Right first off, I know that glass/solid sides are frowned upon here, but as I live in England (a lovely cold place!) So many chameleon keepers and breeders have told me that a semi-solid enclosure is not detrimental to a chameleon’s health. I have read the issues with glass (reflections stressing a cham etc.) but I was wondering what the alternatives are, as the keepers/breeders have warned me that it is a lot of hassle to maintain humidity and temps in a full mesh enclosure with the weather here.
So the idea was for me to build a custom viv that has mainly solid sides, but with a mesh lid and sections on the sides made of mesh to help with ventilation (I understand that chams require a certain amount of ventilation) and a drainage system in the bottom. If there was still a ventilation issue I was going to put a small fan near the cage just so it creates a small current of air around the enclosure to aid ventilation.
I have drawn up a few plans, but I do not have a scanner so I roughly (and I mean really roughly!) recreated one of these plans on…. Paint. Please don’t laugh too much at this primitive mock up plan as I only want to do everything right before I get the chameleon so he will have a long and happy life.
I’m getting my Panther chameleon at around 3-4 months old with a set up small viv (mesh lid) and have been told to get on the way to building/buying the new full sized viv ASAP.
Once again please don’t slate the idea of this viv as I am open to any suggestions to make it better but I just need an alternative to a full mesh enclosure.
If you feel i have missed anything out in this text or the design please feel free to ask, as i recreated this design from work with little time on my hands.
Anyway here is the design so far.
Thanks for all those who have read this far!
So the idea was for me to build a custom viv that has mainly solid sides, but with a mesh lid and sections on the sides made of mesh to help with ventilation (I understand that chams require a certain amount of ventilation) and a drainage system in the bottom. If there was still a ventilation issue I was going to put a small fan near the cage just so it creates a small current of air around the enclosure to aid ventilation.
I have drawn up a few plans, but I do not have a scanner so I roughly (and I mean really roughly!) recreated one of these plans on…. Paint. Please don’t laugh too much at this primitive mock up plan as I only want to do everything right before I get the chameleon so he will have a long and happy life.
I’m getting my Panther chameleon at around 3-4 months old with a set up small viv (mesh lid) and have been told to get on the way to building/buying the new full sized viv ASAP.
Once again please don’t slate the idea of this viv as I am open to any suggestions to make it better but I just need an alternative to a full mesh enclosure.
If you feel i have missed anything out in this text or the design please feel free to ask, as i recreated this design from work with little time on my hands.
Anyway here is the design so far.
Thanks for all those who have read this far!
