Tyaeda
Established Member
First off, want to say thanks to everyone here! You're all so kind and extremely informative! Mr. Pink, my husband and I's first reptile, let alone Veiled Chameleon, seems to be doing very well in his new home, but since we are noobs to all of this, I'd like to describe our set up and gather as many ideas and suggestions as we can. 
After much research and price checking, my husband and I went the DIY route, and built a 2X2X4ft, aluminum screened, enclosure out of pine 2 X 2's. We made the base out of MDF, that we stuck linoleum floor tiles to. We sealed around the bottom with bathroom caulking. On top of that, we have some exo-terra mat (see pictures) that keeps the humidity up, but I'm most likely going to remove when I clean the cage. Some people said that it might be too big a cage because he may have problems feeding, but we tackled that by hand feeding. I would cup feed, but I like watching him "hunt" the crickets that we strategically place on branches and leaves. He already recognizes the tweezers we handle the crickets with, and will focus on them even if there's no crickets.
His cage is situated in the corner of my dining room, in between two windows. I don't know if we would say it's a high-traffic area of my house, the cats and us often walk by it, and all Mr.Pink does is watch us walk by. He only reacts when we approach the cage, which he's slowly starting to associate to good things. We don't ever take him out of his cage unless we're cleaning it, so I'm pretty sure the attention he does get isn't stressing him out too much.
We furnished Mr.Pink's mansion with a live schefflera plant in the middle. It's planted in plain organic potting soil, that I covered with good-sized river rocks. Each rock weighs more than he does, so I doubt he'll be eating any of them, or the soil underneath for that matter. As you can see in the photos, each corner has faux foliage he can hide in (I added more after someone here suggested it ), along with 4, 6-7ft lengths of flexible vines, that I have been carefully re-adjusting to improve his accessibility to the entire top portion of the cage. I also have placed some faux foliage from the dollar store on top of the cage for a canopy, to help him feel a little less exposed. I'm going to add more to the other sides to increase his privacy and the overall appearance. I don't want him to climb the screen, and he hasn't yet. He usually stays around the upper 2/3 of the cage, but he has access to the bottom too.
For lighting I have two dome lights. One is a 50W heat bulb, with a dimmer. The other is a 5.0 UVB bulb. His heat basking branch is about 11-12 inches below, and the UVB basking is much closer at about 7-8 inches away. During the day his basking temp is between 80-85 degrees, ambient 70-75, I turn it down if it gets any higher. At night the temp goes down 10-20 degrees, but his cage is next to the radiator, so if I know it's going to be a cold night I leave it on, and it kicks in if it gets dips below 70 degrees in my house. I have two, temp/humidity gauges in the enclosure. One near the basking spot, the other a few inches from the bottom of the cage. I have a timer, I just haven't figured out how to use it yet. I don't mind turning the lights on and off each day.
For water I use a manual pump sprayer that gives off a fine mist. Mr.Pink isn't afraid of it like he used to be, and now seems to enjoy the overspray that gets on him from time to time. I spray him with room-temp distilled water, many times a day (at least 4-5). Sometimes if it's cooler, I'll warm up the water, which he seems to like to drink more than the room temperature stuff. I check the humidity levels frequently, and will spray if I see the humidity at the bottom go down to 30%, trying to keep the bottom of the cage at 40-50%. We plan on getting an auto-mister after we remove the green reptile carpet, so I'll have to figure out how to use that timer soon.
So yeah! Here's some pictures of everything. Let me know how I'm doing. I'd love to hear some suggestions to make Mr.Pink more comfortable, or even to make the cage more aesthetically pleasing.
After much research and price checking, my husband and I went the DIY route, and built a 2X2X4ft, aluminum screened, enclosure out of pine 2 X 2's. We made the base out of MDF, that we stuck linoleum floor tiles to. We sealed around the bottom with bathroom caulking. On top of that, we have some exo-terra mat (see pictures) that keeps the humidity up, but I'm most likely going to remove when I clean the cage. Some people said that it might be too big a cage because he may have problems feeding, but we tackled that by hand feeding. I would cup feed, but I like watching him "hunt" the crickets that we strategically place on branches and leaves. He already recognizes the tweezers we handle the crickets with, and will focus on them even if there's no crickets.
His cage is situated in the corner of my dining room, in between two windows. I don't know if we would say it's a high-traffic area of my house, the cats and us often walk by it, and all Mr.Pink does is watch us walk by. He only reacts when we approach the cage, which he's slowly starting to associate to good things. We don't ever take him out of his cage unless we're cleaning it, so I'm pretty sure the attention he does get isn't stressing him out too much.
We furnished Mr.Pink's mansion with a live schefflera plant in the middle. It's planted in plain organic potting soil, that I covered with good-sized river rocks. Each rock weighs more than he does, so I doubt he'll be eating any of them, or the soil underneath for that matter. As you can see in the photos, each corner has faux foliage he can hide in (I added more after someone here suggested it
), along with 4, 6-7ft lengths of flexible vines, that I have been carefully re-adjusting to improve his accessibility to the entire top portion of the cage. I also have placed some faux foliage from the dollar store on top of the cage for a canopy, to help him feel a little less exposed. I'm going to add more to the other sides to increase his privacy and the overall appearance. I don't want him to climb the screen, and he hasn't yet. He usually stays around the upper 2/3 of the cage, but he has access to the bottom too. For lighting I have two dome lights. One is a 50W heat bulb, with a dimmer. The other is a 5.0 UVB bulb. His heat basking branch is about 11-12 inches below, and the UVB basking is much closer at about 7-8 inches away. During the day his basking temp is between 80-85 degrees, ambient 70-75, I turn it down if it gets any higher. At night the temp goes down 10-20 degrees, but his cage is next to the radiator, so if I know it's going to be a cold night I leave it on, and it kicks in if it gets dips below 70 degrees in my house. I have two, temp/humidity gauges in the enclosure. One near the basking spot, the other a few inches from the bottom of the cage. I have a timer, I just haven't figured out how to use it yet. I don't mind turning the lights on and off each day.
For water I use a manual pump sprayer that gives off a fine mist. Mr.Pink isn't afraid of it like he used to be, and now seems to enjoy the overspray that gets on him from time to time. I spray him with room-temp distilled water, many times a day (at least 4-5). Sometimes if it's cooler, I'll warm up the water, which he seems to like to drink more than the room temperature stuff. I check the humidity levels frequently, and will spray if I see the humidity at the bottom go down to 30%, trying to keep the bottom of the cage at 40-50%. We plan on getting an auto-mister after we remove the green reptile carpet, so I'll have to figure out how to use that timer soon.
So yeah! Here's some pictures of everything. Let me know how I'm doing. I'd love to hear some suggestions to make Mr.Pink more comfortable, or even to make the cage more aesthetically pleasing.
