Some Fun With Outdoor Caging

[Monkeykungphu]

Great looking outdoor cages Jim! Really nice! I bet you have some extremely happy chameleons in there!

Was wondering, is there any function behind make the sides of the cages slanted instead of completely vertical? Didn't know if it were just for looks/design, or it had something to do with ventilation, etc... thanks!

 

[chams1]

Wonderful cages, Jim! I love the design! (and those chams are pretty hot, too)

 

[Chameleon Company]

Great looking outdoor cages Jim! Really nice! I bet you have some extremely happy chameleons in there!

Was wondering, is there any function behind make the sides of the cages slanted instead of completely vertical? Didn't know if it were just for looks/design, or it had something to do with ventilation, etc... thanks!

Thanks. I think I addressed the slant earlier. With the storm winds we get, some form of triangle bracing was necessary. Looking at how I needed to keep the inner edges somewhat clean, and without too much rubed-up bracing, the angled ends bolt to the four ground posts, and then to the base, giving us the necessary strength in the simplest way. I can push hard on any side, and the top will not sway 1/8".

We have a mesh tray elevated several feet off the ground in each cage that gets an occasional spoon of canned cat food. Pulls the flies in, which helps provide some wild nutrition for the chams.

With temps as warm as they have been, the girls will lay 14-16 days after breeding. A few are close to laying now.

 

[Dez]

Those cages are great! You have inspired me to built.. (er well.. make my husband build) something like that!

 

[Montium]

Have to regularly treat the surrounding area for fire ants. They can be pretty well managed. The issue most with fire ants is them getting into a cage of small juveniles.

Do you treat with anything special? I always worry about it somehow getting back to the chams.

 

[Chameleon Company]

Do you treat with anything special? I always worry about it somehow getting back to the chams.

I think that just about all the products are safe, if used 3 feet or more away from the cage. The cheaper long-duration products are usually a bait, that gets taken back to the ant nest, and take a day or so to work. Point being, they are not carried to the cage. For closer to the cage, we have always used an Ortho product, sold at Lowes and Home Depot .... Orthylene is the name. Rather pungent white powder. I think the risk of the poison ending up in the cage via insect is exceedingly minimal. On the flip side, fire ants can devastate small chameleons in a blink, and I don't like them around at all.

 

[Gluuvan]

Jim those cages are fantastic, You have got my brain rolling on some designs i could do for myself. One question i have about females is the difficulty to locate her dig site after she has laid. Seems some of my females hide where they dug very very well. Although i love the idea of growing your garden inside too what a fantastic way of using the water from one source for another. Look forward to seeing some of those young faly's. Do you notice that the females stay on the lower end of the tree while the males perch up higher in the tree's?

Chris

 

[Chameleon Company]

Jim those cages are fantastic, You have got my brain rolling on some designs i could do for myself. One question i have about females is the difficulty to locate her dig site after she has laid. Seems some of my females hide where they dug very very well. Although i love the idea of growing your garden inside too what a fantastic way of using the water from one source for another. Look forward to seeing some of those young faly's. Do you notice that the females stay on the lower end of the tree while the males perch up higher in the tree's?

Chris

Missing a female laying is always a possibility, especially if you have lots of them, and group cages such as this. In these cages, we keep the ground clean, and very visible. We also check the ground closely 3-4 times a day. When we see a female digging, we mark the spot with a plastic arrow about 8" long. Additionally, if you miss it, a female that has laid will be dirty for several days, so you will see her, then know you have to look for disturbed soil. Its not that big of a risk if some attention is always applied.

If the cage is big enough, the females will go high and low. The key is to have the cage large enough, and animals raised such, that you never see hostility. At 8 AM this morning I caught my Faly's getting a slice, high in the cage, on some of the watering pipes. That's what its all about.

In fact, late today I installed the night bug set-up. Its a dome light and manifold, attached high on a side with an open-close screen door. After sun-down, when the chameleons are immobile, I open the manifold-access door, about 18" X 14", with a light inside that I turn on, to pull in the night bugs. To get the big moths in, I also have a situation where a sleep-walking chameleon might could escape, as the only mesh over the opening with the access door open is 2" X 4" welded wire to keep the raccoons out, although the manifold reduces the chance of chameleon escape to almost to nil. I want the big bugs and moths to get in. Bill Love, a good friend further south, was experimenting always with getting wild bugs into his outdoor cages back in the mid 90's. There's no book to go to ! About 7 AM tomorrow I will wander out, turn off that light, close the access door, and hope the chameleons feast on some of what came in overnight.

