Thaxter's domain

Thought I'd post some pictures of Thaxter's free range, aka the Living Room. We start at the east end of the room, with bendy vines leading north and west from the Tiffany lamp on which Thaxter loves to perch. The farthest he'll go is to the middle of the northbound vine; we often have a sandblasted grapevine on top of the bookcase at the vine's terminus, but he has absolutely no interest.


Heading westward from the lamp, we come to a curtain rod and another bendy vine.; we also start to pick up some (now rather straggly) Pothos.


The bendy vine from that curtain rod leads to the Chameleon Condo, where Thaxter is busily lapping water off Pothos leaves. To the left of Thaxter you can see the grapevine wreath, which he likes and which can also be used to tote him around (e.g. to the porch).


Continuing westwards, the last of the bendy vines meets the bulk of the Pothos; we've also got some Spanish moss for texture.


And we end our tour with the potted Pothos and the top of another bookcase. In happier days, this Pothos was bushy enough to extend to the front window; those days are no more. Thaxter spent last night perched on the curtain rod in this picture.


Thanks for looking.

So have you sat Thaxter down to explain to him what a lucky cham he is to have all that area just for him? It is really nice. Does he remember to say thank you? No matter what I do none of mine ever remember to say thank you, I must have brought them up wrong.

Thank you for posting these pictures. I love it and I'm sure Thaxter does too. I have ordered some 1 inch jungle vine and plan to add something like this to my house for Luie and Camille....they will have to take turns on it. I hope Thaxter is doing well? I read your post about his tail and the antibiotics but really didn't have much advice to give. My vet has told me that antibiotics can be rough on the kidneys when I kept one of my daughter's chams that was on Baytril and he told me to keep him well hydrated. Jann

Thanks for your comments. He doesn't say thank you; it's all he's ever known (since he was big enough to be let out of the Reptarium, at 6 months old), and I suspect he takes it for granted. This is part of the reason I only have one big (non-pygmy) chameleon at a time - I like the free range, and wouldn't want to have one free, one caged, or have to go into different rooms for different chams.
Thanks for the well-wishes, Jann. He seems to be doing well. The vet has been somewhat concerned about the kidneys since June (based on blood chemistry), but Thax continues to eat well and drink very well. The antibiotic course will be finished Wednesday. My husband has been disguising himself - puts on a black jacket and leather gloves (since he was bitten Thursday) and wraps Thax in a towel for the shot - then leaves the towel over Thaxter's head so he has to back out of it himself, and my husband has removed the jacket and gloves by the time he gets out. We don't know if he's fooled.

Yea, it's sometime hard with two free roaming around. Camille has her own room but I leave the door open when I'm home and just keep an eye on them and close the door when I go off.

Looks really nice, and I might be the only one who tried to read all the books on your bookshelf, but I seen a big book about lichens. I think that is cool. I am really interested in bryophytes, lichens, and fungi. I go to school in southern Illinois, and its like bryophyte city. There are so many different kinds that i go around collecting, and try growing. They all seem to do not so good once I get them home, but its still fun going out and collecting specimens. My school also offers a class in bryophytes and I want to take it. I always notice in peoples pics that they have their chams on a branch with a lichen on it, and I want to say ooo nice lichen in that pic, but I don't want to be the only one who doesn't say anything about the cham (the main focal point). There was a nice cham on a lichen branch not that long ago that I really thought made the picture better, but I forget who the pic belonged to.

Oh, and nice colors on that guy.

thts so cool! Im thining about doing something like this with my cham in my room.

Where does he get his UVB from though?

SS4Luck said:

thts so cool! Im thining about doing something like this with my cham in my room.

Where does he get his UVB from though?

Click to expand...

The Chameleon Condo (where he was drinking from the Pothos) has a mercury vapor UVB. You can see the cage for it above him; the light itself was not on in the picture, having burned out yesterday (I do replace them twice yearly, and have never had one burn out on me before). The mercury vapors are smaller, like the compact fluorescents, but without the risk of excessive UV like some of the compacts. They do run hotter than fluorescents and cost about twice as much; the Condo was built for them, or I would have switched over to linear. Bought him a fresh new bulb after work, so he'll have it tomorrow.

Thanks for the guided tour, it looks fantastic.

Have thought about doin that myself once the lodgers & dogs go, and he gets old enough

open home

Cool! My chameleons have always lived in an open enviroment. I recently built an indoor garden for them with everything on a timer. I am a new member, described the new terrarium in a new blog, take a look.
I found feeding could be problem so removed the back legs of the crickets to prevent jumping, put them in a cup hun by a string and they eventually found the food. Barb

My husband put up some vines for Luie and Camille this past weekend. They just love it!!!!!! I'll post some pics soon. Jann