The chameleon with no name, a journey of love and patience (VERY PIC HEAVY).
- Thread starter MedicMan1
- Start date
Striders_mom
Member
Wowwwwwww!!! That is sooooo fantastic looking!!!! No wonder why you're stoked!!! That must be their large atrium? It's the one on my wish list now!! Love how you've decked it out. Was it fairly easy?
MedicMan1
Established Member
Yes, that would be the large clear side atrium and drip pan. It is humongous and very much worth the money IMHO.
It wasn't hard, but it takes some serious dedication and several glasses of wine to finish. Says so in the manual. Let me know if you have any questions at all and I will be super glad to help. If you plan on using the pond and stone foam like I did, beware. That stuff goes quickly. It cost me $80 in foam alone to complete the project. The chameleon is living like a king, and I am eating ramen. Worth it though.
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Striders_mom
Member
Fantastic!! Enjoy your ramen, wine & pillow, we look forward to an update when you're able
MedicMan1
Established Member
Update:
As many of you know by now, the cage is finished. I thought I would provide some feedback on the products and talk about the setup a bit.
Tha cage (Dragon Strand large clear side atrium) was very easy to put together and I was very impressed with the quality. It is similar in structure to the standard screen cages, but is more sturdy and well made. The clear sides are very nice. The drainage pan is also great. It took me around 1.5 hours to put everything together.
The MistKing is awesome and was very easy to set up. I ended up using every bit of the tubing included. I used a few inches of it to expand one of the nozzles away from the wall so water didn't pour down the sides and out the door. I had a few beers and tried to program the timer last night, so it took more time than it should have. It is slightly tricky to get the hang of the seconds timer at first, then it makes sense. Right now, I have it scheduled for four events during the day. It comes on for 5 minutes at 7:55am (lights on at 8), 2.5 minutes at 12:00pm, 2.5 minutes at 4:00pm, and 5 minutes at 7:45pm. I am very open to suggestions for the schedules. I am just winging it right now.
The arcadia light (48" quad T5 setup from light your reptiles) is AWESOME. It was very easy to program and works great. I have one daylight bulb and the plant pro bulb (I think) set up to turn on at 8:00am, and the other two bulbs (daylight and 12% UVB) set to turn on at 11:30am. The UVB and plant pro turn off at 5:30pm, and the rest of the lights turn off at 8:00pm. The blue moonlight LEDs stay on from 8:00pm to 9:00pm to help him transition into night night time. He has a 100w halogen heat lamp that is on a separate timer and runs from 8:00am to 8:00pm. Once again, please provide feedback if this isn't a good schedule. I figure because I went with 12% UVB instead of 6%, less time during the day would probably be okay.
Now for the fun part, cage setup.
I had built a stand when I ordered the cage. It is a three foot tall box with doors and sliders inside for access to the water bucket and drainage bucket. As for the cage, I took advantage of the dragon ledges and hung a variety of madrone branches (soaked in bleach for 24 hours, then clean water changed regularly for several days, then dried), using zip ties to secure them. I incorporated pots into the branches, also securing those with zip ties. I got 9 6" pots in the cage, with room to hang one more, a pothos. I covered the entire back wall and most of the pots with "Great Stuff" pond and stone foam. It turned out great, but beware; it is expensive at $10 a can (at least here), and it took me EIGHT cans to complete the project. I ended up using one can to cover little rocks and make some drainage filler for the bottom of the pots. I will explain more about this later.
After that was said and done, I mocked up the plants and figured out where I was going to put them. I ended up with an asparagus fern, a western sword fern, two small rubber trees, three dracaena of different variety, and a huge beautiful guzmania bromeliad. I repotted all of these with organic soil after washing out the roots well. All leaves and structures were also sprayed down. I potted them in the same pots that I incorporated into the walls, so they just slip in and can be easily removed.
After all is said and done, there are a few different temperature gradients in there, from 85-90 right under his heat lamp, to 70 in the lower shady section of the cage, but holy humidity batman. The cage sits 80% humidity just about all the time. Mistings bring it up to 95-100% super fast. I haven't seen it drop below 70% at all. Not once. They weren't joking about the clear side cages holding in the humidity. Might be the NINE large plants too...
I also plumbed a drain into the drip tray and added a wedge to the left side under the stand, just enough that you can't see the tilt, but water now runs downhill to the drain and makes it's way to a bucket in the stand. I included a ball valve so the drain can be turned off while dumping the bucket.
I ended up letting him jump in there as I was repotting his plants. He has very cautious at first, like he anticipated some kind of predator to be in there. That makes me feel good if he thinks the cage is so huge that he's actually in the wild. He's not a small panther, and he is tiny compared to the size of this monster cage. He soon got acclimated and climbed all the branches and vines and scaled right up the foam. He's rather adventurous, he also still likes to climb up the ceiling also.
Last night was his first full night in the new place, and he was a beautiful combination of pastel pink/orange and buttercup yellow. I like to think that those were his happy pajamas.
Next stop: Automated dripper system.
Thanks all for your support, PLEASE feel free to recommend changes in my schedule or ask any questions pertaining to the gear I have mentioned here. I will include some pics of the process and setup.
As many of you know by now, the cage is finished. I thought I would provide some feedback on the products and talk about the setup a bit.