Wild bugs are the nectar of the gods.

 

[Chase]

They look good Jim! That's a smart idea about the bugs, is this something you just started doing?

 

[Chameleon Company]

They look good Jim! That's a smart idea about the bugs, is this something you just started doing?

Folks with outdoor caging have been playing with such for years. It depends on so many things, not the least of which is the size and structure of the caging, and then the time and imagination of the builder. Putting out such as canned cat food attracted just about nothing !

 

[Gluuvan]

Fantastic, Its great to see people trying new things. I really look forward to when i have enough space to commit to cages like. One neat thing about this is you can see the chameleons act more like they would in a wild habitat. I would like to think as herp keepers of many different sort's, mostly being Chameleons, this is one thing that is strived for.

Chris

 

[Texas Panther Man]

Great idea for catching night time moths and flying insects! I used to try and catch some with a black light and a sheet but it was always a pita to get them into the cages after catching them. You just saved me about 3 steps and a ton of time. If I ever get some outdoor cages built Im going to incorporate that into my plans. thanks..

 

[Jerm]

Hi Jim,
Great setups! Love the ideas that you put into them. What would be the minimum number of females that you could use to keep a male satisfied and be concidered a harem?

 

[Chameleon Company]

Hi Jim,
Great setups! Love the ideas that you put into them. What would be the minimum number of females that you could use to keep a male satisfied and be concidered a harem?

Hey Jeremy. Been busy.

In answer to your question, a "harem" could be just one female if she was always within reach of the male. And I do not think that answers your curiosity either.

So, trying to use some deductive reasoning, the first determinant in a harem size will be the expanse of the cage, assuming it adequately planted, etc, to provide perching turf.

The next determinant IMO would be the disposition of the females involved interacting, and thus allowing, only a certain limit before there's too much aggression between them. It will vary, as some females are more compatable than others. WC females would allow the least number, as they can often be very aggressive and territorial, while CB if raised together more accomodating.

I think the male would be happy with as many as he could convince to hang around I believe one male could easily maintain 12-15 females if the tree/area large enough.

I think it important to realize that there is a certain minimum size for cohabitation to work, as it must allow adequate separation so that there is no hostility, even if one male with one female. The formula would not be for me to take such as a current large cage that houses five females and a male adequately, and then take one 1/5 th that size for one male and one female.

The bigger the better, and if you have animals together that fight and/or intimidate each other, then you have to take one or more out, or make a bigger cage, until there is essentially no hostility.

 

[esantana]

Very nice setup. I live in SW Florida. I have my chams outside and they have done much better. I do have a mister set up to sprayed them several times during the hotter times of the day.

 

[Chameleon Company]

Added a few more cages. And then some pictures of a few of the studs hanging out in them :

 

[Texas Panther Man]

Mojo is a stunner. I want one of his offspring Jim.

 

[Olimpia]

What a fantastic set up. I am so envious! How many cages do you have in total now? Are you working your way up to one for each of your breeders?

 

[carol5208]

I want to be one of your chameleons!!!! lol! Awesome cages!!!

 

[Chameleon Company]

What a fantastic set up. I am so envious! How many cages do you have in total now? Are you working your way up to one for each of your breeders?

Only those six as large walk-ins. We have many more outdoor cages, but which only hold one animal each. Total cages .... I never count.

We'll have to empty all the outdoor cages back into the greenhouse sometime in November. Might build some more like in the photos during the cooler months here, then repopulate them in March.

Been a bonanza of luv-bugs here this past week. They can fly into the cages united no problem. Chams pick them off on occasion. I have peppers and tomatoes and grapes planted inside and outside the cages. Have attracted a lot of hornworms, especially the grapes, which surprised me. Chams nail them all the time, as well as grasshoppers and anoles that get into the cages. They like when I throw a handful of dubias in too.