Questions about free ranging

[AmbanjaLuver]

Hi! I am getting an ambanja panther chameleon. I am deciding whether to have it in a reptarium or free range. The only other pets that I have are guinea pigs and they live in my basement which will be blocked off for the chameleon. What do you do about water runoff? Could you figure out where it drips and put a cup there? I heard that chameleons generally poop in the same area. Is this true? If it is then how do you figure where spot is and put down paper towels without them pooping on everything? If they don't poop in the same area, then what do you do about poop? Could you hand feed instead of cup feeding? How do you keep it humid enough? Is it bad if they can get into direct sunlight?

 

[Olimpia]

Lets see if I can answer everything -

Water - I believe heavily in mist/rain over just using a dripper, so I found it easier to build the FR up on a table that also served to funnel water cleanly into a bucket. It's going to be hard to describe, so I'll just show you what I'm talking about. Here's my drainage table (it's very large because it was intended for several chameleons) and here is what it looked like with my Free-range on top, and this one, too. This took care of the poop problem for me as well. I assume people who use drippers exclusively will set up a plastic container or catch basin under to catch the drip.

Poop - Yes, generally chameleons like routine and will go in the same place. At first you can put down newspaper around the entire area and give him a few days to see if he's decided on a spot and then just lay down newspaper there. Like I said, my drainage tables took care of the waste problem as well, which if why I liked them.

You can definitely hand feed if you want.

I like misting, which I felt provided the humidity. Lots of real plants will raise up humidity as well.

No, not at all! Direct sunlight is great for them, and they love it when they can be taken outside. Sunlight coming in through closed windows is useless, however, as UVB does not go through glass so it's not a substitute for a UVB bulb.