Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I live in southern california and its getting pretty warm outside even at night and i was wondering if I could move my chameleons outside all day and night. At night it doesn't drop below sixty and in the day its 70 75 degrees. I have panthers and i was just thinking it might be bennificial for them to be outside all day. Thanks for any comments and suggestions
Stevie

Stevie,

I would say it's prime time for keeping them outside.... Tomorrow morning I'm working on sprinklers on 4 more outdoor cages to do the same thing. Vegas is perfect right now for them. I currently have a Mellers chameleon outside, and have for a month. I just keep a ceramic heater on her at night, since it's in the 50's, then the daytime temps in the mid to high 70's work great. The best part about it (at least for me) is that you can drip water and mist NON STOP and it just runs off. The sun is great for them, and keeps them active and healthy. Panthers would be ok outside until the daytime temperatures are in the mid-80's, when they should probably be moved back in. Misting and screen shade will help in hot weather. Good luck!
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Tyler Stewart
Las Vegas NV
www.BLUEBEASTREPTILE.com

np

I've been able to keep chameleons outside from March through October in Southern California. I live inland near Palm Springs so we can get summertime temps in the 110's. I control the temperature by using an arizona misting system set up on a timer. When we are in the extremes temperature wise they are running almost constantly to keep the air temp in the area down.
Scales - Premium Exotic Reptiles

I'll agree that being outdoors is great for them but I disagree vigorously with suggestion that they should have non-stop misting. The cages absolutely need to dry out thoroughly between waterings. Failure to do so increases the risk of foot infections (IMHO). I mist about 15 minutes at a time 3X/day when mine are outside......... More or less depending on ambient temps. Also make ertain that they have a lot of shade to escape the sun as necessary. If you need to, place a towel over 1/2 the cage to provide extra shade. And make sure you maintain visual isolation between cages. And be careful about ants. If necessary put your cages up on brick or PVC tubing as legs and set the legs in containers of water/oil to foil the ants.
Ed

Should try living in the desert. It's about 2% humidity here when it rains. On the hottest days when the misters are running almost constantly (1 hour and 4o minutes out of a 2 hour cycle) the 20 minutes they are off allows for drying. Also we do not mount the misters directly on the cage but rather about 1 foot above the cage. This allows the water to cool the air temperature of the entire area and not spray directly on the animals.

You have to adjust your husbandry methods to match your environment (unless you are living in Costa Rica where they will be fine ).
Scales - Premium Exotic Reptiles

Agreed. You do have to adjust your husbandry to local conditions. However, you need to specify that when you give advice on a public forum like this. You just know that some newbie in Orgeon will read your post and think it applies to him! I, too, leave my mnisters on much longer when the summer temps here in PA get into the 90s. I still don't them to on nearly as long as you do in the desert but I'll bump the duration up from 15 minues 3x/day to 60 or even 90 min. 3X/day.
Ed