Hello all!
So my partner and I currently have a sub-adult male veiled chameleon that was wild caught by us, while living in LaBelle, Florida (where there are many generations of once released invasive veiled chameleons) in the beginning of this year.
We finally have saved up enough money to create his final upgraded fully automated home.
Something we have learned while having him is that his needs seem slightly different than what is normal for a captive bred chameleon because he is wild caught in Florida. For example, he is visibly dark and cold under 80°F so we try to keep it warmer for him (82° range). He requires SO much more foliage than I typically see in enclosure to be happy! Which between my partners massive green thumb and large plant collection there was no worry.
His current set up is this:
We found him as a medium sized juvenile so he was completely fine in an 18x18x36 screen cage, and now he’s getting big so we are upgrading him next week!
He currently has one UVB fixture and T5 bulb, one basking lamp that is clipped above the cage so that it is a few inches away from the top, and one LED strip. These all come on for a 13 hour cycle 8:30pm-9:30pm (not a 12 because where I live in Indiana 30 min away from the time change zone in either direction the sun in the summer sets around 10:00pm so it’s still too bright for the lights to go off yet is still bright at 6am, annoying).
He has around 16 sticks and vines of a combination of widths as well as a main basking branch for a highway as well as three trailing pothos, and a small bird of paradise. We have noticed he has never tried to eat any of the plants or dirt (we were very very cautious at first but it has been many months with NO signs so we are safe to use whatever plants we want).
I am also an entomologist so trust me, he is fed very well: he is fed a variety of three different species of cockroaches (Dubais, large banana roaches and giant lobster roaches), crickets from a trusted source, hornworms and silkworms, super worms as a backup (only one or two feedings a month no more than 5 medium sized because yes they are high in fat) all gut loaded with repashy superload and fed a mix of organic veggie and fruit scraps, and repashy bug burger. He gets a supplement of bee pollen from bio dude and repashy Calcium+LoD about every other week.
He is currently misted every morning and night as well as in the middle of the day with a hand mister and we have a small dropper going twice a day over two plants for half an hour.
So now to the upgrade..
We are planning on creating a hybrid bio-active enclosure out of a very large new bird cage. I have created bio active enclosures before and I have settled on this style of enclosure for a reason.
This one for example: https://a.co/d/gcOYsNB
For one, they are much more affordable dollar per square foot. The sizes I am looking at are mainly 55x35x18 and come with a rolling stand that lifts the cage to a total height of over 70inches.
I would be able to cover the top and front with a fine mesh screen on the inside so that he can’t get to the bars, and then the other three sides I could cover with great stuff pond on the inside and then with window sealant plastic on the outside. Even better they make grapevine and manzanita branches that screw on the bars for sturdy perches that could be my building blocks for the stick highway that I could add before the great stuff.
The sturdy cage would allow me to hang plants such as pothos, philodendrons, creeping figs and more to create a similar edge ecosystem like he was living in, (I don’t yet have a total list of plants but we will go hard since there’s not really a limit of what we can’t use) plus the addition of peas beans and sweet potatoes to created even more hiding places for him. We have a tree that we could add as well as lots of epiphytes, and syngonium to use.
We would then remove the screen and pan at the bottom and add a grow box (probably a bin) that seals to the bottom to add a leica drainage layer, landscape cloth and then a very deep substrate that I will inoculate with springtails and isopods that I already have.
We also will get a programmable misting and fogging system as well as lighting, a fan, heat, LED and UVB to fit his needs so that he can get the ideal night drop and specific daytime control.
It will all be automated!
I don’t think I’m leaving anything out, so please, thoughts on the possible new set up?
So my partner and I currently have a sub-adult male veiled chameleon that was wild caught by us, while living in LaBelle, Florida (where there are many generations of once released invasive veiled chameleons) in the beginning of this year.
We finally have saved up enough money to create his final upgraded fully automated home.
Something we have learned while having him is that his needs seem slightly different than what is normal for a captive bred chameleon because he is wild caught in Florida. For example, he is visibly dark and cold under 80°F so we try to keep it warmer for him (82° range). He requires SO much more foliage than I typically see in enclosure to be happy! Which between my partners massive green thumb and large plant collection there was no worry.
His current set up is this:
We found him as a medium sized juvenile so he was completely fine in an 18x18x36 screen cage, and now he’s getting big so we are upgrading him next week!
He currently has one UVB fixture and T5 bulb, one basking lamp that is clipped above the cage so that it is a few inches away from the top, and one LED strip. These all come on for a 13 hour cycle 8:30pm-9:30pm (not a 12 because where I live in Indiana 30 min away from the time change zone in either direction the sun in the summer sets around 10:00pm so it’s still too bright for the lights to go off yet is still bright at 6am, annoying).
He has around 16 sticks and vines of a combination of widths as well as a main basking branch for a highway as well as three trailing pothos, and a small bird of paradise. We have noticed he has never tried to eat any of the plants or dirt (we were very very cautious at first but it has been many months with NO signs so we are safe to use whatever plants we want).
I am also an entomologist so trust me, he is fed very well: he is fed a variety of three different species of cockroaches (Dubais, large banana roaches and giant lobster roaches), crickets from a trusted source, hornworms and silkworms, super worms as a backup (only one or two feedings a month no more than 5 medium sized because yes they are high in fat) all gut loaded with repashy superload and fed a mix of organic veggie and fruit scraps, and repashy bug burger. He gets a supplement of bee pollen from bio dude and repashy Calcium+LoD about every other week.
He is currently misted every morning and night as well as in the middle of the day with a hand mister and we have a small dropper going twice a day over two plants for half an hour.
So now to the upgrade..
We are planning on creating a hybrid bio-active enclosure out of a very large new bird cage. I have created bio active enclosures before and I have settled on this style of enclosure for a reason.
This one for example: https://a.co/d/gcOYsNB
For one, they are much more affordable dollar per square foot. The sizes I am looking at are mainly 55x35x18 and come with a rolling stand that lifts the cage to a total height of over 70inches.
I would be able to cover the top and front with a fine mesh screen on the inside so that he can’t get to the bars, and then the other three sides I could cover with great stuff pond on the inside and then with window sealant plastic on the outside. Even better they make grapevine and manzanita branches that screw on the bars for sturdy perches that could be my building blocks for the stick highway that I could add before the great stuff.
The sturdy cage would allow me to hang plants such as pothos, philodendrons, creeping figs and more to create a similar edge ecosystem like he was living in, (I don’t yet have a total list of plants but we will go hard since there’s not really a limit of what we can’t use) plus the addition of peas beans and sweet potatoes to created even more hiding places for him. We have a tree that we could add as well as lots of epiphytes, and syngonium to use.
We would then remove the screen and pan at the bottom and add a grow box (probably a bin) that seals to the bottom to add a leica drainage layer, landscape cloth and then a very deep substrate that I will inoculate with springtails and isopods that I already have.
We also will get a programmable misting and fogging system as well as lighting, a fan, heat, LED and UVB to fit his needs so that he can get the ideal night drop and specific daytime control.
It will all be automated!
I don’t think I’m leaving anything out, so please, thoughts on the possible new set up?
