Advice for temporary relocating enclosures...

Syreptyon

Chameleon Enthusiast
Hey all. I just got some absolutely garbage news. So, recently, my landlord hired a roofing "company" to "fix" our roof. What they actually ended up doing was trampling over my several gardens and somehow caused our roof and all our windows to leak horribly when it rains. We had a specialist come check out the damages today and I just found out that...

...

... They have to tear down the wall separating my two rooms and also replace the ceilings. Which means that I, and all my animals, need to be moved. I'm not worried about myself obviously, I can sleep wherever. However, I'm now incredibly stressed about having to move several heavy enclosures with stress-prone animals. I've never once had to move one of my chameleon's cages throughout their entire lifespan, so I'm eeking out a little bit here.

Do you folks have any suggestions for how to do this in the least stressful way possible? We have space elsewhere in the house, so I don't have to take them anywhere in a car luckily, but I know they're going to absolutely hate this. Ugh. Demolition starts thursday and, of course, I'm defending for my Master's Degree on Wednesday. Really couldn't have happened at a worse time!! :mad: :mad: :mad:
 
Hey i'm sorry your going through this but first thing to remember is to breathe and remain calm. Being calm can help your animals remain calm too. I have no experience changing cages for chams but with my other animals we always moved them at night and made sure to give them ample time to adjust to their new surroundings before making any other changes. I hope you figure it out and get everything all fixed!
 
WOW, real crap timing -- good luck on your defense. Do you ever cover the cages? My cage has bamboo curtains on the sides and (used to have one) on the back. I've had to move her enclosure once due to a similar situation and I kept her blinds down the whole time -- that way the only change is in the front view -- and when I moved her, I moved the whole room (home office -- desk went with her) -- so she was seeing virtually the same thing. Not sure that's an option in your case...

Now, this is controversial -- but I wheeled her into another room inside of her cage, at night, with her cage covered. I kid you not when I say it took us 25 minutes to move her from one "bedroom" to the one right next to it going slow enough not to disturb her. We put the cage on the office chair and just rolled her over. Looking back I maybe wouldn't do that again -- but hey.
 
Wow that is rough, but good luck with the masters degree.

I can't remember all the species you keep... i always kept my chameleons on a tree in the shower when i had to relocate them. I've done this for up to a week or so while taking them outside for their vit d. Not sure if that's the kind of answer you were looking for, but I've had to move several times with chameleons. Never had any problems from it.
 
Hey all. I just got some absolutely garbage news. So, recently, my landlord hired a roofing "company" to "fix" our roof. What they actually ended up doing was trampling over my several gardens and somehow caused our roof and all our windows to leak horribly when it rains. We had a specialist come check out the damages today and I just found out that...

...

... They have to tear down the wall separating my two rooms and also replace the ceilings. Which means that I, and all my animals, need to be moved. I'm not worried about myself obviously, I can sleep wherever. However, I'm now incredibly stressed about having to move several heavy enclosures with stress-prone animals. I've never once had to move one of my chameleon's cages throughout their entire lifespan, so I'm eeking out a little bit here.

Do you folks have any suggestions for how to do this in the least stressful way possible? We have space elsewhere in the house, so I don't have to take them anywhere in a car luckily, but I know they're going to absolutely hate this. Ugh. Demolition starts thursday and, of course, I'm defending for my Master's Degree on Wednesday. Really couldn't have happened at a worse time!! :mad: :mad: :mad:

When we had the hurricane when I was in texas a few years ago and we were all evacuated, trudging through 3 feet of water, we put them in plastic bins with a stick. Dark and less stressful. We had to ditch the enclosures. But in your case its much easier to move the enclosures with out the chams in them. I just moved my 75ib vivarium to my temporary living place. We just put it into the back of our kia and put a crap ton of towels to stablize it.... then drove really flippen slow.
 
When I was moving I put my cham in a box around bed time. Then when I got to my destination I opened the boxes while they where sleeping, in the morning they came out when they were ready.

I’m sorry about your situation that totally blows. Hope all your animals are ok and wish them as little stress as possible
 
"Syreptyon, post: 1499262, member: 5175"]
Hey all. I just got some absolutely garbage news. So, recently, my landlord hired a roofing "company" to "fix" our roof. What they actually ended up doing was trampling over my several gardens and somehow caused our roof and all our windows to leak horribly when it rains. We had a specialist come check out the damages today and I just found out that...

...

... They have to tear down the wall separating my two rooms and also replace the ceilings. Which means that I, and all my animals, need to be moved. I'm not worried about myself obviously, I can sleep wherever. However, I'm now incredibly stressed about having to move several heavy enclosures with stress-prone animals. I've never once had to move one of my chameleon

Remember, you have healthy, established chams and you know them well right? They won't like the move (and they'll make you feel as guilty as they can) but they'll survive it. Their daily routine won't change that much right?
 
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