how does my enclosure sound to you, 2.0

Matthew43s

Established Member
Now I posted something a couple of days ago regarding wether or not my artificial branch/vine PVC insert was going too be adequate for KP (Kenny powers, my first 3 month old male veiled) if you want to see that head over to my page. But I ended up ditching that set up, due to the fact I had not done enough research on veileds and used nothing but artificial items in the enclosure. Gotta have some life in there dooood!

I added a Golden Pothos that is growing upwards on a piece of husk covered PVC. I dish washed the pot it is in, replanted it in new organic soil, Wiped every leaf down with 91% isopropyl alcohol and have river stones (that I boiled) covering the soil so he won't ingest any of the soil. Gave it a good watering down and let it sit for a few hours before introducing it into the enclosure. I added a small reptivine as well for hi to have added enclosure coverage.

Lighting; I originally only had a dual deep dome with a single 5.0 UVB and a daylight blue bulb for the basking spot, and a oil diffuser (cleaned of course) for the humidity. now the dual deep houses two 5.0 UVB bulbs for greater exposure and I have added another single deep dome for KP's basking spot (which gets to 85 degrees) his enclosure usally stays around 71 degrees in the middle, and 68 by the diffuser. The humidity ranges from 40% in the basking, 60% in the middle, and around 85% at the bottom.

Feeding; I had questions regarding wether or not I should cup feed or free range my feeders and what I should feed him. Mike from FL chams (where I purchased KP, big thumbs up to that guy) told me not to cup feed so I ditched that idea, and went too free range. I would leave the feeders in his enclosure and leave him be, make sure no traffic would happen for about 30 min-an hour but KP would just ignore them and they would eventually end up on the floor of his enclosure drowned by the misting system. So I decided to make myself a milk jug feeding cup that has mesh inside to display his meals and it works GREAT! I also decided to start feeding my little dude gut loaded mealworms 20% of his diet, silk worms 30% OHD, Crix 40% OHD, and wax worms 10% for a snack every week. All with their own individual gut loads that I found off the Internet.

I say all that to ask this, how did I do? Enthusiasts and professionals let me know how I did, new comers hope you can get some good info from a extremely new addition to the art of chameleon husbandry.

I'll attach pics of my project. Thanks all!
 
IMG_1558.JPG
IMG_1557.JPG
IMG_1539.JPG
IMG_1537.JPG
IMG_1525.JPG
IMG_1530.JPG
IMG_1545.JPG
IMG_1554.JPG
IMG_1549.JPG
 
This is teh first time i have seen an oil catch can for a cham setup, i hope there is something in the can, as the cheap ones dont have a baffle nor mesh :p

anyway im not a fan of the cfl bulbs, they put out half the light vs a linear of the same 5.0 and wattage. If that is a 48" tall cage, the 2 5.0 cfls will not be enough, they are useless past 8"-10" away from the bulb.

You have a substrate mat, thats where all the feeders will go to die. Keep it if it help evaporate water, but im guessing its just going to turn into a petri dish.

Finally i am not a fan of the sonic humidifiers under certain conditions. Sonics will shove everything in the water into the air. If you are not using distilled, it will coat everything in the room with a mineral coating, which will get turned into a protein film, which will grow mold. Ive had it happen to me.

So other than those 3 pointers, it looks like a very good setup.
 
This is teh first time i have seen an oil catch can for a cham setup, i hope there is something in the can, as the cheap ones dont have a baffle nor mesh :p

anyway im not a fan of the cfl bulbs, they put out half the light vs a linear of the same 5.0 and wattage. If that is a 48" tall cage, the 2 5.0 cfls will not be enough, they are useless past 8"-10" away from the bulb.

You have a substrate mat, thats where all the feeders will go to die. Keep it if it help evaporate water, but im guessing its just going to turn into a petri dish.

Finally i am not a fan of the sonic humidifiers under certain conditions. Sonics will shove everything in the water into the air. If you are not using distilled, it will coat everything in the room with a mineral coating, which will get turned into a protein film, which will grow mold. Ive had it happen to me.

So other than those 3 pointers, it looks like a very good setup.



Well first off I'd like to say thank you for the advice!

Im not sure what you mean by oil catch can or the baffle or mesh. I use the oil diffuser as a humidifier, letting in run 3 hours in the morning 3 hours at night running Brita filtered water with reptisafe added, just so I dint get that coating you were talking about.

With the substrate mat, thats actually a car shammy that I'm using. I have three, change them every three days and going to rinse out and dish wash without soap. And I actually have been feeding KP in the milk feeding container and feeders rarely escape. So that may be okay but I'll keep an eye on it.

The lighting, its a 30" enclosure, so maybe I could get one of the 24" linear UVB hoods and bulb and hang it on the side of the enclosure to ensure maximum UVB penetration? or what would you recommend doing?
 
yea the oil difuser is not a sonic type, so you are good. I thought the black thing on the side was an oil catch can.

Yea the micro fiber as a evapo pad is great if you can keep them mildew free.

The lighting is a problem. If you have some money, get a linear 10.0 for the top, so half the cage height has usable uvb. Like i said a 5.0 cfl is only good for a little less than a foot, so its great for long fish tanks for say an anole/gecko setup, not good for a tall cage.
 
yea the oil difuser is not a sonic type, so you are good. I thought the black thing on the side was an oil catch can.

Yea the micro fiber as a evapo pad is great if you can keep them mildew free.

The lighting is a problem. If you have some money, get a linear 10.0 for the top, so half the cage height has usable uvb. Like i said a 5.0 cfl is only good for a little less than a foot, so its great for long fish tanks for say an anole/gecko setup, not good for a tall cage.


Ahh haha that makes a lot more sense now. I see where you could see that. It’s actually the reptirain misting system lol

Well i’ll make sure to keep it that way!

And thank you, I appreciate the info.
 
I had like a really small plastic bowl and shaped a clothes hanger around it and would hang it into the enclosure but it didn't work so well. I'm going to go buy a carton of juice and do what you did lol. What did you use to secure the screen?
 
You can look up how to make a custom feeder on YouTube, it’s where I got the idea. I used a drimmel tool on mine lol but I bet some scissors or a razor will work. Just make sure the screen reaches the floor of the jug so they can climb on but make sure the gaps are about a 1/4 inch around so they can’t hide behind the plastic. If you need any help let me know! @Wildwilson
 
I actually picked up some screen repair from Walmart. It has adhesive already on it, use a hair drier to stick it to the jug. But if you want to use regular mesh screen, you can use a hot glue gun. I used a hook in the back, hot glued the hook inside just Incase to make sure he didn’t hurt his tongue, then used fishing line to hang it in the enclosure. It’s a hit or miss but better then having feeders everywhere @Wildwilson
 
Good job looks much more natural now. He will like munching on the pothos a lot better than the silk plants.

He seems a lot happier in there, I was having problems with him being really dark but he’s currently sheltering in the pothos as green as can be. Think i’ve Got it covered so far, couldn’t have done it without your help! Thanks again
 
Back
Top Bottom