It's Probably The Exhaustion Talking But... Bird Cage?

[MissLissa]

So, I have a Reptibreeze XL, ready to be put together for Valdiaslav (4.5 month old Panther) as soon as he is a bit bigger. It's a 24x24x48.

However.

I JUST realized I have a really nice 40x25x60 dometop bird cage in my storage closet. It has 3/8" bar spacing, a pull-out floor grate and a slide out tray. I was looking at it, and I was like, "WHOA chameleon cage with built in drainage tray!" Does ayone have experience using a bird cage for a chameleon? Am I crazy looking at this thing, and thinking I can put my very much beloved cham in it?

Here is my thought process:

1. No screen means he can climb all the bars he likes- more exercise and usable space, to my mind. There are no curlicues or fancy work to maybe trap his toes or scratch an eye. It's very serviceable- I used it for finches, previously. It's also in pristine condition- no wear or tear or rust or anything like that.

2. It's way bigger than the silly Reptibreeze, both in height and length. Valdislav seems to use a lot of length vs height, so I think he'd appreciate the extra space

3. He tubfeeds extremely well, but I have escaped crickets all the dang time so a few more really isn't a problem.

4. The built in "drainage tray" means I can go crazy with the waterworks without worrying about ruining my apartment's carpets

5. The bar spacing is too small for my tiny fingers to fit though, or for a finch to fit through, so I have a hard time imagining an adult male panther would be able to escape that way

6. It will be much easier to attach branches, vines and plants to bars than to screens. I will also be able to attach a lot more of them, since it's stainless steel and the bars aren't going to break, unlike screen

7. I like how it looks better than the screen.

My area is fairly humid so keeping the humidity up is not really a problem, since in the winter I run a humidifier for my other herps anyways so it's always at least 60%.

Am I missing something important? It's late here, so maybe my tired brain isn't working right, but this seems like I could make it work really well with some minor adjustments for the lights, water sources, etc.

 

[reptileguy112]

It sounds good except the top of the cage must be screen not s plastic dome because the air needs to be able to rise and also uvb cant o through solids.

 

[reptileguy112]

Only tubefeed if they are on a hunger strive for over 2 weeks or they are sick. Never just do it because its more convenient.

 

[ChamieNewbie]

I would love to see the thoughts also just curious if it would work?

 

[MelissaB]

I've read posts here where others have used birdcages. I think it could work. You could hang the lights from the ceiling with eyebolts and cable or chain.

 

[MelissaB]

Only tubefeed if they are on a hunger strive for over 2 weeks or they are sick. Never just do it because its more convenient.

I think the OP wrote tubfeed, which I think means they put a small tub with feeders in it, like cup feeding.

 

[SocialNumb]

Sorry but the whole "tubefeed" confusion made me lol.

Maybe you can post a picture or two? I'm interested in seeing that and experienced folks around here can get a good look at it.

 

[jajeanpierre]

So, I have a Reptibreeze XL, ready to be put together for Valdiaslav (4.5 month old Panther) as soon as he is a bit bigger. It's a 24x24x48.

However.

I JUST realized I have a really nice 40x25x60 dometop bird cage in my storage closet. It has 3/8" bar spacing, a pull-out floor grate and a slide out tray. I was looking at it, and I was like, "WHOA chameleon cage with built in drainage tray!" Does ayone have experience using a bird cage for a chameleon? Am I crazy looking at this thing, and thinking I can put my very much beloved cham in it?

Here is my thought process:

1. No screen means he can climb all the bars he likes- more exercise and usable space, to my mind. There are no curlicues or fancy work to maybe trap his toes or scratch an eye. It's very serviceable- I used it for finches, previously. It's also in pristine condition- no wear or tear or rust or anything like that.

2. It's way bigger than the silly Reptibreeze, both in height and length. Valdislav seems to use a lot of length vs height, so I think he'd appreciate the extra space

3. He tubfeeds extremely well, but I have escaped crickets all the dang time so a few more really isn't a problem.

4. The built in "drainage tray" means I can go crazy with the waterworks without worrying about ruining my apartment's carpets

5. The bar spacing is too small for my tiny fingers to fit though, or for a finch to fit through, so I have a hard time imagining an adult male panther would be able to escape that way

6. It will be much easier to attach branches, vines and plants to bars than to screens. I will also be able to attach a lot more of them, since it's stainless steel and the bars aren't going to break, unlike screen

7. I like how it looks better than the screen.

My area is fairly humid so keeping the humidity up is not really a problem, since in the winter I run a humidifier for my other herps anyways so it's always at least 60%.

Am I missing something important? It's late here, so maybe my tired brain isn't working right, but this seems like I could make it work really well with some minor adjustments for the lights, water sources, etc.

