Rearranged enclosure!

[snortz21]

After being very busy lately, I finally had the chance to rearrange my chams enclosure. It’s a 6 month old female veiled. She is doing well but has been eating much less lately. She ate like an absolute pig since I got her as a baby up until about a month ago. She grew a lot as well. I don’t think she was getting strong enough UVB and/or basking heat since her highest perch before I rearranged was not very high. Hopefully her appetite will increase with the new setup. Nonetheless, she is doing well and is healthy. Within minutes of setting up her new perch, she went to the top of it right under the UVB bulb. It’s a T5 HO reptisun with a 5.0 bulb. Is it safe for her to be so close to the UVB. I attached some pictures so let me know.

 

[Syreptyon]

You really ought to add a whole lot more foliage and vertical branches in her cage. She is way, way too exposed in this setup and the stress from not being able to hide may be contributing to her lack of appetite. Please consider adding live plants like schefflera, pothos, or ficus! It will be much healthier for her to have a fuller setup. Think about it: what you have right now is practically just a singular tight rope for her not very comfortable - especially for basking

 

[snortz21]

You really ought to add a whole lot more foliage and vertical branches in her cage. She is way, way too exposed in this setup and the stress from not being able to hide may be contributing to her lack of appetite. Please consider adding live plants like schefflera, pothos, or ficus! It will be much healthier for her to have a fuller setup. Think about it: what you have right now is practically just a singular tight rope for her not very comfortable - especially for basking

I appreciate your input. The lower half of the cage is dense with foliage but I agree that I need to add more to the top half. How will I go about adding a plant to the upper half though? I feel like it would be too heavy to hang from the top. I do have a pothos plant sitting on the bottom of the cage I could somehow put up top. Let me know what you think

 

[Kristen99]

This is my set up for my 4 month old the more foliage the better just an idea what size is your cage you can hang some pothos from the top and or some fake plants the more foliage the happier the chameleon he/she will feel more comfortable and be able to hide mine is excessive I know but I do enjoy all the plants as well they spend the most time at the top so think of thank.. happy chameleon keeping!

 

[Syreptyon]

Yeah, the dense foliage at the bottom unfortunately doesn't matter much. Since chameleons are arboreal, they want to spend their time at the top of the enclosure. However you choose to do it (there are many, many options), you need it to be dense up there or it won't do any good.

I would recommend getting a nice, sizeable schefflera or ficus to put in the middle. You can get ones tall enough to reach the upper part of the enclosure. It'll provide lots of perches, though you may have to rearrange what you have on the bottom.

 

[Kristen99]

I used zipties and drilled holes threw the planter and added some rope to those so they hang

 

[snortz21]

This is my set up for my 4 month old the more foliage the better just an idea what size is your cage you can hang some pothos from the top and or some fake plants the more foliage the happier the chameleon he/she will feel more comfortable and be able to hide mine is excessive I know but I do enjoy all the plants as well they spend the most time at the top so think of thank.. happy chameleon keeping!

Quite an impressive setup you have there! I will definitely add some more plants and foliage soon. Thanks for the pic

 

[Kristen99]

No problem let me know how it goes and she is beautiful!

 

[snortz21]

Added a nice 6 foot long vine to the top. Wrapped it around the existing vines. Happy with how it turned out. I’ll try to get a scheffelera in there to replace the pothos on the bottom

 

[Tag0538]

This is my set up for my 4 month old the more foliage the better just an idea what size is your cage you can hang some pothos from the top and or some fake plants the more foliage the happier the chameleon he/she will feel more comfortable and be able to hide mine is excessive I know but I do enjoy all the plants as well they spend the most time at the top so think of thank.. happy chameleon keeping!

Holy moly where did you get that cool lattice on the sides?!

 

[CamrynTheCham22]

Holy moly where did you get that cool lattice on the sides?!

I just saw a post by @Matthew43s who did the exact same thing and I absolutely loved it! Looks like there is a new trend in the chameleon world . . .

 

[Matthew43s]

Take a look at my posting “enclosure ideas that may help you” I have a part in there where I show how I hung my 8 pound pothos from the top of the enclosure

 

[CamrynTheCham22]

Here is the link in case you want to take a look: https://www.chameleonforums.com/threads/enclosure-ideas-that-may-help-you.161864/#post-1395615
Oh you beat me to it

 

[Matthew43s]

Haha thanks for that credit @CamrynTheCham22

 

[Kristen99]

Matthew43's the og on the lattice I got the idea from him

 

[Matthew43s]

Hahaha the OG

 

[Fiona's Mom]

When I want a hanging plant in my enclosure I found that if I put a small PVC pipe the width of the top of my cage....I then run a strong wire over the top of the PVC through the screen and fasten to plant. The weight of the plant is on the PVC and not tearing my screen. I even paint the PVC black to coordinate with cage color. (It's a girl thing.)

 

[Panthro413]

Agree with everyone, to bare in the middle & top..

 

[snortz21]

Added an additional 6 foot pothos vine and the top of the cage is looking much fuller! My cham is loving it on the top branch

 

[Kristen99]

Added an additional 6 foot pothos vine and the top of the cage is looking much fuller! My cham is loving it on the top branch

I bet she is great job it's a constant learning process and I'm glad to see you are taking the advice given you should be proud of yourself it looks great!