Enclosure Setup

[Kask_86]

If all goes according to plan, we will be welcoming a baby panther chameleon, Captain Kidd, this coming Wednesday! Attached some photos of his new home! Used Bill Strand's forest edge as inspiration. Excited to share the Captain's journey soon!

 

[SteveH]

Looks good will be even nicer after the plants do some growing. The Chameleon Academy is a wealth of information. Now is a good time to test all your timers, basking temps, day and night temps and humidity ect.

 

[Kask_86]

For sure! We are treating it as if there is a cham in there, sans bugs of course. Living in Central Florida, keeping humidity around 48 to 50 is not too difficult. Hardest is trying to get a good temperature gradient as we keep our house at 75 during the day.

 

[Beman]

Looks really good. My only advice is you want to fix your lighting layout on the top. You are getting pooling of water from your rain zone. Not a good idea to have this pooling with your electronics.

Ideally you want uvb running across the middle of the enclosure near a basking fixture.

Now the window may cause an issue. Being in FL your not going to get the intense cold but if it is a window that gets direct sun then the cage sitting there is going to be effected. It will be much harder to control the ambient cage temp and keep it in the low 70's during the day if you have direct sun. Another issue with a window IMO chams react to them. When they are open they react to birds flying by cars etc. They also can become confused by the light coming through the window and bask down too far away from their UVB because they are basking in the sunlight.

 

[Kask_86]

Thanks for the advice, the window is NW and gets some ambient light, but never any direct sun and we keep those blinds always closed. However, I was also thinking about putting up a foam board or other panel to block out any light coming in from the back. As far as lighting, I'll see what I can do to raise/move things. Thanks for the advice and help!

 

[Beman]

Thanks for the advice, the window is NW and gets some ambient light, but never any direct sun and we keep those blinds always closed. However, I was also thinking about putting up a foam board or other panel to block out any light coming in from the back. As far as lighting, I'll see what I can do to raise/move things. Thanks for the advice and help!

You could get a piece of corrugated plastic from home depot. It is easy to cut and then you can hook it on to the outside frame with command velcro strips. This will also protect your blinds from any moisture coming out the back of the enclosure.

 

[elizaann2]

Love the name!!