Custom Chameleon Cage for my Jackson’s Chameleon

[dethspawnn]

Hey there everyone! I’m coming close to a year of owning my Jackson’s chameleon and I think he’s starting to outgrow his 18x18x36 glass cage I got him when he was a baby.
I was thinking of building a custom 2-2.5ft x 4-6ft cage with wood and various other materials but have had some worry’s and just want to hear everyone’s thoughts!

I live in Colorado where the humidity is pretty much non existent which is the opposite of what chameleons need. The main issues I’m having are 1. Space for him throughout day to day, 2 ventilation. It’s hard ventilating a glass cage on the bottom. 3 ties into that with slight mold. The bottom doesn’t flow enough to help dry everything back out so it gets hot and stagnant at the bottom so the coconut husk has to be watched and cleaned. That’s also incorporating Hydroballs and a CUC.

So glass would be my main pick, but they don’t make the size I need without absolutely trashing my bank with 2x2x4 bing mnimum for chameleons, but the biggest glass size I’ve seen. And have issues I listed above.

Screen would be my next pick and running a Monsoon esk misting system but I worry it will still lack at nighttime for the humidity jump. I worry about the day to day humidity as well. Not to mention I feel those cage setups aren’t as full as chameleons would need with just having some dowels and vine and such to climb on. But it offers access in all ways, easy decoration and cleaning. I always see these super nice setups though.

Hybrid would be amazing. Get some flow but not too much. Keep humidity slightly up. But it would still leave me with a few issues. One being the mess cleaning, having only one way to go in I worry I won’t be able to get everything from the back. Aswell as drainage because of the issues I’m having currently. Even drilling a hole for excess water to drain my substrate doesn’t let go of water fast enough. I could build a screen cage to set ontop of a solid cage but would still have some issues I feel since the thick layer will create stagnantness at the bottom.

At help would be greatly appreciated, thank you!

 

[LizardLurkin]

One way to get a screen enclosure to hold humidity is to make it into a hybrid enclosure by using a window insulation kit like so. Several live plants will also keep the humidity within good range, too. I live in Alaska, and it's pretty dry here year round but I can still manage the humidity with these two things in mind.

Are you running a bioactive set up? If not, substrate is generally not recommended as it does allow bacteria to breed like crazy. One thing you might consider is a couple of potted plants at the bottom of the cage. These will catch the water, and you can position them near the hole (or holes) at the bottom of the cage so gravity feeds the run off to drain.

 

[dethspawnn]

One way to get a screen enclosure to hold humidity is to make it into a hybrid enclosure by using a window insulation kit like so. Several live plants will also keep the humidity within good range, too. I live in Alaska, and it's pretty dry here year round but I can still manage the humidity with these two things in mind.

Are you running a bioactive set up? If not, substrate is generally not recommended as it does allow bacteria to breed like crazy. One thing you might consider is a couple of potted plants at the bottom of the cage. These will catch the water, and you can position them near the hole (or holes) at the bottom of the cage so gravity feeds the run off to drain.

Thank you for your response!

Yes I am running a bio active setup. I have 4-5 bags of Hydroballs lining the bottom separated by mesh and then coconut husk as the topper where everything then starts. I also added a Clean up crew before adding the Cham in around 24ish hours before.

I tried putting the plant in the actual cage but my issues I’ve had is cleaning. I get it all set in nice and then ruin it trying to clean the very back because I’ve seen a few posts pertaining about mold and it’s scared me crapless if my bottom is having issues. Plants are hard to run anyways because of how small it is too :/

 

[LizardLurkin]

Plants are definitely easier to manage once you have a larger space to work with. I have seen a lot of custom builds here that might serve to inspire.
This is one of @MissSkittles builds, and it's bioactive to boot. She combined two of the XL reptibreeze enclosures and goes over how she made the substrate tray work in this comment.

As you can see, once you have the space, you can get very creative with it. One thing to consider, if you're going to build it completely by hand and decide to go screen, is to make sure you get mesh that has tiny holes so that the UVB light isn't too overexposed.

 

[dethspawnn]

Plants are definitely easier to manage once you have a larger space to work with. I have seen a lot of custom builds here that might serve to inspire.
This is one of @MissSkittles builds, and it's bioactive to boot. She combined two of the XL reptibreeze enclosures and goes over how she made the substrate tray work in this comment.
View attachment 363596
As you can see, once you have the space, you can get very creative with it. One thing to consider, if you're going to build it completely by hand and decide to go screen, is to make sure you get mesh that has tiny holes so that the UVB light isn't too overexposed.

