For everyone who KNOWS you can't keep chams in glass

[Damaranum]

I can't agree more with Chris then that Glass terrariums are very fine. I'm keeping my chameleons for more then 10 years in self made glass terrariums. In the time I started with keeping them in glass there where no fabricated terrariums which would fit to the needs of a chameleon.

I use a combination of glass and screen terrariums. For inside I really like to glass as it gives me much more possibilities in adapting temperature and moisture. In screen terrariums you get climates very close to the climate in your own home.

The biggest problem with the glass terrariums is a cool down at night and having enough fresh air comming in. I don't have those problems as for the temperature I've got a cooling system which makes it posssible to let it freese in my room when I want. And for the fresh air I use continues vans to transport air true the room.

Al my terrariums have at least a complete top of gauze and aprox. 1/4 of the front side. In some of them also the sides has 1/4 of gauze.

The screen terrariums I almost only use for outside of for acclimating animals when WC or kept outside and moving inside. The biggest problem with those I find the keeping the humidity good.

@vetdebbie, I've kept and breeded over 100 rudis in glass terra's.
@Bange. I never had problems with refelctions they really can look true. So the only thing that happens is that the animals want to 'walk' true the glass. I have styropur at 3 sides of the cage. On of the reasons is they can't see their neighbours the other is the white color reflects the light very well and the cages are much lighter.

 

[Carlton]

About reflections...as usual it can depend on the cham. The lighting surely affects it too so you could try to adjust that. The plexiglass sided viv I built was a problem for my first veiled. He definitely saw reflections of himself and started displaying constantly. So, I blocked the particular panel that he seemed concerned about with a sheet of cardboard. Next thing I knew, the little beggar had pulled the cardboard away from the plexi and was trying to get his head down between them...and displaying away. Smart guy. He just knew his hated rival was there somewhere! Next I rubbed soap on the inside of the plexiglass to break up the image. Seemed to work, but didn't look all that great. Other chams who lived in it didn't seem to mind as much.

 

[Peter Kraemer]

Hi Chris, very good post!
In Germany many people are using glass cages for chameleons. We use them for:
- F. pardalis
- K. matschiei
- K. multituberculata

I've actually found that there is a good amount of variability in daily temps and humidity in these terrariums. Temps at night drop to the ambient temp of the room and raise during the day because of the lighting yet cool after misting. Humidity is sustained well in these enclosures but still fluctuates a lot when you only mist once a day.

I only can agree with your words.
We keep our Kinyongias in a room to the north. In hot summer nights we can reduce the temperature by misting with cold water from 68°F to 64°F by the coldness of evaporation.

In addition of your post I want to introduce our "way" of glass cages.

Till last year we use glass cages from a zoo store, but they have only a small perforated metal plate on front and on top. To use them for chameleons, we removed the glass and the small perforated metal plate from top and paste aluminium gauze on top.

This year we get chameleon-glass-cages made by a member of http://chamaeleons-online.com/
These are perfect for chameleons, they have a big gauze strip on front and the whole top is of gauze (new on left, old right).

Now our way to arrange a cameleon glass cage:
At first we paste baked cork (it is used for impact noise in the floor) with silicone at the walls.

The chameleons using the cork for climbing and we use it to anchor the branches.
Then we put expanded mica granulate (I´am not sure if this is the correct english description) in the cage. Most people using this for hydroponic plants.
It is a very good drainage and it resorb spare water and emit it if the soil get dry.

Edit: Because I got a mail from Matt - these are not hydro-balls (the are very hard burned), ist a cheaper version of Seramis.
http://www.seramisuk.co.uk/whatisseramis.html
It is better to resorb spare water and emit it than the hydro-balls.


Nex step is to put a fibreglass gauze over the granulate. It separates the
granulate from the soil.

Over this we put a big layer of floral soil and then a big layer of compost from the garden of my parents. Yes - compost with small insects and worms....

After this we put in the plants.

This picture is not with the final light! For that we use this:

For this cage we used our preferred plats:
- Ficus moglame
- Dracaena surculosa
- Aspargus falcatus
- Coffea arabica

A while after arranging one of these cages it looks like this:

Now the same cage after a half year:

I hope it was not to boring.
Greetings Peter

 

[Peter Kraemer]

... and some impressions from "inside"

 

[Lovereps]

Very attractive enclosures Peter

...and the Kinyongias look wonderful!

