Panther chameleon enclosure.

Zevil

Avid Member
Hi guys, I'm going for a bioactive enclosure for a panther chameleon so this is my first step. I don't have a panther yet, I want to set the bioactive enclosure up for about 2-3 months before getting one.

This is a custom build enclosure, 24"x24"x48". The back is full glass, the front side is also full glass with a door. The sides are screen with a 12" glass at the bottom. The top is also screen. So there's 12" glass height for me to put in my soil and drainage. I also bought some nice Manzanita sandblasted wood as decorations.

Now I'm trying to figure out how to make a nice natural looking background.
 

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I just started with a background for my large 8' x 4' x 4' enosure.
I made a styrofoam background, put chickenwire over it and slapped some sand/cement mixture on it.
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For a smaller enclosure that will have a smaller animal you can skip the chickenwire and use few layers of tile adhesive, the last layer you can sprinkje with some and and layer paint.

There's more ways to do it but this is how I usually do it.
 
That's awesome. I have two ideas. First one would be using some pieces of cork bark and spray foam and then silicone glue peat moss to it. Second one would be pure spray foam and peat moss because a friend told me the cork bark can harbor unwanted pest after a while which I definitely wouldn't want.
 
I’d give universal rock a call, they could sell you a custom background that’s water proof, will not degrade, and is removable if you ever want to start over. Oh, they also don’t weigh much. The cement backgrounds look good, but they can weigh a lot.
 
I'm down 200kilo in cement-sand mixture right now and will probably need 40-80kg more... BUT I build it with the goal to be strong enough for a Tegu. Chameleons will barely touch the background and won't damage it.
I had tileadhesive backgrounds get damaged only in spots where the animal would repedetly scratch for weeks to get out (adult iguana) or to burrow (adult ackie), but this isn't behaviour chameleons will show...
My waterdragons never managed to damage it.

If you use a foam base and 'paint' on 3-5 layers of tileadhesive it won't be heavy either and if you're creative enough you can make it removable, but usually removable is introducing a chance for feeders to crawl behind it so I'd always glue it around with silicon.

Doing it yourself gives satisfaction and will save quite a bunch of money.
But it consumes time... If there was a company here that would duild it for a reasonable price I would probably have done that tho...

That's awesome. I have two ideas. First one would be using some pieces of cork bark and spray foam and then silicone glue peat moss to it. Second one would be pure spray foam and peat moss because a friend told me the cork bark can harbor unwanted pest after a while which I definitely wouldn't want.
I wouldn't glue any natural materials in because they will degrade.
You could check how folk make backgrounds for paludariums, they often look amazing... I think they use a styrofoam base too but tje rest differs.

Another tip is to look on pinterest for inspiration, some of the vivariums people make are so beautiful.

Good luck on your project.
 
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