My first chameleon's first home... anything wrong?

[comocham]

I've been doing my research for nearly two weeks on this amazing forum and today I finished my chameleons first home. I will be purchasing a baby male veiled chameleon in late August or early September. I am very excited, but I want to make sure everything is correct.

For lighting I am using a 24" reptisun 5.0 and a 50 watt zoo med basking lamp. The basking temp. reaches 86 F and the ambient temp. is: max.- 79 , min.- 72.

For plants I have one perfect sized schefflera and the rest seen are fakes. I am also using two exo-terra fine jungle vines.

The floor of the cage has a few small holes in it that allow the drainage of excess water from misting into a basin below.

The humidity usually stays at around 49% and jumps to around 80% right after misting.

Here are a couple pictures. If you see anything wrong please post. I want to do this right.

 

[dodolah]

Good Job

wow.. I'm impressed..
I can see you did your research!

 

[adam1v]

yep very good.
Is that paper at the bottom of the tank? Im just wondering how soggy and smelly that might get if you have your drainage below?

 

[Julirs]

That looks great! Just make sure you wash the plants well in soapy water and rinse, and either cover the dirt with rocks or pot in orgainc soil.
That is the best set up I have seen in a long time!

 

[VinceD]

Looks great! Thanks for the motivation to get my guys' cages up to speed...

 

[comocham]

That looks great! Just make sure you wash the plants well in soapy water and rinse, and either cover the dirt with rocks or pot in orgainc soil.
That is the best set up I have seen in a long time!

I was wondering who would notice the tag on the plants pot. You are correct Juli, I do still need to wash and re-pot the plant in organic soil.

Oh and Adam the bottom of the tank is bare, no paper or substrate. I do not really like the white bottom though, any ideas?

Also, would it be ok to reuse water as long as it is boiled and cooled between uses?

 

[opihiman]

Oh and Adam the bottom of the tank is bare, no paper or substrate. I do not really like the white bottom though, any ideas?

Also, would it be ok to reuse water as long as it is boiled and cooled between uses?

they do have that astro turf looking stuff but you would need to realy disinfect that thing well. the other option is to replace the bottom with some other kind of plastic or plexi. I am wondering if you could use some kind of spanish moss as cover too?

? why did you want to re-use the water? I would need to be boiled and filtered....and the smell when you boil should produce a really nice aroma(BLECH...LOL). It is much safer and easier to go with minicipal tap water if you can.

Where are you from?


Really nice set up!!!!

OPI

 

[comocham]

Opi, I had thought about using some spanish moss or something of that sort but I read about the risk of impaction. The reason I was wanting to boil and reuse the water is because I am from Columbia, Missouri. Recently it was discovered that drinking the tap water frequently here is a direct link to multiple types of cancer. Ironic how much Missouri sounds like misery eh? Anyways the ground water in my area is so polluted from pesticides and herbicides it is not even safe for humans to drink, so i am planning on purchasing the water for my cham and boiling and reusing it would probably save me some scrilla.

 

[veiledchamguy]

I like it, simple yet complete well done!

 

[dodolah]

try RO filter for the water.
hearing your story, i doubt boiling the water will do anything.

 

[AndrewH]

Looks to me your cham is going to be very happy great job on all the research you did before hand. I went through about 3-4 enclosures before getting it right.

 

[Kat77]

It looks really great!

And I don't know if anyone mentioned this after OPI suggested it, but I would strongly recommend against the astro-turf stuff in the bottom. It could severely damage your little cham's tongue. No substrate at all is far better. Definitely do not use that moss.

It is so refreshing to see someone doing their research before purchasing the chameleon. Great job!

 

[AndrewH]

If you don't like the white bottom you can always use reptile carpet. Just cut it to size. Is he being cup fed? im sure if you used the spanish moss you would just end up with 50 dead crickets underneath it each cleaning session.

 

[opihiman]

Anyways the ground water in my area is so polluted from pesticides and herbicides it is not even safe for humans to drink, so i am planning on purchasing the water for my cham and boiling and reusing it would probably save me some scrilla.

That royally sucks....

However the money you think you would save on re-using the water would probably go directly to pay for the actual cost to boil it. I dunno...what does the rest of the forum think....

As for the rest of other ground cover issues. I dont have anything on the bottom of my cages. If you use that astro turf stuff you gotta really disinfect that thing too. I find that it just aint worth the hassel.

if the bottom of the cage is that plexi glass stuff, you might be able to just get another piece cut to size and fit that in there. Plexi does come in just about any color you want...the only trouble is finding it.

Hope that helps

OPI