Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I think I may have asked this recently and if not me I know it is asked often, but I am going to ask again. How do we in the cold, DRY, north keep humidity up in cages? Luna seems to be doing well, regardless of the humidity being around 40%. She gets misted, has a dripper, drinks from a syringe, her poop color is OK. I have a small humidifier that I put in her cage and I use one in the room but because it is so dry it struggles to get up there. I just bought a shower curtain to hang around part of her cage to help but wondering if there are other tricks.

thanks,
lele
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0.1 veiled - Luna
0.2 green anoles Jaida & Jetta
0.1 brown anole - Jamaica
0.2 house geckos - Gaia & Tia

We added more plants. We were having the exact same problem with Roan and Jade. Roan was worse cause he is in a very big room. Humidity was at about 45%, then when we misted we could bring it up to 75%, but it would deminish very quickly. Now we have 8 plants in his cage, two bromeliads, 4 pothos, and a croton. Now it is about 55% and we can bring it up to 85% when misting and it takes about 2.5 hours to go back to 55%.Jade is in our bedroom and with her three pothos and 2 bromeliads and her dirt for her to dig in, her humidity is 65% and we try not to raise it to high cause I think 90% is to high for her.

But Roan is stressed out do to the change. In the old forum I found some info that might help, if you have already added all the plants youu could. I've added the link below.
kingsnake link

It's not so much the humidity that should be a concern. As long as your cham is misted and has plenty of drinking water then humidity shouldn't be an issue.

-Brock

Hi Brock, haven't seen you around lately!

I have wondered about that - humidity/drinking. If I don't see her drink from leaves or dripper I do everything I can to get her to drink from her syringe (which she will readily do) and I figure if she doesn't want to then she is sufficiently hydrated. I mist her skin lightly twice a day with a fine, warm mist as well.

thanks,

lele & Luna

>>It's not so much the humidity that should be a concern. As long as your cham is misted and has plenty of drinking water then humidity shouldn't be an issue.
>>
>>-Brock
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0.1 veiled - Luna
0.2 green anoles Jaida & Jetta
0.1 brown anole - Jamaica
0.2 house geckos - Gaia & Tia
0.2 felines - Kyndra and Líta

I use an ultrasonic humidifier, and it works great. My cage is a little small fow it now(they're still really little), but especialy for a bigger cage like what you have it will work great. I am going to have the same humidity problems as soon as it gets cold here, so I mist them a lot, have live plants, and use the humidifier. Good luck!

I do all those things...use an ultrasonic humidifier, drape a shower curtain around the back/sides and in extreme cases part of the front of the cage, add plants, mist more often, and just keep an eye on things. If I ever use substrate I do it in winter. I've tried putting open containers of water near lights in the cage but obviously there are problems with this...drowned crix, bacteria from poop etc. I did put some containers covered with window screen that helped a bit. I do find humidity has an effect on how much they seem to need to drink. Chams most likely lose a lot of their body moisture through respiration, and the drier the air the more vapor transfer during exhalation will occur. Its just one of those challenges we face. I also found that if I kept the room and house humidity higher it was easier to keep the cage up. A bit more house humidity in winter is recommended by health providers anyway.

The only changes I make for the winter is adding a humidifier to the daily cycle. The humidifier runs that same schedule as the lights.

My old furnace really rips any moisture out of the air.

What kinda humidity differential are you looking at?
I am happy if I maintain at least 50% humidity (with the occasional 75%) during the winter. (Right now I am at 55%)

Also, I have extra plants in the room that really help too.
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Joe
- www.silkwormfarm.com