Got my Cham! ReptiB. XL setup photos

[ChamSky]

I'm SOOOO Excited! I finally got the cham I was looking for! Went to the reptile show and saw lots of baby chams (most which I was unfamiliar with) they did have some panthers, nosey be females, and a jackson but I found the Jewel!
Perched on the display rack of supplies was a big and handsome male Veiled. I asked if he was for sale and moments later I became a proud cham Owner!

Hes a 2 1/2 yr old male proven breeder. VERY friendly, ate on first day and even ate outside his cage from our hands. Very shy in cage but he comes out to his basking spot and has no problem being handled.

Eating dubai roaches, hornworms, supers, crickets, and greens. He loves his roaches! Picked up a colony at the show.
We have not set up the mistking yet, so for now he gets sprayed and has the Cantina fountain that everyone is talking about. Was a pain to set up and going to be a pain to clean, had to drill a hole on the outside bracket and poke a hole through the screen for the wires and attached it to the dragon ledge via zip ties.
So far there is a pothos in there. Have a small 2ft ficus and 2 1/2 ft dracaena that have yet to be put in.
Also the 100w isnt cutting it. laser thermo is only reading 76 on the branch Going to get a Duel Heat dome with a red & white heat bulb
24" .5 reptisun
Before I bought him

Chamy!


no plants in right now (they need to be re-potted/cleaned)
Custom stand in progress (BF is slow lol)

His favorite hiding spot

Will post more pics when I get the rest of the plants (fake and real) in

 

[JlaPinska]

good luck with the cantina let us know how it goes. i'm too afraid to use it and have a dripper. my ficus is 4ft though and fills the whole top of the cage so i was able to drill holes underneath it and any extra water drains into a bin underneath. so far i found pothos to be extremely luscious grows strong and is able to handle all the water and humidity. my ficus is fine but he loves it the most and it's almost barren. they drop leaves if you look at them wrong. i have 2 1ft umbrellas and have space for one more plant was thinking of getting a dracaena myself but some of them grow really big, too big even for the XL. which species of drac were you thinking of getting?

i'm afraid my ficus may try to grow taller but if it does i'm literally going to take it out, cut most of the roots off and trim the top bare and make it start over lol. hopefully my umbrellas have taken off by then!

he is pretty. i love it how they turn such light peaceful colors when they feel comfortable being held.

my guy has cage aggression and puffs up at me when i try to take him out but once he's out he is fine, but he is also younger and was never held before i got him. your new guy looks nice and fat! can't wait for mine to get big!

mine eats. a LOT. i'm starting a dubia colony because he's eating me out of house and home with buying crickets and superworms every week! and i think he's about half the size of your dude.

 

[JlaPinska]

oh yeah because of all the water and humidity you may want to switch to paper towels on the bottom. otherwise it becomes a huge chore to clean. just a heads up. i have to take the plants and everything that sits on the bottom every other day. nothing is really safe even astroturf can grow mold because of the humidity

 

[Viggypop]

Let me know how your stand comes together! My bf said he'd build me a custom stand for our new Nosy Be Panther's XL reptibreeze, but I am not sure what he's thinking.

 

[lovelychams]

He's beautiful, and big! Let me know how you like the Cantina. I have been thinking about getting one for Pickle. Do you have a name yet?

 

[ChamSky]

good luck with the cantina let us know how it goes. i'm too afraid to use it and have a dripper. my ficus is 4ft though and fills the whole top of the cage so i was able to drill holes underneath it and any extra water drains into a bin underneath. so far i found pothos to be extremely luscious grows strong and is able to handle all the water and humidity. my ficus is fine but he loves it the most and it's almost barren. they drop leaves if you look at them wrong. i have 2 1ft umbrellas and have space for one more plant was thinking of getting a dracaena myself but some of them grow really big, too big even for the XL. which species of drac were you thinking of getting?

i'm afraid my ficus may try to grow taller but if it does i'm literally going to take it out, cut most of the roots off and trim the top bare and make it start over lol. hopefully my umbrellas have taken off by then!

he is pretty. i love it how they turn such light peaceful colors when they feel comfortable being held.

my guy has cage aggression and puffs up at me when i try to take him out but once he's out he is fine, but he is also younger and was never held before i got him. your new guy looks nice and fat! can't wait for mine to get big!

mine eats. a LOT. i'm starting a dubia colony because he's eating me out of house and home with buying crickets and superworms every week! and i think he's about half the size of your dude.

