Sauna and Steam Room

[Sammy Grigio]

I posted this on Facebook, and wouldn't you know it, it was taken out of context and I was yet again cyber castrated.

My question is this: Can you guys give me your thoughts on and opinions on the possible pros and obvious cons of let's say a 10 minute session for your chameleon in a sauna or a steam room?

What possible benefits could it have? What negative impacts could it have? Is there any place at all for something like this in chameleon husbandry?

Please keep in mind that I have no intention of doing this nor could I even if I wanted to. I just want to hear some brilliant chameleon minds break this down - bad or good.

 

[Kaizen]

I posted this on Facebook, and wouldn't you know it, it was taken out of context and I was yet again cyber castrated.

My question is this: Can you guys give me your thoughts on and opinions on the possible pros and obvious cons of let's say a 10 minute session for your chameleon in a sauna or a steam room?

What possible benefits could it have? What negative impacts could it have? Is there any place at all for something like this in chameleon husbandry?

Please keep in mind that I have no intention of doing this nor could I even if I wanted to. I just want to hear some brilliant chameleon minds break this down - bad or good.

My immediate intuitions would be to ask what exactly the purpose would be. And please don’t take that as snarky. Whenever I read about someone doing something that I haven’t done, I always ask myself why. It is entirely possible—even probable—that someone has read/heard/observed something I haven’t, and that makes me curious.

I doubt I’ll respond tonite, as I’m 98% in the bag, and I need to go to bed, but could you explain some more about what motivated your question?

 

[Sammy Grigio]

I think a lot about humidity and how important it is to chameleons. Then I think about how hard it is to keep it an in acceptable range up here in Alaska during the winter months. So naturally I wonder about what my guy is missing out on when his levels aren't always up to par. I understand chameleons are dry shedders and I also understand that they drink through their skin at night when they are asleep. I worry about him getting dehydrated even though he gets two heavy mistings a day and has a dripper running all the time. The thought came to me when I wondered if a quick session in a sauna could possibly help in rehydrating a chameleon. Maybe as a once a month type of thing?

These just thoughts. Nothing more. Hope that helps shed some light on the origin of this pondronce.

 

[Kaizen]

I’ll reply first thing in the am.

 

[salty dog]

Hot & steamy will give a cham respiratory infection fairly fast, I recommend researching the chameleons native habitat, too much far from that will damage the cham...

 

[Sammy Grigio]

You think it would cause an RI even if you did it for 5 minutes a month?

 

[MissSkittles]

Just an FYI...it is a misconception that they drink thru their skin. Cool humidity is increased at night to better simulate the natural environment and help reduce the amount of hydration lost thru breathing.
This will explain much better than I can. https://www.chameleonforums.com/threads/naturalistic-hydration.171408/

 

[Tihshho]

I'd be concerned about overheating. Sauna/steam rooms are generally high heat as well as high humidity. As @MissSkittles stated, cool mist is more so the solution. That said though, a confined space and a fogger filling that space like a smoke machine wouldn't be ideal either.

When it comes to chams it's a fine line of tap dancing on a rope, some species are more so a rope made out of dental floss.

 

[Kaizen]

I posted this on Facebook, and wouldn't you know it, it was taken out of context and I was yet again cyber castrated.

My question is this: Can you guys give me your thoughts on and opinions on the possible pros and obvious cons of let's say a 10 minute session for your chameleon in a sauna or a steam room?

What possible benefits could it have? What negative impacts could it have? Is there any place at all for something like this in chameleon husbandry?

Please keep in mind that I have no intention of doing this nor could I even if I wanted to. I just want to hear some brilliant chameleon minds break this down - bad or good.

Ok, sorry it’s taken me so long. What are your daytime/nightime humidity levels?

 

[coastal_chameleon]

Setting up the lighting and hydration schedule
natural humidity for panther chameleons as well as basking and uvb

 

[Lunatuck]

If your cage is setup properly and you have good husbandry practices, then you shouldn't need to do anything drastic to improve your chams health. My concerns with a sauna are heat and humidity. This isn't naturalistic humidity. I'd think a mid temped shower would be more appropriate for a dehydrated cham. I cannot think of an issue that a sauna would benefit.

 

[Sammy Grigio]

So the humidity stays around 35% during the day if I leave the door to the room he's in open. if I close it, it will stay at 50%, but then that also means the room gets muggy and gross and I happen to sleep in that room along with my wife - she REALLY doesn't like the mugginess and damp air. At night his humidity stays at about 95% because I have the humidifier blowing directly into his cage, so not a problem. His daytime ambient temps are 72.4 degrees on the nose and his basking spot is 86-90 depending on the time of day. At night his temps drop down to 64.

So guys, please remember that there isn't anything wrong with him or any pressing need for emergency hydration. I asked this because I've never seen anything on it or about it anywhere. A sauna can be very bad for a humans health if overexposed. It can even kill a person. Sauna's are a man made thing and they don't exist in nature, right? Yet we utilize things that don't exist in nature every single day both for ourselves and even our chameleons. If nobody as ever done it, then we truly don't know if it's really bad, really good or somewhere in between, right?

 

[Tihshho]

Closest thing to a natural sauna would be a hot spring.

I think what you're doing right now is more than sufficient. Now that you have responses to the sauna question, I think you have your answer if it ever came up in conversation

 

[Sammy Grigio]

Well I wouldn't go so far as to say that I have my answer. There is some conjecture here that assumptions on based on. There's no case study on this specifically and nobody has disproved the merits of this theory one way or the other using the scientific method.

 

[Brodybreaux25]

I’ll make this real simple, it has no place in cham husbandry.

 

[Sammy Grigio]

Thanks for brevity.

 

[Kaizen]

So the humidity stays around 35% during the day if I leave the door to the room he's in open. if I close it, it will stay at 50%, but then that also means the room gets muggy and gross and I happen to sleep in that room along with my wife - she REALLY doesn't like the mugginess and damp air. At night his humidity stays at about 95% because I have the humidifier blowing directly into his cage, so not a problem. His daytime ambient temps are 72.4 degrees on the nose and his basking spot is 86-90 depending on the time of day. At night his temps drop down to 64.

So guys, please remember that there isn't anything wrong with him or any pressing need for emergency hydration. I asked this because I've never seen anything on it or about it anywhere. A sauna can be very bad for a humans health if overexposed. It can even kill a person. Sauna's are a man made thing and they don't exist in nature, right? Yet we utilize things that don't exist in nature every single day both for ourselves and even our chameleons. If nobody as ever done it, then we truly don't know if it's really bad, really good or somewhere in between, right?

@Sammy Grigio ,

Your humidity looks pretty spot on to me: pardalis does well with “daytime dry, nightime high.” If it were me, I wouldn’t worry about additional humidity.

 

[Sammy Grigio]

Thank you! That was more what I was hoping hear regarding my current husbandry. I can't help but fret over the little things sometimes.

 

[Kaizen]

Thank you! That was more what I was hoping hear regarding my current husbandry. I can't help but fret over the little things sometimes.

I wish I could get mine be down below 50 during the day! Fretting over the little things is sometimes called “attention to detail”, and that’s a valuable commodity in this hobby.

 

[Brodybreaux25]

It is the soul of wit.