Water issues?

Justin Carl

Justin Carl

Avid Member
Thought I would start a thread about how everyone handles their water issues.
How do you take care of the problem of several mistings a day and a dripper going all day?
It would be great to hear from the breeders with 10+ cages and the gallons of water they use.

-Justin
 
I have 6 cages on an auto mister system. They each have a small drain in the middle that flows into containers. (2 of the cages are small 15x16x20 and I have a valve that reduces the water to their cages).
The misting is scheduled for 4 times a day at 2 minutes each. This seems to present enough opportunities for drinking so I do not use drippers.
I had 2 drippers set up but they left a lot of water so I stopped. I read in one post that you need to set up a container in the cage (with a screen top) to catch the drip water.

The only challenge I have is with my plants. All the misting really leaves them soaked which is not good! I was thinking of putting some sort of plastic over the base of the plant(s) and see if that keeps the water out.
Look forward to hearing other ideas on this . . .

Jim
 
lol... I looked but didnt think I was experienced enough to add anything useful... I just spray about 3x per day, and have a home made drip system made from a solo cup
 
The dripper drips out of a tube right into a water catch.
It dosent hit any leaves, so his chameleons have to drink out of a straw.lol
Its a proven method, so like he said KISS.(keep it simple stupid)
 
My whole chameleon hobby got simpler once I bought a cheap home depot pvc shelving system, put the cage on that. Bought a pvc cage tray from some rabbit website that roughly fit the bottom of the cage, drilled a hole and stuck a rubbermaid bin underneath.

I don't have a dripper, just two nozzles on a promist-60 system.

I used to try to do all sorts of fancy things, none of them worked. I also have two of the four sides of my cage lined with plastic sheets that drape like a shower curtain to the inside of the tray at the bottom.

My dubias now take more work then my chameleon does. Sometimes I actually wish he required more attention, it would give me more excuse to interact. But it was a long year of failed systems before I finally got this right.

I don't understand people who don't have drainage. They're either wrecking their home and they don't know it, or they're not spraying their cham enough.
 
Hey Justin. I am shortly going to start building a custom cage with the plans from chris anderson with a few mods to better fit my needs and room. For now my female panther I built a small stand out of 2by4s with no top. I put pvc mesh over the top and took the bottom off the bird cage she is in and placed it on top of the stand. I set it up so the cage is nice and sturdy on the stand so it doesnt fall. I put a plastic bin in the bottom of the stand and use a dripper and hand mist.

The male I have free roaming. Abig ficus in the corner with bio vines and what not with for now a card board so called fence so he cant get out. I use a plastic bin with pvc mesh on the top so he dont fall in. I have my dripper dripping on fake vine going clear down to the bin. I also hand mist his set up with out getting the walls wet. The bottom of his set up I use trash bags with towels over them for when he poops or to catch excess water from misting. I remove these every or every other day depending. It is a pain for now but he likes to rub his nose on cages and I want him to reach his fullest potential for size. I just hope when I build the custom cage that he doesnt start doing this again but he was fine in the huge cage outside so we will see. Oh and the reason the big cage isnt inside. IT WONT FIT THROUGH THE DOOR hahaha I didnt think about that when I built it.
 
Royden I too have a great deal of trouble finding a system that works form me.
Hopefully this will be my last attempt.
I am in the middle of building several cages that will use the triangles that go down to a center point with a drainage hole.
I just hope this will be it for me.

cainschams I'm also doing something similar to Chris' design for growing babies.
The cage will be a total of 7 feet tall. The top section will be 32" then an air gap of 8" and another cage of 32". The bottom will be 18' and contain a water catch bucket.
The way it is designed is so that I can house babies or single juvenille growing chameleons.
I'm also using the triangle drainage method on these cages.
Water will drip from the top down to the second cage and end up in the bucket at the bottom.
 
I have 2 cages. I mist 5 times a day at 5 minutes at a time. I have a 2in hole in the center and use pvc pipe. They drain into 2 2gal plastic buckets. I dont have a water problem. I also have clear shower curtains that go down about 1/2 to 2/3 of 2 sides of the screen to keep any water off wall or floors. I do not use a dripper.
 
Justin Carl said:
I am in the middle of building several cages that will use the triangles that go down to a center point with a drainage hole.
Click to expand...

Justin: What are you referring to with the triangles? I would love to be able to direct the water to the center of the hole. So far it has been the weight of the plant(s) pushing down on the base . . .

Jim
 
Justin,

Do you think the water dripping through the first cage would have a tendency to be contaminated with ????? before it reached the second one?
It might be a sanitary problem.

I currently set my female cages in a rubber maid sweater box. The seam in the box holds the cage about 4" above the bottom of the 6" deep box. I just lift the cage out and empty the boxes every other day or so......It can go for about a week without overflowing though.

For my male cage I currently have a drip catcher in the cage but I am building an acrylic 4 sided sloped bottom tied to a drain.

dscf0218_578965_original.jpg


Kevin
 
I figured I could do it with one chameleon in each cage, but with multiple chameleons and all the poop I couldnt.
Thats why I left room in the air gap between the cages for a second dripper.
I would connect a hose that would run from the top drain down the backside of the cage into the collection bucket.
 
Here's mine and no water problems here!
https://www.chameleonforums.com/attachments/enclosures-supplies/2842d1199673348-check-out-new-enclosure-front.jpg

I too have the PM60, mist 4 times a day, ranging from 3-7minutes, shower screen around 2 sides to prevent moisture on walls....heated water, drains into pull out tray, all's good! Difference now is I have my plants raised off the base of the enclosure, even easier to clean now...
Like Royden said, I spend more time looking after roaches, crix, silkworms, mealies....it's a pain!

BUT I only have 1 enclosure.....if I had more i'm sure my system would be different.

Cheers
Scott.
 
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