With the photo shown while it does look great, it does not look so great for cleaning. I don’t see much more space then might current setup with the amount of stuff their is in there lol. One way in, as well as drainage setup for if I decided to go more of a Bio setup. Which I don’t think I want to do. That seems to be where all my issues are. It also looks all centered to the bottom which is what I’m staying away from since that’s where all my issues arise.

Because with no bio that adjusts my humidity and makes it a lot harder to keep up. But to be honest I hate Bio setups they’re a headache. And way too overfilled. But idk, it seems like my only option.

 

[ehdee6]

If you're wanting to ditch the Bio setup, you can still use potted plants to keep the humidity. Most people make their build with the plants double potted so you can switch them out. I also have issues keeping the humidity at night, so I wrapped my screen cage in window plastic, like @LizardLurkin suggested. I had a humidifier/fogger, but whenever I used it my cham would sit and hiss at the hose all day LOL... so I wrapped up the sides and it's worked great!

This is my cage:

If you do a search of the forum for custome builds there are loads of ideas too.

Some people even convert old display cabinets into cages. If you're handy and set on glasses I'd consider that.

 

[LizardLurkin]

I'm not doing bioactive myself, because I'm afraid I can't do it competently. I hear a lot of stories about uninvited guests taking root in the enclosures and am unsure I have the ability to deal with it.

The thing about chameleons is that they really appreciate having all the coverage to hide in and they traverse mainly by branch systems placed horizontally or at smooth slants all along the length of the enclosure. You don't actually have to engage in deep cleans like you'd imagine. I see a lot of people deep clean maybe once or twice a year, but the most important part is spot cleaning. That is, cleaning up the waste and say, any dead insects or other debris. It doesn't take long at all.
The hard part, however, is locating the poop lol Just trying to find it can take me like 20 minutes.

This is my set up so far. It's fairly simple, and I plan to put a lot more fake plants on the outside to create more coverage where I don't yet have plants. That might be a fun idea for you to consider too.

 

[MissSkittles]

With the photo shown while it does look great, it does not look so great for cleaning. I don’t see much more space then might current setup with the amount of stuff their is in there lol. One way in, as well as drainage setup for if I decided to go more of a Bio setup. Which I don’t think I want to do. That seems to be where all my issues are. It also looks all centered to the bottom which is what I’m staying away from since that’s where all my issues arise.

Because with no bio that adjusts my humidity and makes it a lot harder to keep up. But to be honest I hate Bio setups they’re a headache. And way too overfilled. But idk, it seems like my only option.

Hi. I’ve got to ask - what are you planning on needing to clean with a bioactive set up? The clean up crew takes care of the poop, dead plant matter and all that. I’m not pushing bioactive or anything on you or anyone…am just curious. I can guess though that your current set up is lacking a way to remove excess water, which is why you are concerned about mold. When using a glass tank or other watertight substrate holder, you need to build in a way to remove the excess water. Usually a pvc pipe with notches cut in the bottom end and a cap on the other is used. See my pic below. I use fabric root pouches, which are a breathable felt-like fabric and by the time any excess water would reach the bottom, it’s evaporated or been used by the plants. Also, it’s best to have a substrate of soil and several different additives. This is a great guide to it, if you are interested. https://www.chameleonforums.com/blogs/intro-to-bio-activity.2429/

Regarding your initial needs - a glass tank will hold in the humidity, but they are hard to find in a large enough size, very expensive when you do find one and you’ll still have some of the same issues. I would suggest either a hybrid, modify a screen enclosure or of course, build your own. For a hybrid of the size you want, there is https://tamura-designs.com/ but while they are absolutely stunning and of high quality, you will be paying quite a bit. And I just saw that https://dragonstrand.com/ is again producing their large hybrid atrium, which is also a fantastic option that is probably much more affordable. Of course, it has Dragon Ledges, so you can hang all of your plants and keep the floor bare and super easy to clean. Also, drainage trays are included. I’ll have to look it up, but a member who had a Dragon Strand had nothing on the floor and it looked so sharp and clean.

 

[MissSkittles]

Was a heck of a lot easier to find than I thought. She had several different pics from various times, but these are great representations of her stream-lined set ups.

Dragon Strand 4 ft wide x 4 ft tall x 2 ft deep
https://www.chameleonforums.com/media/large-hybrid-atrium.51910/

 

[Maximus_Cham]

I am using a 48x18x36 glass cage for my male panther and is very happy with it. They make a 48x24x48 size as well. There are screen vents on both sides at the bottom to help with ventilation.

https://reptizoo.store/products/lar...inch-rainforest-135-gallon-reptile-paludarium