My New Ambilobe Setup

[jbrewer]

Hey Everyone,

I'm looking for critiques and comments on my setup for my new Blue Barred Ambilobe cham that I just got.

UVB is a reptisun 5.0, 100 watt basking light = 90 - 95 at the basking spots.

I am having problems with getting the dripper to drip through the aluminum mesh at the top of the cage. The mesh was collecting the water and not letting it through, so i put a string there to guide the water in. I soon realized the potential for the cham to ingest the string or pieces of it, so I took it out. Now I'm back to square one with the dripper.

I will be hanging the feed bowl (which is temporarily on the ground) in one of the corners so its off the ground. I'm also trying to figure out how to deal with the water issue from the dripper once I get it running. I'm thinking of putting a drain hole in the bottom of the cage to drain out to a holding tank. But then I'm wondering what happens when the paper towels get all saturated. I know that can't be good. Breeding ground for bacteria, right??...so, suggestions are welcome, specifically with how to deal with the water from the dripper. I'm going to cruise the forums about it too.

Thanks!!!

P.S. I put a pic of the cham in there for good measure

 

[NewOwner]

Very beutiful setup, just wondering about some things...

What are the dimentions? (sorry if there on there, and i missed)

Did you get the Cage from LLLReptile?

And just for future use, when im hanging plants/sticks etc, How are yours being hung?

Thanks

 

[NewOwner]

Shamwow!

BTW

For the bottom, Your using paper towels, i am using these things (Seen on t.v) called shamwow, there like.. papertowl / sponge, They abosorb lots! And Have large sizes..

Although, i am not sure about If they are toxic or not, so i covered them with rocks, the water still dripped through the rocks, and worked Well

AND if anyone has info on wether or not Shamwow!'s are good, or not.. Please do Inform me, Thanks!

 

[goose13]

Looks good so far, your going to want to add more vines to climb on and maybe some more fake plants or real plants for places for him to hide. As for the drainage, since it is just a dripper you could just put a container under the drip to catch the water. Or you could drill some holes in the middle of the PVC plastic bottom board. With the weight of the plant, most of the water will drain to the middle.

 

[jbrewer]

Dimensions and hanging cage items

Yes, the cage is from LLLReptile - aluminum screen cage with dimensions 18" x 18" x 36".

If you look closely at the pics, you might be able to see that I made an inside frame that uses the green yard spikes that are made for holding up fragile plants. They are reinforced with aluminum on the inside, so they're pretty structural, but make it tricky for drilling holes in (used my drill press to drill holes). I cut them to length, drilled holes appropriately, and lashed them together with zipties. I'm going to add two more cross members in the back of the cage and one in front below the door. It has proven to be great for twisty-tying my vines and branches to, and those yard spikes have a sort of ribbing so they don't allow something that is tied to it to slip down. I attached a closeup of the zip-tied corner for you to see.

I have to give credit for the idea to my mom, it is quite ingenious. Looks like it'll work, especially since I don't want to put holes in my screen or the cage frame.

The awesomeness will come when I re-pot my pothos and hang it on the inside frame near the top back corner so it can go crazy. And yes, I'll be hooking my cham up with more branches, vines, and plants soon.

 

[Gaerei]

First, for the bottom, if you're going to make a drainage system, unless you're trying to shoot for easy cheanup as well, paper towels wouldnt serve a purpose. I have easy access to sheets of aluminum, thats what i used on the bottom. A little more envio friendly than using paper towels each morning. Of course this does have a drainage system. But the aluminum square cutout is easy to wipe up at night, and for big cleanup day, slips right out and can be cleaned in the sink or dishwasher. The aluminem can be subsituted with a flexible plastic/pvc sheet.

Seond, Id ad a hell of a lot more plants as mentioned already. If you use fake plants my suggestion may or may not work for you. With real vines or sticks I know this will work and has worked well for me so far. Try twist ties, you know, those things that come with trash bags that nobody ever uses! Well finally you can put them to good use. With sticks I just drill each end through or just the side I want fixed to the sides. Insert twisty tie, poke it through mesh screen, and twist... PRESTO! Job well done. Just make sure your cham cant poke itself any way on the ends of the twist tie.

 

[Gaerei]

Also, 95 is probably a little hot for your little guy. Put it down to 90 and keep an eye out for burns. Sometimes for juvi's I've heard of 85 being ideal.

 

[ageber]

I have a bunch of cages for my panthers and got tired of poking holes in the screens as well. I bought a wooden dowel (they come in all sizes) cut down to fit across the top of a cage. I then put a rubber grommet on each side and glues the grommet to a small powerful magnet. Then i secured that with a magnet on the outside of the cage. this allows me to wrap plants and vines to the dowels and not poke any holes. it also gives my chams another place to climb on and simple to take out and clean. I am going to now do this on all of my cages. Just another idea.

 

[Kays04]

I use a plastic container to catch my dripper's drips. No drainage system required. Just place the plastic container under the dripper (make sure it's going to be big enough to hold all the water) and cover the top with some screen (use an elastic band to hold the screen on). This way the water is all caught, it can be easily emptied and any bacteria that is building up in the wasted water is out of the chameleon's range. Also the screen will prevent your cham and your cham's food from drowning.

 

[lizardboy119796]

BTW

For the bottom, Your using paper towels, i am using these things (Seen on t.v) called shamwow, there like.. papertowl / sponge, They abosorb lots! And Have large sizes..

Although, i am not sure about If they are toxic or not, so i covered them with rocks, the water still dripped through the rocks, and worked Well

AND if anyone has info on wether or not Shamwow!'s are good, or not.. Please do Inform me, Thanks!

I love the sham wows, do you say wow everytime?

 

[sandrachameleon]

small weight on top of screen (pebble) will encourage the dripper water to fall from the one lower area of the screen. Collection pan can be placed below.