Self Introduction

[symphonica]

Hello! I'm new to this forum. I've had chameleons for about 6 years now, but just recently came across this site. I currently have a 6 month old Ambilobe panther who's starting to show some amazing colors. I don't breed - they're just pets - although I'd love to attempt it some day. I'm just worried that I'll mess it up and will end up harming the chameleons in the process.

My chameleons are always in a free-range set-up. No cages whatsoever, unless they're sick or injured and need a "hospital cage." I have artificial ficuses in a room with 3 windows with curtain rods and curtains on each of them. They're free to roam, but they mostly stay on their ficus. To feed, I have feeder dishes set up, where I put worms in. This way, I don't end up with worms all over my room. Imagine if I were to move some things out of the closet and were to find a whole pile of worms there, or burrowing in my clothes Gross.

Maintaining humidity and UVB can be a challenge with free ranging, but I try my best. I have a mist system aimed at one of the ficus. The chameleons learn that that's where they need to go for a drink. I hang fluorescent light strips from the ceiling above the ficus. The light strips are 24", just long enough to cover the width of the ficus. I use your basic fluorescent tube for UVB.

If anybody thinks I could improve my free-range set-up, please let me know. I've been having a hard time finding info on free-ranging them 24/7.

P.S., I'm looking to acquire a Nosy Be and a Yellow-Bodied-Red-Bar, so if anybody comes across any, would love the head's up.

 

[windex]

When you say "basic fluorescent tube for UVB" do you mean just an every day bulb from the hardware store? Or is it specifically designed for UVB.. The bulbs you get at the hardware store do not produce UVB, you need one specific for that purpose such as a Reptisun or Arcadia.

 

[symphonica]

Yeah, I mean the ReptiSun UVB fluorescent. The regular old fluorescent tubes, not the R-type bulbs, coiled bulbs, or MHs or anything special. I started a UVB bulb thread to ask about differences.

 

[symphonica]

Forgot a detail - he came to be with a tongue injury and it only extends about 2", and it doesn't shoot straight - it's shoots down. So he can't aim, and therefore, his prey must be in a feeding dish where they can't move around much. It takes him several tries before he can finally catch his prey. For that reason, I avoid crickets - they're too fast for him. When I do get him some once in a while to vary his diet, this may sound cruel, but I have to pull the back legs off of them to slow them down and to keep them from jumping out of the feeding cup. If anybody wants to save me the trouble of and guilty feeling from ripping off their back legs by selling me crickets with legs already missing, I'd be a happy customer...

Breeder wasn't sure how he got his injury, except that he wasn't born with it - his tongue was fine when he was born and was all of a sudden like this one day.

 

[werecat]

Welcome to the forums! While I can't comment on your free range setup (since I don't have one), I can say you've come to a great place. This community is fully of knowledgeable chameleon keepers/lovers. Your little guy sure is beautiful!

 

[Decadancin]

Welcome to the forums! Not sure if you noticed there is a section under the enclosures forum about free ranges. (Its at the top of the page) You might find some great ideas there!

 

[jmwhitel]

Welcome! Beautiful Ambilobe btw

 

[symphonica]

Thanks, all! I've already gotten a lot of useful info from the people on here. Accounts of first-hand experience is far more valuable and accurate than a lot of the info on the web. I'm having a hard time uploading pictures to my online albums and avatar, but I'm starting to explore more and more of this site and constantly finding new stuff

 

[Zephalia]

Welcome! I'm so glad to see another member who is free ranging. I use cages during the week but free range on the weekend. I have a live ficus sitting on a shower curtain. There is a cool mist humidifier next to the tree to maintain humidity in the room and it works great. Usually around 70% in the winter when it would normally be 10-20% without it. It was $35 from Home Depot.

I also have some vines attached to a wooden stool about half the size of his tree which has a pothos plant on it. He likes to explore and I try to keep him interested in his area rather than crawling around on the floor. In the process of hanging his UVB over the tree as well and another hanging planter above attached by vines.

