Just a question need advice...

I have a female baby veiled chameleon i want to get her a permanent reptarium for her to live in, ive been looking at these ones http://lllreptile.com/store/catalog...and-explorariums/-/38-gallon-basic-reptarium/, but i cant decide what size i need the 38 gallon or 65 gallon, does anyone have these reptariums or an opinion on them? thanks -port

38 gallon is good for a juvenile, you would want the 65 gallon for an adult. Personally, when i was looking for cages, very few people on here liked the reptariums, they can have issues cause of weak supports. I ended up getting the stainless steel screen cages instead, a bit more expensive but worth the difference

IMO these would be much better. http://lllreptile.com/store/catalog...ile-cages-and-vivariums/screen-reptile-cages/

I just don't like those dark reptarium. Chameleon like it to be light and I've heard people on here complaining about the zipper breaking.

Very good points those cages do seem to the best for the money that i've been looking for, i have her in a glass aqaurium right now and although she seems very healthy so far i feel bad that shes in a tank and not a screened cage, i still am unsure about the size of the cage i feel i should get one of the biggest ones say the 24x24x48, this should be able to house adult males and females? not at the same time for future purposes, i just dont know if that will be to big for her now as she is a baby. thank you both for your input it is greatly appreciated

I have both sizes of reptariums you are looking at, and I have others as well (I actually have about 100 reptariums up and in use at the moment and have had many of them going for over a decade.) I also bred my first veileds almost a couple of decades ago and currently have babies in a reptarium, so I am familiar with those as well.

I have had very few problems with the zippers- people on this forum always voice that concern, but in reality I think over a decade of using a large number of reptariums has proven to me that the concern is not really well founded. One tip though- if the zipper action gets a little rough, just put some vaseline on the zipper and it will run smooth as silk for months.

The concern about light penetrating the enclosure is also IMO not really valid. unzipping a little and peeking inside reveals plenty of light inside- more than appears from outside the fabric looking in- which IMO *is* a very valid concern- visibility for observing the animals in these enclosures isn't very good, especially if the lighting outside the enclosure is very bright.

I use these enclosures because my lizards are not in my living room- they live outside in the summer and in my lizard building during the winter.

If it was my home, I really would not use an all screen or mesh enclosure- I'd build something with a glass front and side and top ventilation or better yet no front at all but cleverly designed to be escape proof so I could enjoy looking at my lizard.

As a general rule for an adult, the bigger the enclosure the better. A lot on the forums won't like to see this next bit- but veileds can be kept very healthy as adults in very limited space. (ie- the 38 gallon reptarium for example). But quality of life is an important consideration. The 65 gallon reptarium is better but still kind of narrow and the zipper is on the end, not on the large side, but the narrow side. Which makes getting in and out more of a pain and opening for viewing worse. Much much better if you can swing it is the 175 gallon size (my favorite). It is 29x29x48 and provides plenty of room for movement and a higher quality of life. Chameleons really move beautifully and you just cannot observe that without a large enclosure.

As for your other question about size of enclosure now- depends on how large the baby is. I start newborns in 38 gallon reptariums and they do great. An aquarium is also fine for starting - everybody used to start babies off in aquaria 18 years ago when I started breeding and I raised thousands successfully in them to selling size (which in those days was a good bit larger than most sell them nowadays). You just have to be careful about humidity and water- let your cage dry out completely between mistings. If you can get your little one hand feeding (possible easily by the time they are eating 1/2" crickets and several weeks old) then you can move her into an adult size cage no worries- hand feed or place a hanging feeding cup ( plastic deli cup twist tie to branch for example) beneath her at feeding time). Feeding IMO is really the only real concern about a large enclosure- she will figure out thermoregulation and find water just fine in a larger enclosure, but locating the food source can be the trick.

oh yeah- one thing about the zipper I like is that zippers are bug proof. No feeders wandering about that have squeezed through the crack in the door frame...

port said:

Very good points those cages do seem to the best for the money that i've been looking for, i have her in a glass aqaurium right now and although she seems very healthy so far i feel bad that shes in a tank and not a screened cage, i still am unsure about the size of the cage i feel i should get one of the biggest ones say the 24x24x48, this should be able to house adult males and females? not at the same time for future purposes, i just dont know if that will be to big for her now as she is a baby. thank you both for your input it is greatly appreciated

Click to expand...

The cage sizes you need can be found here. https://www.chameleonforums.com/blo...-keepers-young-veiled-panther-chameleons.html

I have had both a reptarium and the aluminum screen cages. Personally, I prefer the aluminum cages over the reptarium. I found that the reptarium was wobbly, and when you wanted to unzip the door for feeding, misting.... or whatever, the entire cage shook and obviously put some unneeded stress on the chameleon every time I opened it. The aluminum framed screen cages on the other hand have nice hinged doors that swing open smoothly, as well as a small door at the bottom that can be opened.

Just my thoughts...

I second the positive review for Reptariums, though, obviously I have far less experience with them. I completely agree that plenty of light gets into the cage. Just unzip and look! I would only be concerned if the animal had special problems which required really tight monitoring. It's easy for them to get lost in the foliage anyway, but with the mesh, it's even harder to find them sometimes. However, for a healthy chameleon, being able to hide from the owner is pretty much a dream come true.

One suggestion: buy an extra mesh. You switch out the meshes every so often and give them a good, deep cleaning with either the washing machine or the dishwasher.