Tips on making a custom enclosure...

[Nautilus]

I just got a 4 month old panther chameleon, which is my first chameleon. Right now I have a small cage for him, but I am already thinking about the time I will need to get a larger enclosure for him.

I would like to get a furniture grade custom wood enclosure made for him that would be suitable for display in a family room. I would like to have a misting system, lights and drainage concealed in the cabinet. Is this realistic or fantasy?

 

[hawaiianice99]

this is not un-realistic, just go out on saturday to a couple yardsales and find a piece of furniture that you think would good in your room and as a cham cage and anything is possible. Take a look at an old liquor cabinet my neighbor had sitting in her garage.https://www.chameleonforums.com/making-my-own-13592/

 

[Ryan Jarosek]

this is not un-realistic, just go out on saturday to a couple yardsales and find a piece of furniture that you think would good in your room and as a cham cage and anything is possible. Take a look at an old liquor cabinet my neighbor had sitting in her garage.https://www.chameleonforums.com/making-my-own-13592/

hawaiianice I was looking for your post to link to in this thread, I couldn't remember who it was that built that enclosure. Now I know . Very nice work of the liquor cabinet. I love the Tiki hawaiian look.

 

[hawaiianice99]

Thanks, Ya i actually cant believe how nice it looks. And when i have company come over they are like "There is no way this was a liquor cabinet."

 

[spatulars]

It's not fantasy at all to build nice furniture grade cages that can hold all supplies and appliances, we see many on here that are done very well. What you can do is either find a furniture cabinet that you can use as a base and build the screen cage on top of it, or build the whole structure yourself, and really any combination in between. What might be easiest for you is to get a pvc-bottomed metal cage from a online supplier, and buy a nice cabinet base for the bottom of it, or build a nice cabinet to hold and surround it, it's really up to your imagination and planning. If you manage everything in the back, the only thing anyone will be able to see from the front is the chameleon, the cage, and the cabinet, and your cords and tubes will be out of direct view.

I found some links you can use to get ideas from.

This guy did an outstanding job on his cage, although if you wanted to build something like this, you would have to use screen in the front and sides at least, if not all around. https://www.chameleonforums.com/dutch-chameleon-owner-here-12967/

Here is a thread of many different enclosure pictures with some pics of nice cabinet setups:
https://www.chameleonforums.com/post-your-best-enclosure-9613/index7.html

Here is an article that covers drainage:
http://www.chameleonnews.com/new/?page=article&id=73

Here is a pre-built cage atop a custom cabinet, good drainage example, and it shows how easily the mister goes through the back of the cabinet:
https://www.chameleonforums.com/my-set-up-etc-12246/