Newb enclosure help

[JaggedHorizon]

Hello all! First off, thanks for sharing all of the great information and photos. I have spent the last week or so pouring over them and studying in preparation for my first Cham!

I have wanted a Cham my entire life and am finally in a position to pull the plug.

I have decided on a veiled to start. We have a couple of hardware stores and like most things I see, I thought it could make a nice enclosure on my own.

I have a vanity picked out that I'd like to build on top of to assist in draining the waste water. It will make a very nice enclosure, but I'm concerned about the dimensions. The overall dimensions of the enclosure will be 16"x16"x48" if I use this vanity. I understand that this is probably plenty of space for a young Cham, but I'd like to build something that will last the lifetime.

Any thoughts? Thanks in advance for the help!

 

[ir0k]

that sounds plenty big. but just remember if you get a baby cham (which im assuming you are) you might have problems free range feeding him in a big enclosure.

I prefer free range feeding myself. I think it keeps them active in searching for food and such. but other people find cup feeding better because you can keep track of their food intake.

I don't think width and depth matter as much as height. but that's just from what research I've done. chameleons like to be high, preferably above even you when your walking about.

Remember if you get a female chameleon you will need a laying bin that will take up some room in your cage.

good luck with your new cage and post up some pics as your getting it done. a lot of people have built their own cages on this website and can give you great info.

 

[Emperor]

I built a 2' x 2' x 4' enclosure for my female veiled cham, and I am in the process of building a 3' x 3' x 5' enclosure for my male veiled cham.

Check out this thread to see my progress: https://www.chameleonforums.com/new-homemade-enclosure-127534/

Basically, go to Lowes or Home Depot, buy around four 2x2x8's (for a 2' x 2' x 4' enclosure) and two 2x4x8's. You then basically cut them to size, clamp them, and screw them together. Then you buy some wire mesh, I bought the aluminum wire mesh from Lowes, it works great! You can easily staple it on with a staple gun. After that, the edges might look kind of ugly, so you can either put some trim over it or some duct tape, pretty much whatever.

Also, don't forget to get a couple of hinges and a locking mechanism!

 

[JaggedHorizon]

that sounds plenty big. but just remember if you get a baby cham (which im assuming you are) you might have problems free range feeding him in a big enclosure.



I prefer free range feeding myself. I think it keeps them active in searching for food and such. but other people find cup feeding better because you can keep track of their food intake.



I don't think width and depth matter as much as height. but that's just from what research I've done. chameleons like to be high, preferably above even you when your walking about.



Remember if you get a female chameleon you will need a laying bin that will take up some room in your cage.



good luck with your new cage and post up some pics as your getting it done. a lot of people have built their own cages on this website and can give you great info.

Thanks ir0k! I hadn't considered the difficulty of free range feeding the young Cham in the large enclosure. I, too, would like to free range feed. Any suggestions?

 

[JaggedHorizon]

I built a 2' x 2' x 4' enclosure for my female veiled cham, and I am in the process of building a 3' x 3' x 5' enclosure for my male veiled cham.



Check out this thread to see my progress: https://www.chameleonforums.com/new-homemade-enclosure-127534/



Basically, go to Lowes or Home Depot, buy around four 2x2x8's (for a 2' x 2' x 4' enclosure) and two 2x4x8's. You then basically cut them to size, clamp them, and screw them together. Then you buy some wire mesh, I bought the aluminum wire mesh from Lowes, it works great! You can easily staple it on with a staple gun. After that, the edges might look kind of ugly, so you can either put some trim over it or some duct tape, pretty much whatever.



Also, don't forget to get a couple of hinges and a locking mechanism!

Thanks Emperor. We own a few hardware stores so we don't say the "L" word or the "HD" word in our house. ;-)

I had already been through your progress thread and it's one of them that inspired me to do the same! Thanks for that!

I'm pretty confident on building the enclosure, I was basically just asking about the dimensions.

 

[Lathis]

That would be fine for a young cham, but bigger is always better. If you want a cage for an adult that will give him more than enough space, go at least 2x3x4, more height too if you can. You can always make the small one first and then take your time making his adult home. That way you aren't rushed and can have fun with it!

This is the enclosure thread I used as the base for my custom cage.

https://www.chameleonforums.com/showthread.php?t=102657

My cage:
https://www.chameleonforums.com/showthread.php?t=111618

An awesome custom build:
https://www.chameleonforums.com/album.php?albumid=2071