Custom Eight Cage System

[frankpayne32]

Sweet man! You will love working with the campani!

Thanks! I do so far! They have always been a dream species of mine. I feel lucky to have them. I hope they do well. I am going to run some fecals on them this week. The male will likely get pancur right away and I will wait for the female to lay before dosing her.

Wow! Great job. Very clean and professional looking.
It's amazing the lengths we'll go to accommodate our hobby.
I hope to do something similar one day.

Thanks! Crazy huh? haha

 

[MelissaB]

AMAZING! Great job and great step by step description. Thank you for posting this.

 

[Mike Fisher]

Fully planted tubs with drainage yes! The only way to go IMO. Nice job.

 

[maven]

Your set-up is absolutely amazing! I enjoyed watching your build every step along the way.

 

[frankpayne32]

AMAZING! Great job and great step by step description. Thank you for posting this.

Fully planted tubs with drainage yes! The only way to go IMO. Nice job.

Your set-up is absolutely amazing! I enjoyed watching your build every step along the way.

Thanks everyone!

I agree completely Mike. Real chameleons live in real plants which grow in real soil. I've been doing it without drilled drainage and it's always been a balancing act between keeping the chameleons hydrated and not making the soil a disgusting soup. Now I can water the animals as much as they need without worrying about the water collecting and becoming stagnant.

 

[frankpayne32]

Furcifer campani female shedding

 

[frankpayne32]

Misting update

I recently had to change how I watered the enclosures. Originally the misters were installed on the back wall. This caused a problem though. I could not control the direction of the mist very well and no matter how they were positioned there was overspray outside of the tubs and that leaked through the joints down to the next level. Not good with electricity everywhere! So I drilled out the existing holes on some clay pots and put the misters in there. They now sit on top of the screen tops. This concentrates the water in a more manageable area and also provides more natural rain-like drops that the animals seem to enjoy.





You can see the misting system on top of this enclosure.

 

[SMCNARY]

VERY,VERY WELL DONE SIR !!!! I will definitely use some of your ideas in future builds. Thanks for taking the time to post all the pictures.

 

[frankpayne32]

VERY,VERY WELL DONE SIR !!!! I will definitely use some of your ideas in future builds. Thanks for taking the time to post all the pictures.

Thanks! I hope it helps. My dubia are looking forward to your gutload!

 

[ChamMan7]

Ok.. firstly, that is awesome and really well done… second, I have a few plans like this but for the life of me cannot find the PVC plastic that you used here for the dividers and back. Where did you get yours from?

AND… you lucky devil…. where did you get that A. graminea…… !!!!

 

[FlChamMom]

Incredible setup and some gorgeous chams too! Totally stealing the clay pot idea...

 

[frankpayne32]

Ok.. firstly, that is awesome and really well done… second, I have a few plans like this but for the life of me cannot find the PVC plastic that you used here for the dividers and back. Where did you get yours from?

AND… you lucky devil…. where did you get that A. graminea…… !!!!

Thank you! You can get the coroplast from any sign shop. You can also order it online from Home Depot. I got mine from a local sign shop.

I know someone that breeds them. I got a trio of babies that could each fit on a nickle about two years ago. They are almost full grown now. You can find them for sale on kingsnake a lot these days but most of them are likely smuggled...

Incredible setup and some gorgeous chams too! Totally stealing the clay pot idea...

Thanks! I really like it so far. Just make sure to use a masonry drill bit and go slow or the pots will crack.

 

[frankpayne32]

Thought I'd post a video of the "rain" system working.

 

[FrankTheTank]

That's a lot like what I did with my cage except I used a Tupperware container for the perimeter barrier. Works great. Do you use some kind of timer or is it a mist king?

 

[frankpayne32]

That's a lot like what I did with my cage except I used a Tupperware container for the perimeter barrier. Works great. Do you use some kind of timer or is it a mist king?

It's a mistking on a timer. Do you have pics of your system on here? I'd like to check it out.

 

[FrankTheTank]

It's a mistking on a timer. Do you have pics of your system on here? I'd like to check it out.

Sure thing! I used a solenoid that has a built in timer and attached a sprinkler head (that i got at lowes) to a 1/4" flex tube

https://www.chameleonforums.com/my-custom-wood-frame-diy-enclosure-125875/
It's at the bottom of the first page

 

[frankpayne32]

Update

 

[nick barta]

Frank,

I juist looked at your entire post on your enclosures, impressive build!

A few questions:

Do you find the doors opening downward interfere with accessing the cage?

With soils, do you ever run into gnat infestation?

What did the board cost for a 4 by 8 sheet?

CHEERS!

Nick

 

[frankpayne32]

Frank,

I juist looked at your entire post on your enclosures, impressive build!

A few questions:

Do you find the doors opening downward interfere with accessing the cage?

With soils, do you ever run into gnat infestation?

What did the board cost for a 4 by 8 sheet?

CHEERS!

Nick

Hi Nick,

The doors opening down on the top row of cages is very convenient as they just lay flat. It is definitely a little bit of a pain on the lower cages. However, the cages are only about two feet deep so I can still reach the entire inside of the cages without TOO much difficulty. Definitely not a perfect design but it works well enough.

While I will sometime get gnats when I first set up an organic substrate, I have never had what I would call an infestation and they disappear within a few days. I always use a living substrate for all my lizard enclosures. It makes maintenance much easier.

I got the coroplast from a local sign manufacturer for $20/piece for a 4x8 section. Very reasonable. The coroplast holds up well.

Hope that helps, thanks for the compliments!

Frank

 

[Sticktongue]

Amazing as stated many times before. Its posts like these i need to stay away from. Makes me want to jump back into things...

Especially with you keeping Kinyongia in there good work