7pm.
Mister mists for 5 minutes at 7am and then 2 minutes every 4 hours.

The problem is that the rain dome only gets a section of the leaves and once it dries up the humidity falls very quickly.

I would love to continue using the rain dome but need a different schedule or something because my humidity needs to be higher.

The main problem is that there only 8 timing sessions.

Can anyone make a suggestion?

 

[Blindsided]

Where do you live? I live in arizona and hold 50-80 percent humidity with 2 pothos plants and a mist king. I use the 2 nozzles it came with. Before I got the mistking I held the same levels hand spraying. So maybe you could add a few hand spray sessions to get the entire enclosure wet? I only had to cut a tiny hole for the mist king nozzle and used zip ties to tie it.

I mist at 730 for about 2 minutes, 1130 for another 2 minuutes, 3 oclock for 1minute and 530 for 2-3 minutes.

All sides are mesh (same cage as you) and none are covered and I keep it near a window. Maybe add some little pothos plants? Live plants will up humidity so I would add more. I have one large pothos and a couple of the small 3 dollar ones surrounding it.

 

[MSMorgan]

try a sheet of Coroplast or plastic on one side to up your humidity.

http://www.homedepot.com/p/Coroplas...te-Corrugated-Plastic-Sheet-CP4896S/205351385

Just wire it, zip tie it, or use magnets to attach to the screen.