Screen or Glass?

[sszeto]

I have been debating whether to go with a screen enclosure or a glass enclosure, such as the Exo Terra units. Aside from the article "Keeping Chameleons in Glass Terrariums" by Christopher V. Anderson, has any one of you have a preference over the other?

I have always understood the idea behind the screens (and it makes complete sense!!) but I want to lean away from it because of very young children...yet, glass seems to scare me a little bit despite the glowing article mentioned above.

Just wanted to see why YOU chose the enclosure that you have.

 

[kinyonga]

First of all be aware that I live in Ontario, Canada. If you live in a different climate you would be best advised to use a screen cage unless you have air conditioning. Screen is, of course, imperative if you will be keeping the chameleon outside in most cases.

I've been keeping chameleons for over 20 years...and when I started out they were kept in glass aquariums with screen lids because that was what was available. I kept WC adult C. chamaeleons in them and they lived for over 5 years in them as did most of their offspring. I also kept a number of other chameleon species in them.

I eventually switched to custom made glass cages with screen lids and screen fronts but as soon as they were available I switched to the exo terra glass cages with screen lids and vents in the doors because I was having trouble keeping the humidity and temperatures up in the winter in the screen fronted ones. I found that the chameleons had to spend a lot of their time sitting in the basking area compared to what they did in the all glass cages.

I have never used completely screen cages...but have heard/read a lot about them.

IMHO both all screen and all glass have disadvantages and advantages. With glass cages its always imperative that you don't leave water laying stagnant on the floor of the cage. Its also important to arrange the lights on the top of the cage in such a way that they create a "chimney affect" for the air flow. With the screen cages its more difficult to keep the humidity and temperature up in cool dry areas. Misting can create problems with over-spray and when using a dripper you need a way to deal with the water.
With screen cages I often hear of people covering some of the sides of the cage to keep the heat/humidity in and to help with water issues.

Hope this helps!

 

[fluxlizard]

my experience has been similar to kinyongia-
Kept everything in glass aquaria with screen lids 20 years ago and bred several species over 4-5 years that way and never had any problems associated with the glass tanks. Eventually I started building my own screen cages because I wanted to keep the chameleons outside during the summer. After the outdoor paint coated wooden frames of these cages rotted after a few years of use, I switched over to reptariums and have been happy enough with that ever since. I like reptariums because you can get a lot of room for a little price- much cheaper than all glass or other screen enclosures.

I have always been a strong believer that the screen cages are not magical and dislike magical logic. If glass works for other arboreal lizards, it works for chameleons too. But I like the lizards outdoors and cost is a big factor for me- so screen it is.

BUT- my chameleons aren't in my living room either.

I keep them in the yard or in a lizard building, depending on the time of year.
If they were in my living room- I'd build something custom with a glass front or no front at all that still contains the chameleons so I could enjoy them with an unobstructed view. Screen gets in between and disrupts the viewing.

 

[ferretinmyshoes]

Where do you live? Your climate may help influence your decision better. I live in Texas where it's hot and humid, even indoors where I keep everyone, so screen cages work very well for me. The glass cages that I do have heat up easily in the high ambient temps since my a/c doesn't keep up that well or if the sun shines on their room and I have to work to keep them cooler. It's hard for me to make a temperature gradient in glass cages since heat gets trapped by the glass and it's warm enough outside the cage to prevent good cooling. If I lived somewhere dry and cold then glass cages would probably be a better investment, but down here I prefer screen. The nicer cages with the lighter colored mesh don't obstruct the view of my chams very much imo and I can always see where they are from across the room. But it's personal preference of course. My biggest complaint with glass cages is just that it's hard to find them big enough for the larger species like veileds and panthers. At that size they're absurdly expensive and heavy just by themselves. Once you add decor forget about moving them... But if cost isn't a big factor and you have really sturdy furniture to support them then they can work very well! The smaller more reasonably priced exo-terras (still can be heavy!) work great for some of my smaller species as long as I watch the internal temps closely in my heat.

