Building an enclosure in Hawaii

[zoneo]

Hey guys!

My girlfriend surprised me with a Jackson Chameleon today! I've decided im going to build him a super bad-*** enclosure, so i've been trying to research as much as i can... however, it seems i cant find any two websites that tell me the same thing.. so im looking for a straight forward answer to my situation.

Baby Jackson Chameleon, male.
Island of Oahu, Hawai'i
new owners

the places i have found online talk about need all sorts of lights and heating and drips and what not, but my girlfriend said the lady she got him from said that the were easy and could pretty much survive with a few plants and misting the plants twice a day..

i know they live wild on the island so i cant imagine i would need to do much in the way of climate control... but right now what i was hoping to do was build a cage with coated screen and all dirt floor with a waterfall/river, rocks, maybe a few ground plants, as well as this Hibiscus tree we just got and a few other plants i could find.

would i need much more than that? i know a friend of hers is building a glass cage with the same basic set up.

thanks for any and all the help guys!

 

[fluxlizard]

What you will need will kind of depend on whether you are keeping it indoors or outdoors. In hawaii- an outdoor location where it is a bit more shady than sunny but some broken sunlight is always available will be much easier than an indoor enclosure. Here in the summer I keep my jacksons under a row of big pine trees that have had the lower limbs up to about 8-10' off the ground removed. This way they always have shade during the day, as well as some broken sunlight dappling through the pine boughs most of the day, and lots of sun in the morning and evening when temps are cooler.

Most of us aren't fans of waterfalls (bacteria) in indoor cages, and jackson's don't swim in rivers anyway.

Indoors the environment is different than the environment outdoors where they live. Indoors without the sunlight you will need the special lights, and you will want to provide a decent amount of mist (enough so they can drink for a couple of hours from the leaves of the plants before the mist water evaporates) or a small amount (hand mist the plants morning and evening) along with a drip system that provides water for about 30 minutes a day (can be as simple as a big dixie cup with a pinhole poked in the bottom placed on top of the cage that drips into a catch bowl).

If I were in hawaii like you I'd probably build the dream cage you are planning, but I'd do it outdoors in a partly shady location with the earth as the floor and substrate and solid walls that sink into the ground a ways to keep small animals from digging in.

 

[Montium]

If it's outside make sure your screen is strong enough to keep out the cats and mongeese or mongooses if you prefer hehe. So long as you provide some shade and water, usually in the form of misting, you should be just fine. Depending on your elevation you may want to watch for overheating if it gets much past eighty degrees. I would still be living there myself if they would let other chameleons in. It would make an awesome breeding facility.

 

[zoneo]

im currently renting my place so i dont really wanna build a big permanent enclosure just yet, so i was thinking about maybe putting it on wheels... but thats beside the point. the point is, i think for the time being im going to go ahead and do an indoor one. so far i only have a hibiscus tree (picked it up just cause he needed something and i know they like those kinds (he loves it)) and then a small bird cage that my girlfriend got with him (the alternative was a $100 cage that didnt come with anything.) and thats about it, aside from crickets. so where should i begin?

i was thinking of building a 2ft wide, 3 ft long, 3 foot high cage with screening stapled all around it with one side completely removable (easy to get plants in and out and cleaning and all that nonsense) with shelving underneath to store all of his stuff, as well as 2 containers for cricket breading (i'll have plenty of questions on that once we reach that point)

as far as lighting, i know i need a full spectrum UV light for like 12 hours a day, and then is the heating light a separate thing? or could my UV light work as both?

 

[happy]

there are bulbs that provide both heat and UV. I prefer to use separate bulbs myself. you can control heat with a dimmer switch and you want to have the UV penetrating the enclosure as much as possible.. My first chameleon was a Jackson, very awesome....