CHAMELEON CAGING MAGIC FORMULA

HOW TO SET UP A TERRARIUM CORRECTLY FOR A CHAMELEON:

TEMPERATURE-HUMIDITY-AIR CIRCULATION

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Critical abiotic factors for chameleon terrariums

Chameleons are generally delicate pets who won't let you miss a millimetre. Therefore, the magic of constructing a terrarium for chameleons is an evergreen and fundamental basis for their breeding. The idea is simpler than it seems. You just need to follow the rules and understand what's happening...

Years ago, when I defined the best and safest way to mist terrariums for chameleons, I settled on this formulation/logic:

Do NOT MIST when the lights are on!

MIST BEFORE TURNING ON THE LIGHTS AND AFTER TURNING OFF THE LIGHTS.

In an expanded version (fogging added), this rule is as follows:

Do NOT MIST or FOG when the lights are on!

MIST AND FOG BEFORE TURNING ON THE LIGHTS AND AFTER TURNING OFF THE LIGHTS.

FOG ONLY AT NIGHT, BUT ONLY AT TEMPERATURES BELOW 18°C (65°F).

It's a highly simplified rule for beginners, but it is ABSOLUTELY SAFE and above all: IT WORKS!

So, if you are a beginner, STICK TO THIS RULE. If you want to fully understand the issue, read on...

It's a bit different in reality; we simplify it for the purposes of breeding and explaining it to people, especially beginners. Some professional breeders have expressed reservations about it (it is possible to mist even during the day). Although they are correct, in professional breeding and an amateur situation with just one chameleon, we are comparing apples to oranges...

The issue isn't about misting with the lights on or even with basking lamps on. The problem is that a steamed-up environment "like in a laundry" must not develop in the terrarium! This means: in a well-ventilated tank, misting practically anytime is not a problem, but high humidity combined with high temperature must be vented immediately! The combination of these two factors rapidly propagates pathogens like bacteria and fungi (which already circulate in higher concentrations in the tank environment and generally in the air) that can attack various organ systems of the chameleon, especially its lungs, causing infections. These weaken the animals' immune systems, leading to illnesses like respiratory infections, sinusitis, mouth rot, skin problems, etc., ultimately causing suffering and death.

Why have many international groups agreed (or rather, I introduced it and gradually almost everyone, even former opponents, accepted it) to use the above mentioned rule? Because misting before turning on the lights and after turning them off is safe even in poorly-ventilated tanks, even for beginners - because it is closest to the natural cycle in the wild.

In nature, when there's a light rain, it also showers even under direct sunlight. It briefly creates a "laundry," but everything quickly evaporates and disperses with the wind. And when there's a heavy downpour, the sun is blocked by clouds, and the temperature significantly drops. And at low temperatures, high air humidity is not a problem... When the sun comes out, the moisture quickly evaporates, and everything is okay again.

In captivity, everything depends on the ventilation of the tank and the conditions outside the tank. This is because we need to ventilate the internal environment of the tank somewhere - outside namely.

For cages or fully meshed tanks placed outdoors, you can mist anytime because the wind quickly disperses everything. In fact, mist or lightly sprayed water can be used for cooling – this is why in places like Florida, California, and Texas, chameleons can be kept in outdoor aviaries-cages  even at higher temperatures than it is natural, as the evaporative cooling effect lowers the temperature. Conversely, in lowland regions of Thailand where weather conditions are similar to a "laundry room" even outdoors, it's practically impossible to keep most chameleon species alive. In captivity, we generally assume that the initial air humidity is relatively low - below 50%, allowing excess humidity to ventilate out of the tank. However, this doesn't hold true if you have tanks, for instance, in a poorly ventilated basement where humidity is above 70%, or in a poorly insulated house in the tropics or subtropics during summer, with high temperatures above 30 degrees Celsius and high relative humidity above 70% being normal. Without strong air conditioning and demanding compensatory mechanisms, it's impossible to provide survival-friendly conditions for chameleons. In such cases, it's necessary to refrain from keeping chameleons and not subject them to suffering leading to death.

The overwhelming majority of beginners also live under the misconception that chameleons come from tropical, humid, and hot areas. Mistake: the majority of species actually originate from a climate that can be described as Mediterranean or tropical but cold: moderately warm (up to 25-27°C), with dry days and very cool (12-16°C) and humid nights. High temperatures cause physiological disorders, disease development, and parasitic infestation's activating their pathogenity, weakening the organism due to the aforementioned and an inability to sleep properly, ultimately leading to death.

Moreover, the majority of beginners also believe that chameleons can endure terrariums with limited ventilation, and in some areas (UK, Northern states like Canada, Scandinavia), there's a fallacy that chameleons cannot be kept in properly conditioned environments in well-ventilated tanks, leading them to confine chameleons to poorly ventilated deadly traps with high humidity, resulting in no keeping and breeding success in such environments. However, it should be understood that it's unnecessary to provide the same conditions throughout the entire tank; the right conditions must be where the chameleon resides, not half a meter away...