I would like to point out that if you're worried about small children bothering the cage, a big, heavy glass cage tipping over seems far more dangerous to me than a screen one. But regardless it might be a good idea to set up a safe area for something like this as chams would probably not be pleased with things being thrown at their cage or having the cage shaken or bothered regularly.

 

[CauseNAffect]

Don't get any cage...
buy a quality plant, some ropes and vines, get a good size uvb and basking bulb, and let your cham be freeeeeeee...RANGING..... thats what will make your cham happiest

 

[sszeto]

kinyonga: Are there such a thing as a mixed combo of both glass and screen? Maybe that would be more of an ideal situation?

fluxlizard: If you keep your chameleons in the yard, are they free ranging on top of trees or are they still in cages but built to house them outside?

ferretinmyshoes: The placement of the glass tank would be in the corner of the room anyhow. In fact, there were two places I was thinking about putting the cage....1) In the corner of a dining room where there is little to no traffic or 2) In the corner of the living room where things are happening ALL the time. I'm sure the chameleon would stress out at option 2 (probably because of the TV) but I know that the kids would love to have him/her there to look over and watch the chameleon move around. I have thought about putting a non-reflective window tint on the glass itself so that the movement of my kids and the three dogs wouldn't be as visible.

CauseNAffect: I would love to have the chameleon free ranging too. If I had it my way, our guest bedroom (which no guests come to use it) would be converted into a full chameleon room. THAT would be soooo awesome...haha. But one can dream, right?

The last time I had a chameleon was about 15 years ago. I had an aquarium tank but I put it on its side with a screen top and tried to position it as much as I can to to have proper air flow. I later switched to an all-screen enclosure. While that worked out well back then, now, I'm not sure if it works out for the family situation because of the young kids.

The chameleon would be indoors anyway, in a air conditioned house. The house temperature is almost always at a constant 77 degrees. Where I live, when its hot, it hits the triple digits and when its cold, its almost near freezing.

 

[Sticktongue]

The chameleon would be indoors anyway, in a air conditioned house. The house temperature is almost always at a constant 77 degrees. Where I live, when its hot, it hits the triple digits and when its cold, its almost near freezing.

I live in Utah so my conditions are like yours, 100s in the summer sometimes, and negatives at night sometimes.

I built a nice double cage that is all screen sides, top, and door. However, either the AC or heater is running all year long which makes humidity sucky in the house. I ended up having to cover 2 sides of the cage with shower curtains. The middle wall dividing the cages is wooden, so the only parts left with just screen is the door, the top, and about 3 inches around the top of the sides to let the air still flow through.

If i were to build another one, I would cover a couple sides with plexi glass and a side or two with screen. With the plexi glass sides i would have 4 or so inches of screen below and above the glass to let the air flow.

I also noticed the misting over shooting where it needed to so water would "float" out of the door. I ended up building a rain dome so all the water was falling down to solve that problem.

So with my limited experience for where I live, i would vote glass/screen combined.

 

[Carlton]

kinyonga: Are there such a thing as a mixed combo of both glass and screen? Maybe that would be more of an ideal situation?

Sure there's such a thing as a "hybrid" cage. I've built them. Basically I built (or you could buy) a screen cage, but I added swiveling clips (a type used to install removable window screens) to the frame so I could attach plexiglas panels anywhere I wanted. This way I could adjust the cage and the level of air exchange to the seasons in the house. Worked great! On some other cages I attached good quality clear shower curtains (with the handy reinforced grommet hanging holes) to the cage sides which amounted to much the same thing.

 

[chendy]

yay someone else is from utah as well!!!

 

[fluxlizard]

fluxlizard: If you keep your chameleons in the yard, are they free ranging on top of trees or are they still in cages but built to house them outside?

