Need Custom Enclosure Advice

[corbs11]

ok... so I am buidling a new enclosure from scratch and have a few questions. I'll try to post some pictures of some drawings that I have done but seeing as this is my first post, I don't know if I'll get it right haha. I have a female veiled that is around 6-8 months old now and I wanna treat her right with a nice enclosure. Shes looking a little cramped in her crappy glass enclosure that the pet store sold me(I'm such an idiot for not doing my research beforehand I know). I'm leaving the front door to the glass enclosure open most of the day so she gets decent airflow.

Just a description of what I am wanting to do:
-2x2x6 set up with the enclosure being 2x2x4
-bottom of enclosure will have a hole for a tree like a ficus to go through. The pot itself will be housed in the bottom 2x2x2 feet of cabinet space.
-floor of the enclosure will be tiled for easy cleaning and draining. Most of the water will drain into the plant pot itself.
-back wall is going to be wood and front three sides of the enclosure will be screen mesh. Top will have a removable mesh screen as well(just easier to install mesh that way )
-front screen will be a swinging door

Now to the questions:
-In building your own enclosures, have you had trouble with the wood warping due to the high humidity and water that is used with chameleons? If so, what kind of solutions are there?
-I want to use a stain on the wood and most likely a sealant to keep out water to keep the wood healthy(basically trying to circumvent the problem in the first question). Is it dangerous for my chameleon to be around stained wood after it has dried for a few days?
-Would a plastic pan sitting in the bottom of the cabinet under the potted tree provide a sufficient way to catch draining water? Then just empty when needed?
-What kind (hole size, material) of mesh would be good to use that is safe for my chameleon yet gives easy vision and looks classy?

Any feedback you have would be great! And you are more than welcome to give any suggestions for anything that I might have left out of my plans. I don't want to have to build this twice haha Thanks!!!

 

[Kaianuanu]

People usually use a polyurethane sealant to waterproof wood, if you let the stain dry well before sealing, you shouldn't have any problems with fumes. If you're worried about the wood and water though, you should look into using a different material for the cage floor. Commercial cages use PVC sheets as their cage floors.

 

[mlcrossley]

Simplicity will help u. My approach was to view the enclosure more for the crickets. Because if it doesn't keep the crickets in then u could just free range. Also I knew early on that if I could keep the plant alive the cham would be happy. I would build a real basic box w an untreated frame made from 1x1 pieces of any wood. Moisture is not a problem. It should be large enough to house the plant. Putting the tree thru the hole sounds kinda complicated. U want ur terrarium about three ft from a window for sunlight. But u have to watch for drafts. Flourescent tube shoplights use less energy and heat and provide the most light unless u wanna spend some cash or DIY w metal halide(blue) and high prressure sodium(red) lights. But flourescent supplementing and mixed with natural sun light will work great. Remember if the plant is happy the cham probably will be. W ficus sun light is important. I would put the whole thing on wheels aka casters. Nice big casters so they wont break. Then there's humidity. Ur gonna need to humidify the whole room. To accomplish this seal off drafts. Deflect the air conditioning w a magnetic vent deflector. Five bucks at Lowes. Get a ultrasonic humidifier at Walgreens. Forty bucks. A fan near ur humidifier will disperse the moisture instead of letting it fall to the floor. The fan is crucial. A hygrometer will help u calibrate / monitor humidity . Light ventilation humidity. http://postimage.org/image/5y44hwphn/ . U need cool and warm light. And crickets can chew plastic so go aluminum or metal mesh.

 

[camimom]

make sure you use aluminum mesh.

crickets can chew through anything else.

you can use stain and polyurethane, just give it at least a week to dry before you put your cham in it.

 

[mlcrossley]

Not sure I fully understand drainage. I think the floor should just b a plain piece of fabricated wood. Any wood. Because it shouldn't get wet. The only drainage necessary is for the tree. And any potted plant will drain into a cheap basic water tray or reservoir. The cham wants to drink dew so some spray every once n a while could do it. I've read that spraying foliage can be negative .. not sure. I'm just now tackling this issue. I'm thinking of getting a drip bottle like for hamsters. I don't see why the floor should get wet. Seventy percent humidity should help plants and cham thrive. B careful high humidity above sixty can wreck electronics. No substrate. No water fountain cuz it will deficate in the water promoting disease.

 

[mlcrossley]

The most important thing is the tree. Go to a nursery. I found a good one for like forty bucks. The plant will make u or break u. I did the same thing w my first cham. U wanna get this right the first time or ur in for some shopping. Get help from someone who can build w tools. Simplicity will save u. Chams are arboreal so the taller the better. U could just hang a plant up high maybe. Imagine two pieces of wood in the shape of a circle as your top and bottom connected by a mesh screen. Hanging near a window w a small plant. That could work and it would take less space. I would put the whole thing together and troubleshoot until u feel good about it and then move the little Guy to avoid stress. It took me two months of moving furniture and electronics and Googling to get everything locked down.

