Screening Question

[jmdavis]

So I decided on turning my spare room into a chameleon room. To save money on the whole set up I thought about building my own cages instead of buy 10+ new ones. Been thinking about the design of the cages but I just cant seem to think about how I'm going to secure the screen without it looking really bad. I did some searches but couldn't really find anything so I'm looking for some pictures of how some of you attached your screen. any info would be a great help

Thanks, Josh

 

[ferretinmyshoes]

I just staple gunned mine to the inside of the wooden frame on my homemade cage. I did it as far into the corner as possible so you really don't see it. I would suggest fiberglass screen rather than metal however.

 

[jmdavis]

Is the fiberglass better then the metal? What comes on the LLL cages

 

[Infinite ink]

fiberglass is softer on the chams nails, but crickets have been known to chew through em.. so if your freeranging crix not a good idea.. but if your cup feeding go for it, i would preffer the fiberglass but i cup feed.

 

[jmdavis]

Well I do a little of both so I should just stick to the metal screen

 

[Jamelon]

i used black coated aluminum on my cage just make sure that you dont pull the screen too tight because its not very resiliant haha. It can start to tear so make sure u dont make it too tight

 

[ferretinmyshoes]

I know some people have had crickets chew out of the fiberglass screen. In the last 2 years I've always free ranged them in my soft screen cages and haven't had that problem. I don't know if they're just so gutloaded they're too stuffed to care or if my cham just eats them before they get the chance to. Although I've heard a few that were hiding and chirping for a few days...I dunno, I haven't had that problem yet is what I was going for! fwiw

 

[ferretinmyshoes]

Oops, just realized mine were just coated aluminum. No wonder I've never had that problem. Nevermind!

 

[jmdavis]

Coated aluminum is probably what I'm gonna go with then. I cant wait to knock these things out so I can get some chameleons to put in them.. I going to start them later this week sometime..

 

[AMGChams]

My dad gave me the idea of going to Lowes or some place like that and buying the framing used for screen windows and having them cut to size and pretty much put together like the DIY cage I have. I have not looked into the actual cost of doing such. But that might be a route for you?

 

[Salem Jones]

AMG Chams: just watch out for their nails getting caught in the window screening since the holes are so small. Great for young cham's though

 

[bigwigwabbit]

If ur planning on taking these cages outside one day u wont want the black coated screen or any dark colored screen this will cause ur temps inside the cage to be warmer.

i used black coated aluminum on my cage just make sure that you dont pull the screen too tight because its not very resiliant haha. It can start to tear so make sure u dont make it too tight

 

[tdotcham]

i used the black aluminum screen. I built the frame for my 2x2x4 out of wood, and then layered the screen accordingly. It's extremely sharp once you cut it... so i used a staple gun and stapled along the inner part of the wood, then cut thinner layers of wood to put over the exposed screen to avoid the chameleon to be able to touch any cut areas. looks clean and nice