In essence: tanks with minimal ventilation strips DO NOT WORK. The minimum rule to adopt is:

MINIMAL VENTILATION for chameleon terrariums consists of:

ON ONE WHOLE SIDE (almost complete except for technological barriers for substrate and sticking) and

THE ENTIRE CEILING.

The total ventilation area in a terrarium should occupy about 20% minimum of the total tank surface!

For example, in a tank measuring 50 x 50 x 100 cm, the ventilation area should be:

ceiling: 50 x 50 = 2500 cm2 = 0.25 m2

wall: 50 x 80 = 4000 cm2 = 0.40 m2 (excluding technical deductions)

total: 6500 cm2 = 0.65 m2

total wall surface area: 25000 cm2 = 2.5 m2

thus in percentage ratio: 0.65/2.5 = 0.26 = 26%

IN SHORT: A QUARTER OF THE TANK SURFACE MUST BE MADE OF PERMEABLE MESH

Also, let's realize that not all meshes are the same. Wire mesh with larger gaps naturally provides better ventilation (having a larger ventilation area to overall surface area ratio than fine mesh), and perforated metal sheets are quite disastrous; their surface area must be at least double that of comparable coarse mesh to serve the same function.

For example:

  Mesh with 1 x 1 cm gaps and wire thickness of 0.25 mm:       permeability 95%

  Mesh with 5 x 5 mm gaps and wire thickness of 0.25 mm:      permeability 90%

  Insect mesh for windows:                                                               permeability 60%

  Perforated drawn metal sheet with round holes:                       permeability 40% or less

In practice, this means that the total ventilation hole area to total surface area significantly differs. While with larger-gapped thin wire mesh, we can achieve 90% permeability (which is good), with so-called "fly netting" (which is used, for example, in flexariums and semi-flexariums), we need to account for much larger ventilation areas. Additionally, with perforated metal sheeting, airflow will be restricted by turbulence in the holes.

Physics is unforgiving but provides us with valuable and precise answers. 

To enhance the ventilation of poorly ventilated terrariums, it's necessary to:

• artificially move air (e.g., fans – but they must be positioned directly towards the ventilation areas/openings of the terrarium, otherwise they won't be effective – simply circulating air around the room has little practical effect) or

• create pressure differentials inside the terrarium and in the external environment (e.g., using special fans or air conditioning – but this has so many complexities that it's not usually needed to go down that path).

In practice:

• if you have a flexarium or cage, you are in a safe zone,

• if you have a semi-flexarium with a roof and two or more mesh walls, you are in a safe zone,

• if you have a semi-flexarium with a roof made of mesh, you are in a dangerous zone,

• if you have a glass terrarium with a mesh strip under the doors and a mesh roof, you are at risk and need to modify the terrarium or provide ventilation compensatory mechanisms.

• if you have a glass terrarium with ventilation strips, you are deeply in a danger zone and will lose your chameleon.

It all comes down to the combination of three abiotic factors:

T ... Air Temperature,

V ... Relative Air Humidity,

P ... Air Circulation Intensity.

These factors are interconnected and the following rules and formulas hold:

T - TEMPERATURE:

1 - low (recommended nighttime temperature),

2 - moderate (recommended daytime temperature in the middle of the tank),

3 - high (recommended temperature at the basking spot).

V - RELATIVE AIR HUMIDITY

(inside the tank or outside - the higher value is used):

1 - low (up to 40%),

2 - moderate (40-70%),

3 - high (above 70%).

P - AIR CIRCULATION:

2 - low (air in the tank is replaced in more than 5 minutes, terrariums with ventilation strips or just a mesh roof),

4 - moderate (air in the tank is replaced in less than 5 minutes but more than 1 minute, terrariums with one mesh wall and mesh roof),

6 - high (air in the tank is replaced in seconds, maximum 1 minute, terrariums: flexariums, cages, open setups).

These factors are crucial for maintaining a suitable environment for chameleons in captivity, ensuring proper temperature, humidity, and air flow within their terrarium setups.

B - SAFE BASIC CONDITIONS IN THE TERRARIUM

FORMULA:           B = T + V - P

B < 0          safe conditions

0 < B < 2    tolerable conditions

B < 2          unsafe conditions

CONCLUSION:

Use this formula to assess the suitability of the terrarium for your chameleon.

If you are in a safe zone, rest assured.

If you are on the edge of a safe zone, take immediate corrective actions.

If you are in an unsafe zone, change the terrarium.

Do not be fooled by pet store clerks or unethical glass tank manufacturers. Trust this formula, decades of practical experience, logic, and physics!

May this article help you do something good for your chameleon.

The world will become a better place to live...

Don't believe it? Do so! I do...

Variability of the air permeability of different types of mesh: from Over 95% (left) to under 50% (right)

A big THANK YOU goes to my dear friend, James Cross, 

who has built the by far biggest and best furnished chameleon cages I have ever seen...