CalamityCrow
Avid Member
Hello all! I'm brand new here and I'm getting my first ever (very cute ~3mo old ambilobe) panther chameleon next week (fingers crossed for tons of reds!). While I have a reptibreeze currently set up for him, it's the L (18" x 18" x 36") and not the XL. I'm working on figuring long-term cage stuff for him (my research was not as complete as it should be when I got my hands on everything), but since he'll be small for at least a couple months, I figure I oughta do my due diligence to get him a wonderful permanent home.
That being said, I'm entirely up for buying the 2'x2'x4' XL reptibreeze cage (or similar) if needed. However, I used to keep rats and I have a fairly new/in great shape critter nation two-level cage that I think I could probably convert. Has anyone here done that? I only found two lightly commented-on posts about it and haven't seen follow-ups on it since the 2014 post on the subject. The picture below is of one fully set up. I'd just not put the middle "floor" or ramps or pans in there and would end up with a big empty rectangle of space from top to bottom.
My plan would be to line it with screen mesh to avoid bug escapes, though I plan on cup feeding dubias as his staple food with other bugs like black soldier fly larvae and an occasional hornworm (once he's bigger) or superworm to augment and add variety.
Drainage would be easy. I have a T5 6% light, a heat bulb (though I may need to get a bigger one than the one I have, I'll have to check temps once I get it set up) and a mistking mister system. It's a big cage, L 36”x W 25”x H 63” so sizing would be bigger than the minimum recommended option. I don't *think* that'd be too big for an adult male Panther. It's also got all those bars so mounting all sorts of sticks, vines, and plant pots would be super easy, and it's a wide bottom for some bigger plants.
Thoughts? It's nice because I already have it and a bunch of replacement screen mesh on hand already so it'd be easy on the wallet and a bigger space than minimum but I don't want to give my little guy sub-optimal living conditions.
That being said, I'm entirely up for buying the 2'x2'x4' XL reptibreeze cage (or similar) if needed. However, I used to keep rats and I have a fairly new/in great shape critter nation two-level cage that I think I could probably convert. Has anyone here done that? I only found two lightly commented-on posts about it and haven't seen follow-ups on it since the 2014 post on the subject. The picture below is of one fully set up. I'd just not put the middle "floor" or ramps or pans in there and would end up with a big empty rectangle of space from top to bottom.
My plan would be to line it with screen mesh to avoid bug escapes, though I plan on cup feeding dubias as his staple food with other bugs like black soldier fly larvae and an occasional hornworm (once he's bigger) or superworm to augment and add variety.
Drainage would be easy. I have a T5 6% light, a heat bulb (though I may need to get a bigger one than the one I have, I'll have to check temps once I get it set up) and a mistking mister system. It's a big cage, L 36”x W 25”x H 63” so sizing would be bigger than the minimum recommended option. I don't *think* that'd be too big for an adult male Panther. It's also got all those bars so mounting all sorts of sticks, vines, and plant pots would be super easy, and it's a wide bottom for some bigger plants.
Thoughts? It's nice because I already have it and a bunch of replacement screen mesh on hand already so it'd be easy on the wallet and a bigger space than minimum but I don't want to give my little guy sub-optimal living conditions.
