SunflowerSupreme
Member
Being the DIY lover that I am I've decided to make a majority of my (female veiled) Chameleon's cage myself. I found a tutorial on converting an old cabinet into a cham home (here) and I've decided that is what I'm going to be doing using a cabinet I got for $10 on Cragslist (I'll be getting it Wednesday). I'll be sanding and water proofing the wood, then using NEherp's background tutorial (here) and Josh's frogs tutorial (here) to make it pretty.
Its also going to be a fully planted, bio active vivarium, per NEherp's wonderful instructions (here) and using their soil to do it.
The cabinet measures 40" wide, 22" deep & 79" tall. Here's one of the photos the seller provided me, along with some notes that I added to help you visualize what I'm planning.
Dark area: The area on either side of the "lights" I'm going to leave as a semi dark area for her, in case she wants to crawl all the way up there and be left alone.
Front: The front is going to be made of glass, with a strip of mesh at the bottom to allow airflow (think of the vents on an ExoTerra tank) and the Dark Area on either side of the lights will also have a mesh front. It will be a sliding door, not one that swings open.
Lights: I'm gonna cut a hole in the bottom of that part and add in metal screen that I can sit her lights on.
Mist system: I bought a hose made for setting up a mister today at lowe's (this) and I'll be building that into the ceiling as I go. The water tank will probably sit beside the lights.
Drain: I'm building a drain into the bottom, in case too much water under the soil ends up too much.
Decor: I bought some cork rounds from NEherp (two gallon sized random bags), and I'm gonna pick up some stuff at work once I see what I get from NEherp (I work at a pet store) and then I might bring in some wood from my backyard (I'll clean and bake it) and plant it with live plants and put in microfauna to keep it running smoothly.
Plants: I'm intending to use some plants on the ground, as well as some of NEherp's moss and maybe leaf litter (from a magnolia in my yard, baked and processed LONG before it goes anywhere near her). But most of the plants I will have built into the background. To keep the stress of the weight off the foam I plant to anchor them to the wood of the cabinet before spraying foam.
Feeding: Probably gonna build in a few feeder dishes (aka deep bowls that I can drop worms, crickets, etc into) into the background similar to how you would build in a flowerpot (check the NEherp tutorial if you're not 100% sure what I mean). It won't be 100% free ranging, but she will still have to search them out.
I'll keep this updated as I go!!
Its also going to be a fully planted, bio active vivarium, per NEherp's wonderful instructions (here) and using their soil to do it.
The cabinet measures 40" wide, 22" deep & 79" tall. Here's one of the photos the seller provided me, along with some notes that I added to help you visualize what I'm planning.
Dark area: The area on either side of the "lights" I'm going to leave as a semi dark area for her, in case she wants to crawl all the way up there and be left alone.
Front: The front is going to be made of glass, with a strip of mesh at the bottom to allow airflow (think of the vents on an ExoTerra tank) and the Dark Area on either side of the lights will also have a mesh front. It will be a sliding door, not one that swings open.
Lights: I'm gonna cut a hole in the bottom of that part and add in metal screen that I can sit her lights on.
Mist system: I bought a hose made for setting up a mister today at lowe's (this) and I'll be building that into the ceiling as I go. The water tank will probably sit beside the lights.
Drain: I'm building a drain into the bottom, in case too much water under the soil ends up too much.
Decor: I bought some cork rounds from NEherp (two gallon sized random bags), and I'm gonna pick up some stuff at work once I see what I get from NEherp (I work at a pet store) and then I might bring in some wood from my backyard (I'll clean and bake it) and plant it with live plants and put in microfauna to keep it running smoothly.
Plants: I'm intending to use some plants on the ground, as well as some of NEherp's moss and maybe leaf litter (from a magnolia in my yard, baked and processed LONG before it goes anywhere near her). But most of the plants I will have built into the background. To keep the stress of the weight off the foam I plant to anchor them to the wood of the cabinet before spraying foam.
Feeding: Probably gonna build in a few feeder dishes (aka deep bowls that I can drop worms, crickets, etc into) into the background similar to how you would build in a flowerpot (check the NEherp tutorial if you're not 100% sure what I mean). It won't be 100% free ranging, but she will still have to search them out.
I'll keep this updated as I go!!
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