Reptile & Amphibian Forums

For those of you that do this, how on earth do you keep your chams from getting too hot? It's so hot here that I can't imagine keeping a cham outdoors...but there must be something that you do, right? It's been in the low 90's now, but what about when the temps get even higher? So, what's the scoop? I'd love to keep some outdoors (not my pygmies, obviously)...but I've been wondering about this.

Thanks
Kristen

Kristen,

We house our Chameleons outside with great sucess. We have a large outdoor enclosure built (20` wide, 15' deep back to front, and 12' tall in the rear and 9' tall in the front. We use shape cloth on the majority of it and have an auto misting system that runs throughout the day. During the hottest months we have it running more often and during the hoottest part of the day. Other times it runs less often but still during the hottest part of the day. We have shelves in the enclosure for some cages as well as cages placed throughout the entire cage for the Chameleons. When we have them in stock, Mellers Chameleons roam freely in the entire enclosure.
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Rob Trenor
RK Reptiles
Your source for Quality Import and Captive Born
Chameleons from around the World

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Thanks Rob...a few more questions...what do you do in very severe weather like hurricanes and such...hope for the best? Also, we have lots of shade here, so I could put the cages there, but does that defeat the purpose since the sun wouldn't be anywhere in the cage? Or are they getting enough filtered sunlight? So, I assume the misters keep the heat in check...are there any species that would not do well outside? (Besides pygmies)
Thanks again!
Kristen

Kristen,

Unless the weather such as a hurricane is going to hit us or come real close we don't do anything different. The shade cloth we use covers most of the cage but they still get filtered sunlight through it first thing in the morning and then from about 1-3pm they get nice direct sun via the screen area in the front top of the enclosure. Then in the afternoon the sun is almost past the enclosure and the remaining shade cloth protects them. With just the shade cloth the way we have it set up it drops the inside temps on hot days by about 15 degrees. The misting helps drop it a little more and maintain the coolness. Most Montain species usually don't do to well outside here in Florida because of the heat but we have had great success with housing many Montain species outside. We house Meru Jax (which are very heat sensitive), Deremensis, Fischers (few different sub species), Rudis, Bitaeniatus,Fuelleborni, Wernerii, Melleri, and many more as well as Veileds, Panthers and more. Attached you can see a few pictures of our enclosure.

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Rob Trenor
RK Reptiles
Your source for Quality Import and Captive Born
Chameleons from around the World

Please read our entire terms for purchase on our website
http://www.rkreptiles.com

We accept online credit card payments through PAYPAL
Please click below to make a payment.
https://www.paypal.com/xclick/business=sales@rkreptiles.com