 

[Klemins]

Wow Peter, those cages look great. How difficult were the fronts of the enclosures to remove for you to re-build? Do you have any type of construction journal for the modification process? Thanks

 

[eisentrauti]

Very impressive, Peter and Susi ! I'm sure the Kinyongias will feel fine !!!

 

[InGoodHands]

I liked how much the plants are thriving, they are realy growing!

 

[Peter Kraemer]

Thank You for the compliments!!

How difficult were the fronts of the enclosures to remove for you to re-build?

We removed only the glass and the small perforated metal plate from top side. For this we used a scalpel to cut the silicone between the glass-wafer.
After cleaning the silicon fugue, we paste the aluminium gauze with silicone on the top side.
We don´t changed anything at the front. Because with the small perforated metal plate on front and the big gauze on top we have a good chimney effect.

Do you have any type of construction journal for the modification process?

No, sorry. Now we have a very good manufacturer of cages for chameleons.

Peter

 

[Jono]

Great setup and post. Thx for sharing. I'm very jealous

 

[NC Chams]

Amazing post Chris, thanks!

 

[OOOst16]

im using this exotera cage...it works fantastic. i love it, its awsome quality.

 

[OntarioLizardman]

Chris, Thanks tremendously for sharing this with us,and I think you would do us all a GREAT favor by sharing more pictures of your chameleon room and your setups!

-Richard

 

[Motherlode Chameleon]

I'm now trying to find a terrarium large enough to house C. parsonii.


I've heard of Parsons being kept in 4 by 4 by 2 foot terrariums and seemed to be doing fine. Although with Parsons you can never have a cage that is to big. Could not say how big the Parsons that were being kept in those Terrariums though I think they were mostly temporary or grow out terrariums and not for adult Parsons.

I'm working on a larger terrarium as a sun terrarium for my male Parson.

 

[luckyy15]

Exto terra terrarium

Hi

i currently have a 7 month old panther chameleon and he has a exto terra enclosure which he has been in since we got him as a baby at 3 months. It is 18" x 18" x 24" and he is a healthy happy chameleon. we havent had any problems with the temps or humidity with the temp being between 82-85 and the humidity between 70-90 max. we are looking to get him a new enclosure soon as he is getting older but for raising baby chameleon i think exto terra terriums are great. I was just wondering what age you would recommend we get him a larger enclosure ? i was think in the next month or so ?

Any advice would be much appreciated

Thanks

 

[Rocky]

Hi

i currently have a 7 month old panther chameleon and he has a exto terra enclosure which he has been in since we got him as a baby at 3 months. It is 18" x 18" x 24" and he is a healthy happy chameleon. we havent had any problems with the temps or humidity with the temp being between 82-85 and the humidity between 70-90 max. we are looking to get him a new enclosure soon as he is getting older but for raising baby chameleon i think exto terra terriums are great. I was just wondering what age you would recommend we get him a larger enclosure ? i was think in the next month or so ?

Any advice would be much appreciated

Thanks

How big is he? You will notice that they need a bigger enclosure when they start crawling around the top, or just looked cramped in general. If you can I would suggest getting him a big boy cage now. We keep all our panthers that are 7-9 months+ in a 2x2x4 screened cage. You can get them from many of the sponsors at the top of the page (LLL / DIY / FLCham / Etc)

 

[luckyy15]

Thanks for ur reply I'll have to measure him in the morning as I'm not definantly sure. Yea we have been looking at screen enclosures and found a website linked to this forum it's a charity organisation and they ship to the uk as the screen enclosures over here are alot more expensive. It's being shipped Monday so hopefully should be here in a couple of weeks so he will soon have a lot more room what's the best lighting to use with a screen enclosure ?

 

[Rocky]

Get a 24 inch 5.0 linear tube uvb bulb (I use reptisun, but I'm not sure about UK brands) also make sure it's not the coiled version as those can cause some problems with eyes.

Also get a basking lamp. I use 60 watt house bulbs in a heat lamp hood.

 

[nhoj6465]

Love your lil setups!!

 

[ssapssaebi]

yes! this thread is what I was looking for.
Thank you Chris! this is awesome.