Outdoor Cage for Baby Jackson's Chameleon

DeremensisBlue

Chameleon Enthusiast
Site Sponsor
Any Jackson's Chameleon keepers have a Chameleon Kit cage laying around? Well, I do and decided to put it to good use! It became a very nice outdoor cage for a newborn Machakos Hills Jackson's Chameleon!

Step 1: Admire this cage! This is the 16" x 16" x 30" screen cage that comes with the Chameleon Kit. Isn't it just dripping with potential?!? What to do with it? It is just waiting for an opportunity to do great things!

Chameleon Kit cage.jpg



Step 2: Opportunity calls! As us Jackson's Chameleon keepers expect the unexpected, I was well prepared to be surprised by some babies from one of my Machakos Hills Jackson's Chameleon females! Perfection in miniature :)

Machakos Baby on hand.jpg


Step 3: Congratulate the lucky parents! Okay, not so much. They don't care. You can congratulate me, though, as I am excited! But, let's go ahead and take a gander at his lineage. I am excited to see what this little one will grow up to be as he/she is the product of some very nicely colored parents. The father is from Kenya while the mother was born here in California.
Machakos Parents.jpg


Step 4: Put in Main Plants. This is going to be an outdoor cage so I was free to use small Jasmine vines and a bower vine. I just placed them on the bottom of the cage in their pots.
Plants in cage 600.jpg


Step 5: Fill in bottom with soil. Yep, just dump it all in and fill it up to the level above the pots. A soil floor is important to balance out the cage as far as heat. We don't want the sun bouncing off the floor and the chameleons not being able to go low to get out of the heat like his instincts tell him to.
fill bottom with soil.jpg



Step 6: Ground Cover! Hey, this is a high class establishment!
add ground cover.jpg


Step 7: Admire Finished cage!
after cage interior.jpg


Step 8: Admire this incredible Cephalotus Australian Pitcher Plant

No, this carnivorous plant is not used in this cage build. But, my goodness, just look at this beautiful pitcher! I love carnivorous plants and the Cephalotus is one of my favorites. But, I digress..You are probably asking about those bananas. I'll answer that question, but just take a look at this beauty on your way to step 9!
cephalotus.jpg


Step 9: Feed the Baby! My favorite way to feed baby chameleons is to put out fruit and create a swarm of wild fruit flies in the baby cage. This is as simple as opening up a banana, mashing it just a little, and putting it out where it can waife. This works wonderfully. The little baby will just hang out over the banana and eat to his heart's content. And, yes, a cloud of fruit flies will come and sometimes I have to clear it out because it gets too much. But too much food is the best problem to have with baby chameleons.
fruit fly bait.jpg


Step 10: Add Baby Chameleon! And now it is time for the new resident to move in.

baby in cage.jpg


Even though this is a spacious cage for one little Jackson's Chameleon, this is still a small cage for outdoors use. So it will be well supervised. I will have it on a table that is under a tree so it gets the morning sun, but protected from the afternoon sun. The cage is an inexpensive Reptibreeze and not designed for outdoor use or to hold soil so I won't get long term use out of this. But I will definitely get the four months of use I need before this little one grows out of the cage. So this is a fun project with a cage laying around. I did this a couple weeks ago and it has been working wonderfully. Fruit flies are clouding and the baby is growing!

I did a video of this if you would like to hear the narration of these steps.
 
Wow 😍 almost makes me think about such cage ✌🏻
These are great cages, but if you are going to try it out then bypass the small 16x16x30 and go for a 24x24x48 cage on top a planter box. These are great for wheeling chameleons into sun on cold days and under the patio during hot days. And consider planting them with edible passion flowers. It is a lot of fun harvesting passion fruit out of your chameleon cage!

planter box cage 600.jpg
 
These are great cages, but if you are going to try it out then bypass the small 16x16x30 and go for a 24x24x48 cage on top a planter box. These are great for wheeling chameleons into sun on cold days and under the patio during hot days. And consider planting them with edible passion flowers. It is a lot of fun harvesting passion fruit out of your chameleon cage!

View attachment 297743
Would any of these plants be safe to use with a Veiled in an outdoor enclosure?
 
Hi Bill! He is certainly a little cutie. ❤️ I would recommend you cover that cage in some plastic coated hardware cloth if you have any wildlife there or neighbors that let their cats out. I have to do that for all my outside baby cages.
 
These are great cages, but if you are going to try it out then bypass the small 16x16x30 and go for a 24x24x48 cage on top a planter box. These are great for wheeling chameleons into sun on cold days and under the patio during hot days. And consider planting them with edible passion flowers. It is a lot of fun harvesting passion fruit out of your chameleon cage!

View attachment 297743

👍🏻👍🏻 Already got my own alternative. It also rollable and will move it outside during sunny days.
557E9D7F-B2EC-40AB-96E0-A67F6FA9AD65.jpeg
 
Outside you will have to watch him every single second. Don’t take your eyes off of him for one minute. They run when they know you are not looking, plus wildlife can get him.
Thanks, it will only be when I’m next to her and can keep an eye on her. Just for a weekly dose of fresh UVB.
 
