Reptile room
- Thread starter dlegare
- Start date
Chameleons09
Member
We have a seperate room that has only our snakes and chameleons in it. We turn on the heater or air in the room if the room is not at the right temp.
MCSEB
Member
Well, about half of my room is dedicated to my chameleon. I keep my rooms temperature at about 75 throughout the day since i'm at work and around 9 or 10pm, it lowers between 67-72. For his cage, I have a 5.0 UVB and a 60 watt bulb in the hood, i have 2 plants, i mist him 4 times a day 4-5 minutes each. The temperatures in the cage are at about 78-82F and the humidity is always about 70-80%. At night it lowers in the 60's just a bit.
dlegare
Established Member
Very cool. Currently my room has heating and humidity. I'm adding cooling this summer.
pigglett79
Avid Member
We have a room dedicated to the chameleons and all the feeders we breed. We use a space heater to keep it warm in winter. We also have 6 fake trees and vines set up in there for their free range time. There is a Walgreens cold mist humidifier set up as a fogger for humidity and a mist king for water.
fluxlizard
Avid Member
I have a seperate building for my lizards during the winter.
I don't try to keep a stable environment. I just keep it within safe parameters. No lower than 50 at night and no higher than mid 80s mid height of the room days (is wamer up by the ceiling, cooler down by the concrete floor and mid 80s is really only the high a couple months at the beginning and end of winter when it is warmer outside- the other months it is much cooler). That doesn't mean the lizards can't find cooler than that in the cages- they can. In the spring before I bring the lizards outdoors I open windows and the attic door which is vented so that hot air can vent up and out. When I built the building I insulated it heavily so at night no heat is usually necessary, though if temps drop into the low teens or single digits at night outdoors and if the bearded dragons are hibernating so the air in the building doesn't get very warm during the day then I sometimes leave a 250 watt infrared red heat spot plugged in aimed a couple of feet above the concrete floor. This keeps things above 50 no problem. The only other heat source in the building are the lights for the lizards which come on during the day. The building is 42'x30'.
Nature doesn't keep a stable environment either and during the summer when the cages are out in the yard instead of in the building I just keep things within safe parameters using shade and misters for cooling part of the enclosures as needed.
The key to lizards is not to micromanage the environment for them, it is instead to provide lots of options and microhabitats within their enclosures, so they can choose the conditions their body tells them to choose at any given moment. That means providing true thermal gradients that gradually range from cool to a bit warmer than they want, and allowing the lizards to move around that range and choose. This is important- lizards immune systems sometimes tell them to cook a little for example. Or they may want to use cool to slow metabolism and conserve food or moisture for example in the other direction.
Also outdoors the sun works a bit different than indoors under lights. My lizards are often much warmer than air temperature outdoors, especially on cooler days. Much like a brick, they seem to be able to absorb and build heat from solar radiance and seem to be able to do so much more effectively than under a light bulb. I've even had bearded dragons breed outdoors when the same temps indoors would see them brumating...
I think it is not as effective to provide exact conditions without a gradient. For example 87.6 on a single branch under the heat spot and room temperature the rest of the cage. After many years of observing lizards and how they work, I just think that's the wrong way to go about things.
I see people sometimes here on the forums reading temperatures on a basking branch and moving a light an inch closer or further to adjust and I just think that isn't the way to go about things. What if a lizard wants more heat that day? Maybe it just ate a large meal like a hissing cockroach and needs a little extra to digest that exoskeleton or maybe its immune system is telling it to warm up a bit more than usual that day. What if it wants a little less heat that afternoon?
Also, Gradients are very forgiving and dont require exacting and careful control- if the hottest part of the cage one day climbs to 100 and the coolest part is still in the 70s, and you've got many locations in the cage providing every temperature in between those extremes, the lizard can simply choose exactly what it wants to be at even if it's body is craving a temperature of 82. If the hottest part another day is only 90 and the coolest is in the 60s, if the chameleon prefers a body temp in the mid 80s, it can still choose exactly what it needs...
If you take into account solar radiation heating lizards more effectively- that is what nature allows them to do also. A little more heat move a little more into the open, a little less crawl a foot or two into the shade or 10 more feet if you want cooler, closer to the ground for humidity, onto open bare branches for less humidity, etc. Nature never gives them 86.5 all day in the sun and 75 all day 6" away in the shade. It gives a gradual change from sun to deep shade and if it is 86.5 in the sun wait 30 minutes and it will be warmer or cooler at the same spot.
IMO it is about offering a range of choices, not forcing exact choices.
