AlohaChameleon
New Member
We just got our adult male Jackson's Cham that we named Michael (MJ for short). We live on the Eastside of Oahu (the cooler/wet/windy side) and have been keeping him outside under the eaves. These guys are everywhere in the forests at higher elevations and can withstand the cooler temperatures at night so we figured he's comfy with the high humidity and currently warm nights of 75°F.
However, after reading about basking lights I'm wondering if we need one.
Our routing goes like this: Husband leaves for work before the sunrise and moves his enclosure into a nice sunny location and gives his foliage a misting. When I leave the house around 9:20am the sun has had a chance to warm him and I move his enclosure back under the eaves so he doesn't get too hot and mist the foliage again. Husband home at 3:30 and takes him out to climb on our potted fruit tree on our lanai.
My concern is that he doesn't get warm enough when it's cooler and overcast. So we should probably get a basking light...?
Ideally, I'd like this enclosure to not be moved. I don't want to stress him and we will be upgrading to a larger one since I learned the most common mistake is a small enclosure. (Ours is 18x12x20 - too small).
Good news is he's okay with being handled. Open's his mouth sometimes when you reach to pick him up, turns a bit mottled brown but returns to normal bright green within a few seconds and climbs all over us. We're really excited about him but I'll admit we didn't prepare his enclosure properly before we got him so now I'm doing it after the fact.
This is really my husband's pet that I will be caring for since he leaves too early and MJ is still sleeping! I'm not really into reptiles but I'm getting used to MJ and I'm excited to propagate some plants for him since I'm more into botany. Aloha and Mahalo nui for all the great information on this site!
-J & E
However, after reading about basking lights I'm wondering if we need one.
Our routing goes like this: Husband leaves for work before the sunrise and moves his enclosure into a nice sunny location and gives his foliage a misting. When I leave the house around 9:20am the sun has had a chance to warm him and I move his enclosure back under the eaves so he doesn't get too hot and mist the foliage again. Husband home at 3:30 and takes him out to climb on our potted fruit tree on our lanai.
My concern is that he doesn't get warm enough when it's cooler and overcast. So we should probably get a basking light...?
Ideally, I'd like this enclosure to not be moved. I don't want to stress him and we will be upgrading to a larger one since I learned the most common mistake is a small enclosure. (Ours is 18x12x20 - too small).
Good news is he's okay with being handled. Open's his mouth sometimes when you reach to pick him up, turns a bit mottled brown but returns to normal bright green within a few seconds and climbs all over us. We're really excited about him but I'll admit we didn't prepare his enclosure properly before we got him so now I'm doing it after the fact.
This is really my husband's pet that I will be caring for since he leaves too early and MJ is still sleeping! I'm not really into reptiles but I'm getting used to MJ and I'm excited to propagate some plants for him since I'm more into botany. Aloha and Mahalo nui for all the great information on this site!
-J & E