So far the cantina is doing well, never seen him drink from it but hes always sitting near it, plus it helps with the humidity in the cage. So he's probably using it. my 3 1/2 ft ficus just takes up too much space in the cage so now we have it as a house plant haha tons of new leaves its doing well.

I have a 2ft ficus that is dropping leaves but I also just re-potted it. Doesn't look too bad but at least this one fits in the cage with the Dracaena Marginata (Red Edged) which I already have. They CAN grow 15ft but I'm not too worried that it will ever get that tall in my lifetime haha it fits in the XL perfectly with the sm ficus. I REALLY want an umbrella so I may pick one up this week.


He gets all pissy when coming out at first too, just puffs up but after a meal he loves handling and exploring. Very exploring cham, sometimes we will let him chill on the bird tree or the LG ficus. I just started a Dubai colony too. Hopefully it does well!

 

[ChamSky]

oh yeah because of all the water and humidity you may want to switch to paper towels on the bottom. otherwise it becomes a huge chore to clean. just a heads up. i have to take the plants and everything that sits on the bottom every other day. nothing is really safe even astroturf can grow mold because of the humidity

I am making a custom plexiglass pan for the bottom so I'll see how it goes after we get the mist king set up. So far the repti carpet is doing really good, it soaks up just enough water and dries in between. I think paper towels would get all messy and sopping wet, no?

 

[ChamSky]

Let me know how your stand comes together! My bf said he'd build me a custom stand for our new Nosy Be Panther's XL reptibreeze, but I am not sure what he's thinking.

I will definitely post pictures when its done! Probably not going to be for another month cause of his work and cause hes lazy lol
he used to be a professional Cabinet maker so he wants to make it all nice.
Its going to have 3 edges around the sides to hold it in and two doors on front with two hole in the back for wires (just like a fish tank stand) want to have a small shelf for vitamins. Plan to keep the 5g RO bucket for the mist king under there as well.

 

[ChamSky]

He's beautiful, and big! Let me know how you like the Cantina. I have been thinking about getting one for Pickle. Do you have a name yet?

Thanks! He is certainly a big boy! We have not come up with a name (personally my BF does not want to name him) I call him Chamy for now hhah
So for the cantina is okay, he seems to like hanging out by it. Water flow is good but its going to be a pain to clean. We have a hole drilled through one Dragon Ledge and a hole drilled through the non wire side (the slot where the suction cup is supposed to go) since cant use suction cup on screen
Had to cut a hold in the cage for the wires its zip tied in. Only safe way to secure it. We will have to use a turkey baster to get the water out for changing but no bugs/poop can get in there.

 

[ChamSky]

here he is just cruising around on the table. After he eats he gets happy and goes walking

 

[JlaPinska]

paper towels is what i use too but mainly just to catch his poops and it literally takes me 5 min to clean his whole cage. the bottom opening makes it easy i just take the plants out and literally sweep everything into the garbage can through the bottom opening, take one, give a quick wipe, replace all the papertowels put plants back and im done. my cham doesnt seem to like to poop on his pants. you should have seen the doosey he left for me thismorning lol

 

[JlaPinska]

i hate having to tear any holes in the screen but i had to do it too. i didn't have the money to buy any dragon ledges

 

[JlaPinska]

side view of my current setup

front. just took this pic. he pretty much stays in the ficus so it's got baby leaves growing in all over

see i still have space in the back right for another real plant. plus i have another branch i need to put in but it's 6ft long i been waiting for someone to have time to help me

 

[lovelychams]

Awww, looks like he's doing your taxes for you…pen in hand. lol.

Love the waterfall! Nicely done!

 

[ChamSky]

see i still have space in the back right for another real plant. plus i have another branch i need to put in but it's 6ft long i been waiting for someone to have time to help me

I remember seeing your cage on on of the threads for the planters hahah
I would LOVE to put the LG ficus in there but since I have the dragon ledges I have some nice basking spots which limits the height of the plants. But he enjoys the grapevine. The drac fills it in nicely.
I can see your guy hiding in the corner, cute! I like the pothos vertical planters too. Really makes use of space.
Yeah I really hated tearing a hole in the screen >_< but it can always be fixed

 

[ChamSky]

Awww, looks like he's doing your taxes for you…pen in hand. lol.

Love the waterfall! Nicely done!

Hahhah yeah I wish! he's my official pen holder lol
The waterfall works out quite well being suspended, makes more sense that way since most lizards are up at the top anyway!