Neonatal Setup thoughts and opinions

[Lpsouth1978]

I have bred one of my female panthers and expect her to lay in the next couple of weeks. I am now in the process of getting everything setup for the babies after they hatch. I have a plan in mind for how I will be setting everything up, but would like some opinions/suggestions from all of you on ways to improve it.

The requirements I have for this setup are:

1. Must be screen cages (I don't want plastic bins)
2. Must all fit in my walk-in closet (which will be my baby rearing room)
3. Allows easy maintenance
4. Allows SMALL groups of chameleons to be kept (individuals are even better if possible)
5. Does not require moving chams into larger cages as they grow (except those that I select for holdbacks)
6. Costs less than $4000 to complete (including mist system, lighting, drainage, cages, and decor)

Right now the plan is to get 3 - 48x18x72 standard wire shelf units. Each shelf will hold 3 - 16x16x20 cages for a total of 21 cages.

Each cage will have 3 sides covered with shower curtain (or similar plastic), fake plants and vines, and a misting nozzle (Mistking).

Each shelf will have a 48" dual T5 fixture above it with 1 daylight bulb and 1 Reptisun 5.0 UVB bulb. Each will also have a drainage tray below it to catch waste water from misting.

I have looked into housing each baby separately, but simply cannot afford it. If I have 27 viable eggs from each clutch (just estimating), this setup will allow me to house 3 chameleons in each cage, and have enough cages to repeat that for 3 clutches. By the time the third clutch hatches the first should be ready to go to new homes, allowing me to split older or larger animals into their own cage until a new home is found.

I have gone over MANY different setups and found this to be one of the most economical, while fulfilling the requirements I have.

Any thoughts, advice on improvements, or things I may have forgotten are greatly appreciated. I know I have some time before this setup is needed, but I want to have everything in place well in advance of needing it.

 

[jannb]

I don't breed very often but I like the plastic tubs. You can see the babies and for me it's easier to care for the babies and they are much easier to clean than a cage.
https://www.chameleonforums.com/babies-one-month-old-40584/

If I were a breeder I would deffinately get the Dragon Strand nursery cages. The babies get rowdy in the bins. You could probably put 2 or 3 panthers in one cage to start with.
http://dragonstrand.com/product/dragon-strand-nursery-caging-system/

 

[Lpsouth1978]

Jann, I have done a lot of research on different cages and liked the Dragon Strand cages A LOT. The only down side is the cost. It would cost me well over $4000 just for the cages I need. That does not count the lighting, decor, misting system, etc.

I was actually talking to my roommate about all of this last night and we talked about building something ourselves. He is a welder and can easily build a rack system that will hold many young chams individually. We talked about making it modular, meaning that the cages can grow with the chams as needed. Basically we will have the cages separated by removable plastic walls. All we have to do is open the front screen and slide a wall out, the cage will go from 6" wide to 12" wide in seconds.

We would build three of these units, each with 24 cages measuring 6"x18"x18", for a total of 72 individual cages. This should cost considerably less than buying the Dragon Strand Cages and still have all of the functionality. I will post pics and more info as we get things figured out and start building it.