Any Jackson's Chameleon keepers have a Chameleon Kit cage laying around? Well, I do and decided to put it to good use! It became a very nice outdoor cage for a newborn Machakos Hills Jackson's Chameleon!

Step 1: Admire this cage! This is the 16" x 16" x 30" screen cage that comes with the Chameleon Kit. Isn't it just dripping with potential?!? What to do with it? It is just waiting for an opportunity to do great things!

View attachment 297721


Step 2: Opportunity calls! As us Jackson's Chameleon keepers expect the unexpected, I was well prepared to be surprised by some babies from one of my Machakos Hills Jackson's Chameleon females! Perfection in miniature :)

View attachment 297722

Step 3: Congratulate the lucky parents! Okay, not so much. They don't care. You can congratulate me, though, as I am excited! But, let's go ahead and take a gander at his lineage. I am excited to see what this little one will grow up to be as he/she is the product of some very nicely colored parents. The father is from Kenya while the mother was born here in California.
View attachment 297723

Step 4: Put in Main Plants. This is going to be an outdoor cage so I was free to use small Jasmine vines and a bower vine. I just placed them on the bottom of the cage in their pots.
View attachment 297724

Step 5: Fill in bottom with soil. Yep, just dump it all in and fill it up to the level above the pots. A soil floor is important to balance out the cage as far as heat. We don't want the sun bouncing off the floor and the chameleons not being able to go low to get out of the heat like his instincts tell him to.
View attachment 297725


Step 6: Ground Cover! Hey, this is a high class establishment!
View attachment 297727

Step 7: Admire Finished cage!
View attachment 297728

Step 8: Admire this incredible Cephalotus Australian Pitcher Plant

No, this carnivorous plant is not used in this cage build. But, my goodness, just look at this beautiful pitcher! I love carnivorous plants and the Cephalotus is one of my favorites. But, I digress..You are probably asking about those bananas. I'll answer that question, but just take a look at this beauty on your way to step 9!
View attachment 297729

Step 9: Feed the Baby! My favorite way to feed baby chameleons is to put out fruit and create a swarm of wild fruit flies in the baby cage. This is as simple as opening up a banana, mashing it just a little, and putting it out where it can waife. This works wonderfully. The little baby will just hang out over the banana and eat to his heart's content. And, yes, a cloud of fruit flies will come and sometimes I have to clear it out because it gets too much. But too much food is the best problem to have with baby chameleons.
View attachment 297730

Step 10: Add Baby Chameleon! And now it is time for the new resident to move in.

View attachment 297731

Even though this is a spacious cage for one little Jackson's Chameleon, this is still a small cage for outdoors use. So it will be well supervised. I will have it on a table that is under a tree so it gets the morning sun, but protected from the afternoon sun. The cage is an inexpensive Reptibreeze and not designed for outdoor use or to hold soil so I won't get long term use out of this. But I will definitely get the four months of use I need before this little one grows out of the cage. So this is a fun project with a cage laying around. I did this a couple weeks ago and it has been working wonderfully. Fruit flies are clouding and the baby is growing!

I did a video of this if you would like to hear the narration of these steps.

Nice ceph, awesome to watch them busting out after their cool period!
 
Would any of these plants be safe to use with a Veiled in an outdoor enclosure?
I have used a wide variety of plants with Veileds and have had no evidence of plant poisoning in any instance. So, I have no plants that I am avoiding for Veiled Chameleons. I am always looking for more information and won't be shy sharing if I can find evidence of a dangerous plant for chameleons. I stay away from thorny plants just because I don't want them having to avoid thorns in their limited space, but they have no problem navigating huge thorns in the wild so this isn't because I think they will hurt themselves. I just don't want to limit their space any more than it is.
 
For those interested in more details about the benefits and challenges of outdoor chameleon keeping you can get a brief overview on this video tour of an outdoor cage bank


And then a much more in-depth review in this podcast episode of outdoor keeping

 
These are great cages, but if you are going to try it out then bypass the small 16x16x30 and go for a 24x24x48 cage on top a planter box. These are great for wheeling chameleons into sun on cold days and under the patio during hot days. And consider planting them with edible passion flowers. It is a lot of fun harvesting passion fruit out of your chameleon cage!

View attachment 297743
And it has wheels too!
 
Be careful ...you don't want a bird or something else to snap up your chameleon! It only takes a second. You might be able to stop it...Even if you're close.
It came across my mind and thinking about some kind mosquito net to shield her off.
 
These are great cages, but if you are going to try it out then bypass the small 16x16x30 and go for a 24x24x48 cage on top a planter box. These are great for wheeling chameleons into sun on cold days and under the patio during hot days. And consider planting them with edible passion flowers. It is a lot of fun harvesting passion fruit out of your chameleon cage!

View attachment 297743
That is where my old Repti Breezes are going. I just wish I had the knack for planting mine as pretty as yours.
 
Back
Top Bottom