Outside Cage in South Carolina

[Tysus]

I am new to the forums and have had my veiled chameleon for several years but I am not an expert.

My question is:

I just moved to South Carolina and have been putting my chameleons cage outside (partial sun/shade) for the last several days and he seems to love it. I was thinking about building/buying a cage to sit outside semi-permenantly on the lanai (covered patio). Other than wind/hurricane, is this ok to do? Is there anything I should consider when buying/building the cage? Since there's natural sunlight do I still need all the bulbs?

Thank you for the assistance!

Regards,

Tysus

 

[carol5208]

Hi Tysus. If you are going to have the cage on the Lanai and it does not get direct sunlight at any point or atleast for several hours a day, then I would use a UVB light. The basking bulb should be added when temperatures require it. If it is 85 degrees outside then you probably would not need one. It will depend on how your temperatures fluctuate.

 

[Tysus]

Well so far it's been nice, hot (85 - 95 degrees) and humid outside. I keep it 74 degrees inside so when I started putting him outside he was very active and I think he likes it. I try to keep him in a partial shade/partial sun area so he has a place to go if the suns beating on him to much.

So far (as long as I can find the right cage) it looks like keeping him outside will work. He's not a very friendly pet so I'm trying to make him happy.

Thanks for the info!

Tysus

 

[jajeanpierre]

I am new to the forums and have had my veiled chameleon for several years but I am not an expert.

My question is:

I just moved to South Carolina and have been putting my chameleons cage outside (partial sun/shade) for the last several days and he seems to love it. I was thinking about building/buying a cage to sit outside semi-permenantly on the lanai (covered patio). Other than wind/hurricane, is this ok to do? Is there anything I should consider when buying/building the cage? Since there's natural sunlight do I still need all the bulbs?

Thank you for the assistance!

Regards,

Tysus

The two big things to worry about are over heating and predators.

Certain birds of prey (Coopers and their relatives, Sharp Shinned hawks will hit them through the wire and rip them out. Raccoons will put their hands through fairly small openings and rip the animal out piece by piece. I suspect an oppossum might as well. Rats are a problem. It wouldn't surprise me if mice could take a nibble.

I would suggest you have a double-wired outdoor cage, using about 1/4, maybe 1/2" welded hardware cloth. You can easily do something like make a cage out of a 2x2 frame and then have hardware cloth screwed in on the outside (a raccoon can rip out staples) and the same sized wire on the inside. That keeps your cham almost 2" away from the outside wire that is exposed to the predators. Using the larger wire will allow flies and things to come in to join your cham for lunch. Window screen does not keep out a predator.

I don't know what snakes are local, but that would also be a consideration to the wire size. Your local zoo can probably help you figure out what you need.

The other problem is overheating in direct sunlight. Make sure you have plenty of living plants in his enclosure. The live plants will cool everything off.

I doubt you will need any heat at night until temps get down to the 40s. He will need some heat (can be from the sun) to warm his skin up otherwise he can't manufacture Vitamin D. Veileds range goes from always very hot and humid summer and winter to freezing winter temperatures and 100F+ summers. They are tough little chameleons.

 

[carol5208]

Having a covered patio and then having the cage inside there, I don't think he would have to worry about predators so much as he would if the cage was just exposed to the outdoors. We have wild Veild populations that are thriving down here in the Everglades and the temps are super hot during the day. As long as your chameleon is not trapped in the direct sun with nowhere to get shade, he should be fine.

 

[nick barta]

Water…lots of water at those temperatures.

CHEERS@!

Nick