Keeping Chameleon in Shower

[chubbs032]

What do you guys think of this idea? I plan on keeping the room temperature during the day at 78 - 82 degrees plus or minus a few degrees. Will keep a fake 4ft ficus and another 6 ft. ficus in there with vines. I will have a spotlight fixture with a mercury vapor bulb on a portion of the 6ft ficus as a basking site and a 75watt night bulb for nighttime when temperatures may go down to 68- 72. Room temp will be adjusted with a thermostat on a rheostat and timer. What do you guys think?

Currently my veiled is in a 4.5 ft x 2.5 x 2.5 reptarium and its just a chore to move him in and out to water him. He doesnt drink from a drip so i shower and spray, but the water collects at the bottom starts smelling and collecting.

[peterm15]

why not just build a tray under it so you can give a good 5 min mistins then wait 10 minutes slide out the tray and dump it... a litter tray like in a bird cage... imo be alot easier for airflow and stuff...

[chubbs032]

How would I put the tray? under the tree to collect water then I would have to lift the tree to take the tray out. Thanks for the advice.

[peterm15]

you put the entire enclosure on a frame about a foot high... and have a rubbermaid under it.. its in my head but hard to explain... im sure the shower thing isnt a bad idea but what about him escaping and stuff...

[chubbs032]

Well Reptarium's come with a plastic bottom, I kinda get your point but sounds messy. For the shower theres the shower door.and keep the plants away from any exits. Any other useful tips anyone?

What is everyone else using or doing as caging/watering?

[peterm15]

the only other suggestion would be lots of light a hook latch on the doors and to maybe mesh the top so theres no chance to escape.. as well as mesh or plug the drain.. so he doesnt hurt himself...

[labomb]

sounds extreme :) I wish someone would start making a better chameleon enclosure, somewhat like the design of a bird cage with the tray in the bottom and the wire grill type overtop that so the plants wouldn't sit directly in the slide out tray. and the whole front being a door big enough to easily put plants in. put a solid back on it so your walls don't get sprayed while misting, and the bars closer together than the normal bird cage would be excellnt for climbing. make it about 36"x24"x60"high and on wheels. what do ya think, should I draw up the plans and find someone to produce them? :)

[newticus]

just curious, what about when u need to shower??

[chubbs032]

its in the guest bedroom, doesn't get used.

[tHeGiNo]

In my opinion, it sounds like a great idea if you can chameleon proof it. What worries me is falling from a tree onto the hard bath tub or tile. Ouch.

[DragnDrop]

Go to http://www.chameleonjournals.com/
Kathy, the site owner used to have her cham set up in the bathroom. She had some pages completely devoted to how she did it and a dairy about his life in the bathroom. Apparently those pages are being redone according to the notice on under 'journals', but you could email her and ask if she has any info for you.

[chubbs032]

im trying to get the all-in-one cage because transporting him is sometimes near impossible, he likes to jump sometimes, and the new cage will be waterproof

i'll email kathy, thanks.

[chubbs032]

wat does everyone else do for misting drainage and watering your cham?

[galad]

I have the perfect drainage set up in my enclosures.
In my opinion it might be better to just build anouther enclosure yourself.
build the box frame as usuall leaving the top sides and bottom open for mesh or screen. But make the four outer posts longer to act as legs that hold the enclosure about 3 feet off the ground
Then drill holes in line with eachother across the inside of the bottom of the frame. Going from front to back. Drill about an inch into the wood. spaced about 21/2 inches apart. (I used 2x2 for construction of the frame. and 3/4 inch pvc)
From there cut plastic pvc pipe into lengths an inch and a half longer the the width of the cage.
Hot glue these pvc lengths into the holes that line up with eachother.
now the bottom of your enclosure should have pvc running across the bottom.
from here lay what ever material you are using to cover the sides on top of the pvc.
Now for underneith I used thick painters plastic drop sheets.
which I stapled to the underside of the frame using rust proof staples.
The important thing is that you need to fold the platic so it comes down into a funnel shape from the edges.
Cut a hole at the tip of the funnel and this is where your water drains in to the bucket placed beneith the enclosure.
make sure its steep enough so water has no place to collect.

from there the buckets can be emptied every second day and you can spray them for hours with no problemes.

I hope I explained that fully. I will try to get some pics up ASAP.

peace
ws

[striko_69]

That sound clever but i find it difficult to picture in my mind, I was gonna get a cham but have opted for your standard beardie instead lol. You gonna post those pics, sounds cool.

[galad]

ya ill see if i can get them up tomorrow.

anouther thing I want to do with the bottom of the cage this summer is add pesticide free lawn sod to the bottom.
the probleme will be finding it.

once I do I will put anouther layer of window screen overtop of the existing mesh.
ontop of that will go about 2 inches up crushed rock. followed by 2 inches of soil, and finally the sod ontop.

I think this would look amazing, and ad to the natural feel of the environments. If I can find the right sod farm that doesnt use pesticides I will be making lots of cages with grass bottoms.

ws