Big Enough?

[Meximeleon]

Well to start off I have a Female Jacksons Chameleon and she is about 6 months old. I am planning on upgrading my small zoo med screen terrarium to a 38 Gallon Apogee Reptarium. And I was wondering if this was a big enough Reptarium for a full grown female? Please help. Thanks a Lot.

 

[Texas Panther Man]

An adult female should have at least a 18 x 18 x 36. That is the min i like to go with 24 x 24 x 48. That way you can put larger plants in the cage. And still have more room left for open areas and vines.

 

[boj3434]

I would say thats pretty small especially for a full grown chameleon

 

[summoner12]

a female jackson will do OK in a 18-18-36. i wouldn't go smaller than that. don't get a reptarium... they suck. they are hard to clean, don't like a lot of light into them and the zipper 'door' is a pain in the butt.

 

[Meximeleon]

Alright thanks everyone. What terrarium do you guys suggest to get?

 

[Elizadolots]

okay...well, I was going to say that the 38 gallon Reptarium cage is 16.5 x 16.5 x 30...which is probably fine for a female Jacksons for a couple of years. If she lives to be big, then...yeah...she'll need something larger.

I love my Reptarium cages and my chameleons have been oh, so happy (judged by drinking, eating and pooping) since I made the switch. I don't find the zipper to be a problem and cleaning has been very easy.

Of course, I'm an amateur so maybe easy to please.

If you decide to go that way, PM me so I can give you some pointers on making those Reptarium cages work for you.

 

[summoner12]

This is a good size cage and the best you can buy.

 

[Meximeleon]

Very nice. Thanks for the advice.

 

[Kent67]

I think Reptariums are a nice, cheap cage for montanes. Right now I've got my male deremensis in one. I've used them for years but never had one last more than maybe 36 months before they had holes, frozen zippers, or both. On the other hand I have one of the standard aluminum screen cages (my first) that I purchased USED in 1991 that has spent years outside and still houses a female Jackson. As for size, is the question what can you get away with or what will your female be happy with? If it's the latter, the answer is always the bigger the better. I've had a female Jackson's in a cage 6x4.5x3.5' and she used every bit of it. If I was going to use a Reptarium, I'd go for the next size up from the 38 (uh, 65g I think?) or larger.

 

[Meximeleon]

Thanks for the help once again , but i think i might get the aluminum one from LLLreptiles. The biggest I can

 

[Elizadolots]

I tend to think the 1 and a half inches each way on breadth and the 6 inches you lose moving from 18x18x36 to 16.5x16.5x30 is not huge. I think it sort of depends on the chameleon but really, those are not huge differences.

Reptarium sells replacement mesh covers for not very much...so should your cover become compromised, it's an easy fix.

One of the things I love about my Reptarium cage is the way the water from my mister clings to the top of the cage...that never happened when I had a metal cage. What it means is that after I stop misting the top of the cage the drops continue to fall for several minutes. It borders on mimicking regular rainfall with no effort on my part at all...where before I worked hard to see my chameleons drink, now they just do drink. I guess they think they are being rained on.

As I said, I think every chameleon is a bit different and you need to do what feels right for your animals.

 

[fluxlizard]

Hey how are those cages from LLL at keeping little feeders in (like 1/4" size?). Are they nearly as good as the reptariums for that?

I'm a reptarium guy myself for many lizards - I use the 175 gallon size for mid-size lizards because the zipper doors keep feeders in, and fireflies out when the cages are out for the summer. I'm actually one of the only people I ever heard of that for some reason looses lizards to fireflies if I'm not using zipper doors.

One summer I thought I had a disease outbreak after loosing several lizards in a 24 hour period quite suddenly and necropsy revealed firefly remains in each lizard. I'm probably the only person in the history of the world who has called up their local university extension agency to ask about getting rid of the pesky fireflies! (the guy at the other end of the phone thought I was crazy).

I want to redo the reptariums to something home-made along similar lines of the ones from LLL, but I'm scared to get away from the zipper door. But the time has come this spring. Chameleons aren't hard on the reptariums, but other lizards eventually wear holes in them from climbing or trying to get at females in other cages, so I've got 10 years of patching on my cages now and I really want to move on to something more durable. The zippers have lasted but the sides are heavily patched. A little vaseline on the zippers once a year or so really keeps them working smoothly. But I can't figure out how to make a bug proof door without the zippers.