Once he's free ranging full time, I will just have a cup feeding station attached to his tree. I hand mist at this point but since I'll soon be upgrading to 3 chams instead of one, I'm looking to invest in a MistKing.

Sounds to me like you have a good setup going.

 

[Carlton]

If anybody wants to save me the trouble of and guilty feeling from ripping off their back legs by selling me crickets with legs already missing, I'd be a happy customer...

Do you know the little trick to getting legs off a cricket without having to rip them off? If so, just ignore this.

If you grasp the cricket by the knee of its jumping leg and pinch, the insect will drop the leg by itself. Its an escape mechanism and won't damage the cricket as much.

 

[symphonica]

Carlton, I did not know that. I'll definitely try it - thanks!

Zeph, I used to have a 1 gal warm mist humidifier. The cool was just too cold, I thought. But I was having to refill that thing twice a day. So now I use the mistking. The room is carpeted, which isn't ideal for a free range situation, so I have a different piece of carpet under the ficus, along with a piece of acrylic from Home Depot on top, covered with the green reptile carpet on top. This way, the reptile carpet dries easily and the acrylic wipes clean. I make sure the mister doesn't get the wall to prevent water damage to the walls, and try to keep the water on the green mat so that my real carpeting doesn't get wet and mold. If anybody has any better ideas for using mister and protecting the house, that'd be very helpful.

 

[Carlton]

Carlton, I did not know that. I'll definitely try it - thanks!

Zeph, I used to have a 1 gal warm mist humidifier. The cool was just too cold, I thought. But I was having to refill that thing twice a day. So now I use the mistking. The room is carpeted, which isn't ideal for a free range situation, so I have a different piece of carpet under the ficus, along with a piece of acrylic from Home Depot on top, covered with the green reptile carpet on top. This way, the reptile carpet dries easily and the acrylic wipes clean. I make sure the mister doesn't get the wall to prevent water damage to the walls, and try to keep the water on the green mat so that my real carpeting doesn't get wet and mold. If anybody has any better ideas for using mister and protecting the house, that'd be very helpful.

I free ranged my melleri in a carpeted room, but set my clump of potted trees on a large piece of plywood. Between the plywood and the carpet I criss crossed flat wooden lathes to provide some airflow. The plywood was covered with a piece of pond liner, and I rolled the edges of the liner up to create a sort of "bathtub" effect that held the overspray until I could sponge it up. This will be sturdy enough to handle the weight of large pots or your weight if you need to step on it. If your free range is near a wall you can hang a piece of clear plastic sheeting on the wall to protect it (and because the sheeting is basically clear it won't look too bad).

 

[Zephalia]

Carlton, I did not know that. I'll definitely try it - thanks!

Zeph, I used to have a 1 gal warm mist humidifier. The cool was just too cold, I thought. But I was having to refill that thing twice a day. So now I use the mistking. The room is carpeted, which isn't ideal for a free range situation, so I have a different piece of carpet under the ficus, along with a piece of acrylic from Home Depot on top, covered with the green reptile carpet on top. This way, the reptile carpet dries easily and the acrylic wipes clean. I make sure the mister doesn't get the wall to prevent water damage to the walls, and try to keep the water on the green mat so that my real carpeting doesn't get wet and mold. If anybody has any better ideas for using mister and protecting the house, that'd be very helpful.

Since the chams like varying levels of humidity throughout the day - I have my humidifier on a seperate timer that goes on and off in intervals throughout the day and turns off completely at night. With this, I only have to fill it every 3 days. I do not find that the cool mist affects the temperature in the room and I also do not have it pointed at any of the trees or enclosures.

My room is also carpeted so I find that having a large area covered around the tree by the shower curtain works well. It's also easy to clean but I do not have an automated misting system so I do not have to worry about drainage issues or leaking onto the carpet.