 

[corbs11]

As far as drainage goes, I was looking at enclosure forums and noticed that there were entire threads about people's creative drainage systems. I didn't include that I plan to use a misting system like the Mist King with this enclosure as well because it seems to be highly recommended by those on these forums that have used it. I am with you on wondering why draining would be a problem but it seems to be a large part of other people's custom builds so i decided to address it just in case. Thank you for all the feedback! Any suggestions anyone has is very welcome. I will be sure to get a good tree for her too

 

[jshaffer740]

Not sure I fully understand drainage. I think the floor should just b a plain piece of fabricated wood. Any wood. Because it shouldn't get wet. The only drainage necessary is for the tree. And any potted plant will drain into a cheap basic water tray or reservoir. The cham wants to drink dew so some spray every once n a while could do it. I've read that spraying foliage can be negative .. not sure. I'm just now tackling this issue. I'm thinking of getting a drip bottle like for hamsters. I don't see why the floor should get wet. Seventy percent humidity should help plants and cham thrive. B careful high humidity above sixty can wreck electronics. No substrate. No water fountain cuz it will deficate in the water promoting disease.

This is sort of misleading. If you are providing proper moisture to the cham, then the floor will most certainly get wet. I would not recommend using fabricated wood for the floor. PVC is your best bet. And spraying the foliage is not negative - on the contrary it is necessary. As far as drop bottles for hamsters, that most likely will not induce the cham to drink.

 

[mlcrossley]

Not really that misleading because I explained that I am still trying to work it all out . See where it says. Not sure I fully understand drainage.

 

[NorCalAnthony]

You might try setting everything up and seeing how much excess water is left in your cage. Any misting or drip system will leave water but depending on what setup you have it may not be enough to need an actual drainage system since most of it will dry up on it's own. I have a Mistking system with two nozzles that go off for 30 seconds every two hours and the water dries up before it can drain out.

You'll still want to protect the floor/base so the wood doesn't warp or rot. I used polyurethane sealant on my first cage and Rustoleum Leak Seal on my second cage and both are holding up great to the constant moisture. Just be sure that it is fully cured and plenty aired out before you move your cham in to it. It was still pretty cold outside when I built my last one and it took a few days before it was fully dry/cured and a couple of weeks before the fumes went away.

You can also get a pet cage liner from a local pet store or a masonry mixing tub to place at the bottom of the cage to catch the water. One word of advice though, buy the liner/tub first and build your cage around it. Otherwise you'll be forced to modify something or have something custom built to fit your cage which can be a real pain.

 

[mlcrossley]

U wont b able to raise the humidity in the cage alone. U have to humidify the room. With a humidifier and a fan. Both r necessary. Spraying the cage will also not raise the humidity to seventy or even forty. PS humidity wrecks electronics

 

[Fearaffect]

Heres my blog on how I built cages........https://www.chameleonforums.com/blogs/fearaffect/

 

[NorCalAnthony]

U wont b able to raise the humidity in the cage alone. U have to humidify the room. With a humidifier and a fan. Both r necessary. Spraying the cage will also not raise the humidity to seventy or even forty. PS humidity wrecks electronics

Not necessarily. I don't have a humidifier in my office/cham room and only have a ceiling fan on the lowest setting to help the air circulate. Having live plants in the cage helps to maintain humidity and also having a back wall to slow down air flow and trap the humidity helps a lot. My cage is usually around 45-50% with spikes of 90-95% when the Mistking goes off. Of course a lot depends on the type of chameleon you have and the humidity of where you live too. Some folks will have an easier time maintaining the proper levels but it is definitely doable with misting and plants alone.

 

[corbs11]

Wow thank you everyone for the great advice! Good idea on building the dimensions around a drainage tub. I'll definitely look into that. I spoke with my vet about humidity and she said that the most important thing is she gets water from leaves to drink. Humidity should rise and fall in the enclosure and should be fine if there are live plants in there with her. I plan to have a ficus as the main tree and keep some pothos plants in there as well. Final plant list hasn't really been determined yet.

 

[corbs11]

Heres my blog on how I built cages........https://www.chameleonforums.com/blogs/fearaffect/

Great blog! Thank you!

 

[mlcrossley]

I told u to buy shop lights. Scratch that. If u want a plant to grow indoors and supply 30000 lumens to ur cham u need t5 lighting. They sell 4ft 4 lamp t5ho fixtures for 125 a pop at home depot. You want the 5000 k. Also for uvb u will need a powersun with a solar meter. For basking heat a halogen. For drinking water a drip system.

 

[Decadancin]

Here's what I did. It is wood construction with acrylic front and rear, and has vinyl coated pet screen for the sides. The top is aluminum screen, and floor is wood. I am currently adding a drainage system so I can add more live plants and experiment with misting sessions. https://www.chameleonforums.com/its-done-94262/
Here's the actual plans.
https://www.chameleonforums.com/mem...losure-picture18819-enclosure-dimensions.html
Lots of pictures in my album.
https://www.chameleonforums.com/members/decadancin-albums-zaphod-s-enclosure.html

Hope this gives you some ideas! Can't wait to see yours done!