too much humidity for short durations bad ?

[jalli]

alright soo I've finally got the humidity right in the enclosure without drowning it. now my only concern is when the humidifier is running it fills the bottom foot or so with fog. this is about the height of where she goes to perch for the night to sleep. is it harmful to be breathing in that much water ? =/ it's an ultra sonic humidifier. she seems a lil darker in the mornings when she climbs up to bask. humidity gets to 70ish in the upper tank where there's more ventilation, but it gets to 100% in the bottom. kinda thinking about adjusting the timer to shorter durations but more often so the fog doesnt get quite as dense. it's on for 3 hrs coming on 2 hrs before the lights come on in the morning and then another 3 hour interval coming on 1 hr before the lights go out in the evening. trying to simulate the morning and evening dew points.

 

[CamrynTheCham22]

I think that is too much for any amount of time. It runs the risk of a respiratory infection. 100% is about 15% over the desired rate, if not 20% over. Especially if your chameleon is down there with the fog, it's just too much for their little lungs to handle. Just what I think. Whenever I use a humidifier/such, I have it one for maybe half an hour and it reaches about 60-70%, and then I let it drop again, because the climate I live in is very dry and it is what my cham has adapted to. It all depends on where you are located, too.

 

[jalli]

I opened it up a little to let it out so it wont fill up like that and turned it down to 2 half hour increments. I'll see how high it gets and what it drops to tomorrow during the day. might add 1 half hour during the day if it gets below 40% again.

and yes respiratory problems is what I was worried about. it's pretty dry here as well I couldn't maintain anything over 40% without drowning the enclosure. multiple times a day. looking foward to getting a mist king this summer.

 

[Cordawayconstruction]

I live in southern Oregon where the winters are really dry. I have a Jackson's so really had to work at my humidity. At first I ran the reptifogger non stop. Started adding some live plants...then got the mistking and added a few more plants. Now I almost never run the fogger and my humidity hovers at 70-80 . I put Cypress bark down at the bottom of his enclosure to cover up the screen. Plants do wondwrs!

 

[Alexander1]

Interesting you mention, I’m not entirely sure what kind of chameleon you have, here’s something to think about. I don’t know where the people comment get their information but for the common pet chameleon (panther, veiled, Jackson’s) they are not getting constant rain year round, there is a rainy season and a dry season, so much so that veileds almost get wiped out during their dry season. Rain isn’t always the only source of hydration, it’s only one of the ways our animals stay hydrated, over night the temps drop, creating fog which hangs out all night, and turns into dew , humidity is almost 100% percent all night! That humidity helps minimize moisture loss through breathing, well this is hypothesized, to be clear. So your fogger may help your Cham from the overnight dry out they would not experience in the wild. Your cage does have to experience dry periods to minimize chances of ri, fungus and other humidity related issues, your personal experience is your own, you have to adjust to what YOUR Cham and your environment present. I highly recommend you listen to the chameleon breeder podcast they happened to touch on this very topic in the last episode, he has great information from Peter Nechas who is one of the few scientist in the field that focus on reptiles, good luck!!

 

[CamrynTheCham22]

Oh, yeah, @Alexander1 you are correct, it does matter what kind of chameleon it is because each one comes from a different area, some dry, some humid. I know that some chameleons live in the desert, which is really dry. I didn't realize they didn't say what their chameleon species was. I broadened my measurements because I didn't know what species we were talking about. I actually got my information from one of the seasoned members on the site.
I know that fog does form in the early hours of the morning in nature, but does it ever get that thick on a daily basis? I believe that the humidity just needs to be tweaked, because right now your enclosure has a bit of excess humidity. The only risk is a respiratory infection, which is what you are trying to avoid. You are also trying to avoid overloading the chameleon's lungs and other senses, especially if they originate from a region that is a bit dryer than others. Fungus and such can also grow, so you might have to do a little bit of extra cage grooming when you keep that high level of humidity, which I agree with @Alexander1 on the dry periods.

 

[jalli]

female oustalet btw guys

 

[jalli]

sorry guys i wanted to mention my chameleon species in the original post and forgot but i do have a ficus, pothos, draceana and an ivy in the enclosure, also bioactive substrate, the Biodudes terra firma for when she needs to lay eggs. also it gets pretty dry during the day as im at work most of the daylight time, during lunch break i run home feed her look things over and turn the dripper on to a slowish steady drip. the little dripper brand which i fill about half way I think it's about a quart of water that runs out. and give a quick misting to the cage. since the humidity has come up I dont always mist it down anymore. I added a pic from a month ago. I've enclosed about 2/3 with shower curtain just draped up against the sides. today I removed the extra basking light as it has gotten alot warmer here the last few days.

 

[Remkon]

I'd increase humidity of the room he's in rather than fill up the enclosure or just fog lightly over the enclosure.
I do think we tend to obsess about getting the right constant humidity to much, in nature this will flucturate too.

Also, the analog hygrometer people often use is next to useless anyways and also the enclosure is warmer than the room around it (especially in the basking area) so humidity will be lower there and fall faster after misting, so measure humidity in the lower half of the enclosure.

I'm from the Netherlands and humidity is not really an issue here, for the days air is dry I raise the humidity of the whole room.

 

[JapSolum]

maybe try not running it as close to bed time and substituting for a misting? or if possible maybe run a fan through it for like 30 seconds before bed, I'd guess that would clear the fog real quick for his sleeping area. but yeah sleeping in a cloud of mist screams respiratory infection to me