Reptile & Amphibian Forums

and I want a panther chameleon. I have spent the last week or so researching ways of keeping the humidity up for my chameleon and still having airflow.(drip system, humidifiers, misting, spraying etc in a screen cage seems to be the answer) but that isn't going to work in a 10% humidity environment without making my house a mildew haven. Is any1 else from colorado? how do you keep you chameleon humid? I haven't bought it yet, and I am starting to get the feeling that I simply can't keep a panther chameleon in colorado. I keep all my tropical snakes in vivariums with no problems, but apparently chameleons are extremely sensitive to bacteria, so I can't use the old tried and true methods that I use for my other herps.
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-Jasmine

1.1 Brazilian Rainbow Boas
(Mercutio and Kajika)

I live in Vegas, which I would think is a much harder climate to make work (it's 115+ in the summers with 0-15% humidity year-round), but I've made it work for years now. Heating is much easier (and cheaper) than cooling, and you can add humidity by using live plants and a regular misting from a timed mist system, or rain (drip) system. I think dripping water is much more effective for hydrating, but misting does raise humidity, at least while the cage is wet.
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Tyler Stewart
Las Vegas NV
www.BLUEBEASTREPTILE.com

thank you, do you use a completely screen cage? or are a few sides solid? do you have a mildew problem in the room that you keep your chameleons in?
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-Jasmine

1.1 Brazilian Rainbow Boas
(Mercutio and Kajika)

Yeah, I use all screen cages, and I have zero mildew problem. To grow mildew, you'd have to have extremely high humidity (Florida style or more). It helps to let the room (and chameleons) dry out completely once every few days. I don't think constant high humidity is a must, as I obviously don't have it, and I've bred generations over and over like this. They need high humidity to get them through sheds, etc. but not constant day in day out. I use evaporative coolers (swamp coolers) blowing hurricane strength winds in to keep them cool, and it works great. It adds humidity to the air (that's how they cool the air) and on the hottest 110-115 degree days, it's blowing 75 degree air in. Mine moves and cools 4500 cubic feet per minute.
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Tyler Stewart
Las Vegas NV
www.BLUEBEASTREPTILE.com

I used to live in Bailey at 9200 ft. elevation. Talk about DRY! I kept melleri, verrucosus, deremensis, fischeri successfully in screen cages. You can do it, but as you realize it takes more planning. I hung clear plastic sheeting on the backs and sides of my screen cages, really packed them with large bushy live plants (larger plants use larger pots which provide more wet soil surface too), ran a RainMaker Jr. misting system, did daily hand spraying, and ran an ultrasonic humidifier on a timer to help keep up humidity between misting cycles. Obviously I spent more on the setups, but it is workable. The only mildew problems I had was in the closet of my cham room. Enclosed spaces that don't get air flow did mold in winter. I found keeping air circulating and not storing stuff in cardboard boxes there helped a lot. Keeping the cages cool on hot summer days was more of an issue than humidity. Get a GOOD electronic humidity gauge so you can keep track of it accurately. One nice thing about CO...that dry climate almost guarrantees a temp drop at night.