Tha cage (Dragon Strand large clear side atrium) was very easy to put together and I was very impressed with the quality. It is similar in structure to the standard screen cages, but is more sturdy and well made. The clear sides are very nice. The drainage pan is also great. It took me around 1.5 hours to put everything together.
The MistKing is awesome and was very easy to set up. I ended up using every bit of the tubing included. I used a few inches of it to expand one of the nozzles away from the wall so water didn't pour down the sides and out the door. I had a few beers and tried to program the timer last night, so it took more time than it should have. It is slightly tricky to get the hang of the seconds timer at first, then it makes sense. Right now, I have it scheduled for four events during the day. It comes on for 5 minutes at 7:55am (lights on at 8), 2.5 minutes at 12:00pm, 2.5 minutes at 4:00pm, and 5 minutes at 7:45pm. I am very open to suggestions for the schedules. I am just winging it right now.
The arcadia light (48" quad T5 setup from light your reptiles) is AWESOME. It was very easy to program and works great. I have one daylight bulb and the plant pro bulb (I think) set up to turn on at 8:00am, and the other two bulbs (daylight and 12% UVB) set to turn on at 11:30am. The UVB and plant pro turn off at 5:30pm, and the rest of the lights turn off at 8:00pm. The blue moonlight LEDs stay on from 8:00pm to 9:00pm to help him transition into night night time. He has a 100w halogen heat lamp that is on a separate timer and runs from 8:00am to 8:00pm. Once again, please provide feedback if this isn't a good schedule. I figure because I went with 12% UVB instead of 6%, less time during the day would probably be okay.
Now for the fun part, cage setup.
I had built a stand when I ordered the cage. It is a three foot tall box with doors and sliders inside for access to the water bucket and drainage bucket. As for the cage, I took advantage of the dragon ledges and hung a variety of madrone branches (soaked in bleach for 24 hours, then clean water changed regularly for several days, then dried), using zip ties to secure them. I incorporated pots into the branches, also securing those with zip ties. I got 9 6" pots in the cage, with room to hang one more, a pothos. I covered the entire back wall and most of the pots with "Great Stuff" pond and stone foam. It turned out great, but beware; it is expensive at $10 a can (at least here), and it took me EIGHT cans to complete the project. I ended up using one can to cover little rocks and make some drainage filler for the bottom of the pots. I will explain more about this later.
After that was said and done, I mocked up the plants and figured out where I was going to put them. I ended up with an asparagus fern, a western sword fern, two small rubber trees, three dracaena of different variety, and a huge beautiful guzmania bromeliad. I repotted all of these with organic soil after washing out the roots well. All leaves and structures were also sprayed down. I potted them in the same pots that I incorporated into the walls, so they just slip in and can be easily removed.
After all is said and done, there are a few different temperature gradients in there, from 85-90 right under his heat lamp, to 70 in the lower shady section of the cage, but holy humidity batman. The cage sits 80% humidity just about all the time. Mistings bring it up to 95-100% super fast. I haven't seen it drop below 70% at all. Not once. They weren't joking about the clear side cages holding in the humidity. Might be the NINE large plants too...
I also plumbed a drain into the drip tray and added a wedge to the left side under the stand, just enough that you can't see the tilt, but water now runs downhill to the drain and makes it's way to a bucket in the stand. I included a ball valve so the drain can be turned off while dumping the bucket.
I ended up letting him jump in there as I was repotting his plants. He has very cautious at first, like he anticipated some kind of predator to be in there. That makes me feel good if he thinks the cage is so huge that he's actually in the wild. He's not a small panther, and he is tiny compared to the size of this monster cage. He soon got acclimated and climbed all the branches and vines and scaled right up the foam. He's rather adventurous, he also still likes to climb up the ceiling also.
Last night was his first full night in the new place, and he was a beautiful combination of pastel pink/orange and buttercup yellow. I like to think that those were his happy pajamas.
Next stop: Automated dripper system.
Thanks all for your support, PLEASE feel free to recommend changes in my schedule or ask any questions pertaining to the gear I have mentioned here. I will include some pics of the process and setup.
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Last edited:
absolutbill
Chameleon Enthusiast
Your cage looks great!!! I was nervous about the night light until I read your description, so having it on for an hour to transition him is just fine and dandy (and looks really cool to boot!). You should be very proud about what you have accomplished so far and how beautifully you have helped your cham turn out.
opheliaeatsbugs
Avid Member
Wow. I'm speechless. It looks amazing - I want to live there hehe. I am having some serious inadequacy issues with Ophelia's enclosure right now...
You have done a spectacular job!!
You have done a spectacular job!!
Peachypink
Chameleon Enthusiast
What is your thoughts on using the foam? I've been leery of it because it seems so permanent and because I paid SO MUCH for my large atrium I don't want to mess it up with something sticky and permanent.
Peachypink
Chameleon Enthusiast
I used to have a hermans tortoise! I loved that little guy! But when we moved, I had to give him up and a friend took him.
Peachypink
Chameleon Enthusiast
I'm also curious, where did you get your branches? AND, lol, did you leave the bottoms of the pots open without foam for drainage?
Angelwolf
Chameleon Enthusiast
Ya. You never finished explaining the pot setup.
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