So I'm wondering how those doors work on the cages you guys are recommending and if they are bug proof. If they are, I'll order one and figure out how the door works. The cages look in the pics like they are just made from aluminum window framing screwed together, is that about right?

For chameleons- I really like the reptariums. You can buy replacement covers for cheap, as well as replacement corners and go get some pvc and make your own frames and save quite a bit on the cost of the kit. I did that with 1" pvc pipe and some corners I ordered from our local plumbing supply- each 175 gallon reptarium ended up costing me less than $50 10 years ago that way- about half the cost of buying the kit, and more sturdy than the smaller frame in the kit.

For big chameleons you can take 2 of the 175g covers, cut out one side of each, sew the two covers together and make one large cage 5' long x 4' high x 30" wide for around $100 with 2 zipper doors on the front. Spray paint the frame, add a couple of large potted plants in shallow pots, put it on a table 2 or 3 feet high and you've got a nice attractive cage for mellers with the top 6 or 7 feet off the ground. I guess if it was in my living room though, I'd probably build something myself with screen sides and a glass front for better viewing (or leave the front out completely by clever design). The heavy mesh of reptariums does leave something to be desired for visibility.

 

[Elizadolots]

I find the visibility of the Reptariums to be fine and mine are in the living room and intended to be visual focal points.

I think the PVC structure begs to be customized, which is one of the things I like about them.

Before I put my PVC frame into the cage, I tied a grid of twine over three sides and the top...that gave me something to hang things on. I assumed the chameleons would climb on the twine, but when it comes to the roof, they do me one better: they climb on top of the twine to bask or loom...depending on where they are.

One of the things I simply love is the mesh bottom...my husband built a "stand" that holds the cages above drawers into which the water drains...I can just pull the drawers and toss the water...

 

[fluxlizard]

I've got mine sitting on tables with one end raised. The table top is covered with that plastic material used to cover roofs on sheds and greenhouses (not sure the name- it's sort of corrugated and can come in clear or white or tan). The water from the misters runs right through the bottom of the cages and down the tables into some catch tubs at the ends that I just take and dump every couple of days.

Outside during the summer I don't even bother with that- I just keep them on rustic tables and the water goes where it goes.

For hanging vines and the like for the lizards to climb on, I just use plastic zip ties to secure them to the frame. When the zip tie is pulled tight, the vines don't slide up and down or move on the frame at all- even when attached part way up the vertical posts. If it's a large piece of wood for lizards other than chams, I'll drill a hole in the wood to run the zip tie through. One of the nice thing about using 1" pvc pipes for the frame is the fact that I can securely mount some pretty darn heavy pieces of furniture to the frames. And for non-chameleons I even put a solid bottom on the frame, and can stack the cages when I have them indoors for the winter even when they are loaded up with 50 lbs of substrate, rocks, logs, etc.

 

[xanthoman]

a female jackson will do OK in a 18-18-36. i wouldn't go smaller than that. don't get a reptarium... they suck. they are hard to clean, don't like a lot of light into them and the zipper 'door' is a pain in the butt.

roger that, reptariums are cheaper, but in the long run i think real cham cages are cheaper and less problematic. 18x18x36 is almost too large for a small xanth unless it is already an agressive feeder or accustomed to cup feeding, but it would be a little on the snug size for a full size adult xanth. personally i would wait until it really NEEDS a larger cage and then go to a 2x2x3 or larger jmo

 

[summoner12]

One of the things I love about my Reptarium cage is the way the water from my mister clings to the top of the cage...that never happened when I had a metal cage.

You mean like this?

I think we all have our opinions on what we think is best... but when you accept that the Reptarium has an issue and that they make it easy for you to spend more money on a new mesh slip, it makes you wonder; why spend extra money when the item fails and not just buy the cage that won't fail so easily?

As Kent has said, he has had one outside for several years and it is still functioning with no replacement of it's screen.

I used to use the Reptariums and I liked them at first.... But to be honest I only went with them because I couldn't afford the nice screen cages. I thought the screen cage was the 'upgrade' or what the 'big guys' used when housing chams. In retrospect I think it is much better to just save the money and make one purchase; metal screen cages.