They are in reptariums that are 29"x29"x48" tall. These cages are moved outdoors in the spring when night temperatures are above 50 and remain outdoors with the chameleons all summer until night temps once again drop below 50 again in the fall, at which time the cages and lizards are moved back into my lizard building. They are on tables which are simple 2x4 frames without table tops, which allows the water from the misters to drop right through the cage into the grass below. I don't have a really good current pic to show you, but here is one where you can see the chameleon cages behind my boys. The reptariums in front of them have non-chameleons in them (green basilisks and young australian water dragons I think). The top of the cham cages sits about 5 1/2 feet off the ground when they are on the tables.

My biggest complaint with glass cages is just that it's hard to find them big enough for the larger species like veileds and panthers.

I can't believe I left this out of my original statement, but to me that is another big reason I choose reptariums. You get a lot more space for the investment than the same amount spent on glass. Technically- I don't consider a lot of space mandatory (I had very healthy veileds and panthers breeding those years in 29 gallon aquaria, as well as several other species, and panthers have been bred in enclosures in labratory settings in even smaller enclosures than the 29 gallon aquaria- enclosures roughly the size of 10 gallon tanks have been used successfully long term for females (see ferguson's panther chameleon book)) so I don't consider it a "need" for space but absolutely from the standpoint of quality of life- I like the fact that my chameleons have much more space in 29"x29"x48" high enclosures that they have now than when I was using the 29 gallon aquaria long ago. The lizards are a lot more interesting to watch in the larger enclosures as well- when moving and stretched out they are beautiful to observe. You can't get that in an enclosure that is less than a couple of feet on every side, and even 2' wide enclosures are pushing it if you think about it- once the lizard is fully stretched out he's got only a few inches of space he can move.

One cage design that I did once that I really liked were some jacksons chameleon cages- they had 3 screen sides and plexiglass doors. When the cages were outdoors for the summer, I simply positioned the cages so the door was on the north side of the enclosure, so the sun shone through to the outside of the cage, rather than the inside. Worked great. But it was eventually a case of the painted wooden frames rotting out eventually. Reptariums don't rot. But I do miss the clear visibility into the cage.

 

[SilverDragoness]

I really like my Exoterra for my baby veiled. It can get cold where I am and he's in the house so that also influenced my decision. Also with curious kitties I decided that screen would get knocked over too easily. To get rid of the water on the bottom issue I got two plants a pothos and a dracenea and put them in green pots with the water catcher things. I made sure to clean them up and place river rock over the top of the soil. Now there is basically nothing in the way of moisture on the bottom of the enclosure.

 

[hinoco1225]

For my caged chameleons, I chose screen because of a few reasons already mentioned, including:
1) larger cages readily available
2) cheaper than glass
3) I live in a very humid area, so I prefer the increased airflow of screen since keeping humidity up is not an issue

But there is also one more reason I really like screen that has yet to be mentioned (unless I just missed it), and that is the fact that screen cages are so much lighter! My cages will inevitably have to be moved from time to time, and I cannot imagine how heavy a 2'x2'x4' cage made of glass would be!

 

[bnolsen2]

I'm a big fan of these Reptology cages at LLL. They have screen sides and a glass front.


http://lllreptile.com/store/catalog...n-plax-reptology-screen-habitat-18-x-18-x-36/

 

[sandrachameleon]

Choose what works based on the environment you live in / your chameleons will be in. Is the climate dry or humid? hot? cold? There are disadvantages and advantages to either type. I prefer a more solid-sided enclosure (mine are home built, wood frame, peg board back and sides, plexi front doors, wire top). These cages give me lots of control over the interior environment of the cage.

 

[kinyonga]

You said..."kinyonga: Are there such a thing as a mixed combo of both glass and screen? Maybe that would be more of an ideal situation?"...yes, there are...but as I said, the ones I had with screen lids and screen doors I quit using for most of my chameleons because they were hard to keep warm enough and were very dry. The exoterras have a small ventilated area in the front of the cage as well as screen lids and I've found them to be better for my situation. What you use should depend on your situation....climate where you live, do you have air conditioning, etc.