I don't try to keep a stable environment. I just keep it within safe parameters. No lower than 50 at night and no higher than mid 80s mid height of the room days (is wamer up by the ceiling, cooler down by the concrete floor and mid 80s is really only the high a couple months at the beginning and end of winter when it is warmer outside- the other months it is much cooler). That doesn't mean the lizards can't find cooler than that in the cages- they can. In the spring before I bring the lizards outdoors I open windows and the attic door which is vented so that hot air can vent up and out. When I built the building I insulated it heavily so at night no heat is usually necessary, though if temps drop into the low teens or single digits at night outdoors and if the bearded dragons are hibernating so the air in the building doesn't get very warm during the day then I sometimes leave a 250 watt infrared red heat spot plugged in aimed a couple of feet above the concrete floor. This keeps things above 50 no problem. The only other heat source in the building are the lights for the lizards which come on during the day. The building is 42'x30'.
Nature doesn't keep a stable environment either and during the summer when the cages are out in the yard instead of in the building I just keep things within safe parameters using shade and misters for cooling part of the enclosures as needed.
The key to lizards is not to micromanage the environment for them, it is instead to provide lots of options and microhabitats within their enclosures, so they can choose the conditions their body tells them to choose at any given moment. That means providing true thermal gradients that gradually range from cool to a bit warmer than they want, and allowing the lizards to move around that range and choose. This is important- lizards immune systems sometimes tell them to cook a little for example. Or they may want to use cool to slow metabolism and conserve food or moisture for example in the other direction.
Also outdoors the sun works a bit different than indoors under lights. My lizards are often much warmer than air temperature outdoors, especially on cooler days. Much like a brick, they seem to be able to absorb and build heat from solar radiance and seem to be able to do so much more effectively than under a light bulb. I've even had bearded dragons breed outdoors when the same temps indoors would see them brumating...
I think it is not as effective to provide exact conditions without a gradient. For example 87.6 on a single branch under the heat spot and room temperature the rest of the cage. After many years of observing lizards and how they work, I just think that's the wrong way to go about things.
I see people sometimes here on the forums reading temperatures on a basking branch and moving a light an inch closer or further to adjust and I just think that isn't the way to go about things. What if a lizard wants more heat that day? Maybe it just ate a large meal like a hissing cockroach and needs a little extra to digest that exoskeleton or maybe its immune system is telling it to warm up a bit more than usual that day. What if it wants a little less heat that afternoon?
Also, Gradients are very forgiving and dont require exacting and careful control- if the hottest part of the cage one day climbs to 100 and the coolest part is still in the 70s, and you've got many locations in the cage providing every temperature in between those extremes, the lizard can simply choose exactly what it wants to be at even if it's body is craving a temperature of 82. If the hottest part another day is only 90 and the coolest is in the 60s, if the chameleon prefers a body temp in the mid 80s, it can still choose exactly what it needs...
If you take into account solar radiation heating lizards more effectively- that is what nature allows them to do also. A little more heat move a little more into the open, a little less crawl a foot or two into the shade or 10 more feet if you want cooler, closer to the ground for humidity, onto open bare branches for less humidity, etc. Nature never gives them 86.5 all day in the sun and 75 all day 6" away in the shade. It gives a gradual change from sun to deep shade and if it is 86.5 in the sun wait 30 minutes and it will be warmer or cooler at the same spot.
IMO it is about offering a range of choices, not forcing exact choices.
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dlegare
Established Member
Let me clarify stable environment. I don't keep the temps constant day and night and I use a controller that has programmed variances for day/night as well as month. This is also how my lighting is set up. That's to say that there is a seasonal variance to the daylight times. Currently my system is set to mimic the day cycle of Madagascar specifically the island of Nosy Be.
fluxlizard
Avid Member
Yeah I didn't mean day/night. Everyone kind of has that just by turning the lights off at night.
I'm thinking mainly of day time temps- mine aren't very stable because ambient temp in my building depends a lot on the weather outside of it since I have no heating or cooling for the building itself- only the heat lights for the terraria. And nature isn't very stable either. But gradients within the enclosures mean the lizards can keep their temps stable through self-regulatory behavior, regardless of the highs and lows extremes available to them in an unstable environment.
I'm thinking mainly of day time temps- mine aren't very stable because ambient temp in my building depends a lot on the weather outside of it since I have no heating or cooling for the building itself- only the heat lights for the terraria. And nature isn't very stable either. But gradients within the enclosures mean the lizards can keep their temps stable through self-regulatory behavior, regardless of the highs and lows extremes available to them in an unstable environment.
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