I think it's a great way to keep your Panther if you can keep it humid enough. I HATE screen cages. I hate seeing the damage done to their feet, regardless of how well furnished the cage it.

The downside is the feeders which can and will escape. That can be solved with hand feeding or choosing a feeder staple that is not mobile like silk worms.

Just be very careful of the bar spacing. I had an adult, gravid gracilior dive and get stuck between the 3/4" spacing of the DragonStrand shelves and the walls. I don't know her weight, but she was probably about 65g when not gravid at the time. Her head seems quite large compared to the quad quads of similar weight but she was mature when imported. I had a heck of a time getting her free and was really really worried she would die, especially since she was gravid at the time.

The bar spacing lets more light in, all good. I suspect it will rust, but so does the Reptibreeze.

I doubt your tray for the bird cage will keep all the misting inside, but it's a good start. You can always set the whole cage inside a drainage tray. DragonStrand has some good trays to fit other enclosures besides their own.

 

[werecat]

I think it's a great idea! I've thought about doing it myself since my chameleon only hand feeds now. There are a lot of advantages like you've pointed out.

I know someone who uses a well planted HUGE flight cage for his Parsonii. It's very nice!

 

[addicks]

I think it's a great way to keep your Panther if you can keep it humid enough. I HATE screen cages. I hate seeing the damage done to their feet, regardless of how well furnished the cage it.

The downside is the feeders which can and will escape. That can be solved with hand feeding or choosing a feeder staple that is not mobile like silk worms.

Just be very careful of the bar spacing. I had an adult, gravid gracilior dive and get stuck between the 3/4" spacing of the DragonStrand shelves and the walls. I don't know her weight, but she was probably about 65g when not gravid at the time. Her head seems quite large compared to the quad quads of similar weight but she was mature when imported. I had a heck of a time getting her free and was really really worried she would die, especially since she was gravid at the time.

The bar spacing lets more light in, all good. I suspect it will rust, but so does the Reptibreeze.

I doubt your tray for the bird cage will keep all the misting inside, but it's a good start. You can always set the whole cage inside a drainage tray. DragonStrand has some good trays to fit other enclosures besides their own.

I wonder if you could use some kind of waterproof membrane/lining to make the birdcage tray waterproof... then install a bulkhead for drainage?

 

[Carlton]

The downside is the feeders which can and will escape. That can be solved with hand feeding or choosing a feeder staple that is not mobile like silk worms.

The bar spacing lets more light in, all good. I suspect it will rust, but so does the Reptibreeze.

I doubt your tray for the bird cage will keep all the misting inside, but it's a good start. You can always set the whole cage inside a drainage tray. DragonStrand has some good trays to fit other enclosures besides their own.

A couple of ideas...as you probably can't feed flying insects using this cage you'll be limited in that regard. If you really want to feed them you could make a soft mesh cover (cut it to fit the outsides) for the bird cage that would contain them. The cage bars would still be on the inside for climbing.

You could also spray paint the cage with a heavy duty paint like Rustoleum to seal any joins that might rust, and make a coroplast or some other type of plastic liner for the cage tray and seal the seams with silicone. It would prevent most if not all rusting.

 

[greenwitch7]

bird cage

Hi, welcome to the forum . You can find tons of info.
here. I have used a bird cage for my male panther for his outside time since he got big enough not to fit between the bars. I generally watch over him anyway, but I just don't trust screen outside. Too many cats around. I've been looking for a really big cage to replace his screen cage inside. It works for me. Oz really gets excited when I bring his outside cage. He all but jumps into my hand. He always gets a nice long misty shower too.

 

[MissLissa]

I tried the tray, its 2"+ deep, and watertight! I may silicone it for good measure since I have a ton of that sitting around. Siliconing the joins is a great idea! Ill definitely be doing that.

If I can't keep the humidity up, it would be easy as pie to add mesh or acrylic sides to the cage. But I don't really worry about humidity; our average here is about 70%. I'm more concerned about the humidity staying too high for too long!

The dometop is made of bars, not plastic, and its TUBfeeding not tube feeding He has a small Tupperware tub that contains the crickets and he hunts from the rim and the small plant I have in there. Keeps the mess and the feeders contained while still allowing him to exercise his tongue.

Edit:
I'm not actually worried about feeders escaping, to tell you the truth, since we have escaped feeders all the time, between my roommate's reptiles and my own. And the tubfeeding works well so far; not many escape into Vladislav's screen cage right now. Maybe one or two a week. This seems reasonable to me.

This is sort of what the cage looks like, when it's together. This is not the right brand cage (mine is several years old and I can't remember the make at the moment) but it's very similar to this: