Chameleon Cage questions

[K1LOS]

Hi everyone, Hopefully you can help me with the construction of a chameleon cage. I am looking into buying a Nosy Be Blue panther, and would like to build a cage for it. If anyone has plans for their cages that i could use i would really appreciate it. I am not the most handy of men!


These are requirements i must consider when building, if you have solutions to any of these please let me know. Tell me what you have done to solve these issues yourselves.

1) I want to build it large enough to house it as an adult, as i don't want to have to build 2 cages. What size do you recommend for a single full grown panther?

2) The cage has to be cricket proof, or maybe someone can explain these cricket dishes to me. I keep reading about dish feeding, and i'm not following you all on what sort of dish you are using? The only thing i could think of was a stainless steel water dish for a large dog, is that the type of thing you are all using? I would think the walls of that sort of dish wouldn't be high enough to keep them in though. Even with the dish, i think the ladies of the house would be a little more comfortable if the cage was cricket proof. How do you suppose i have a screen cage that is cricket proof, yet the screen isn't so tight the cham won't break off nails in it? At the same time i'd like to be able to see in to the cage!

3) I understand the wood framing would need to be able to resist high humidities, so how are you all sealing the wood for protection? what are using that wouldn't be toxic to the chams? Are there alternatives to wood?

4) The cage has to be fairly low cost, being xmas time i don't have too much money to go around.

5) I would prefer if the cage looked reasonably good. It is not of the utmost importance, but it will be where people can see it. I don't want to be embarrased of my cage!

6) i guess i would need some sort of removable tray to catch the water from the dripper. How do you accomplish this?

Well these are all of the questions i have that i can think of at the moment. If you have any solutions to these, or more things to consider before construction please help me out. Thanks for all the help, i know i basically just asked you to design my cage for me, but i am not the most creative person either! Thanks alot

Geoff