***The Third Official Enclosure Picture Thread***

Decadancin

Moderatoris Americanus
Staff member
Once again it is time to inspire those who want to get creative and be innovative with their enclosures! We have two other threads dedicated to enclosures, but I think it is important that we showcase how the hobby has continued to evolve in recent times. Show us your updated, original, bio-active, free-range, outdoor and greenhouse, cabinet-conversion, custom built, breeder, and any other high quality enclosures. Please share the equipment, plants, drainage, etc. that you chose and help others to improve their own projects!!!

Let’s see some great enclosures!!!
 
You know I can't resist a good enclosure thread!! :D

~4.5 month old bioactive enclosure, for a female veiled chameleon. :love:

Enclosure: 36x18x36 ExoTerra. Front glass doors have been replaced by a screen panel for better airflow (mostly because I dropped/shattered a door :oops:)

Lighting: x2 HLG 65 quantum boards, suspended 8" off the top, as well as a 36" 5.0 UVB.

Plant List (in no particular order):
  • Small leaf Virginia creeper (sugar vine)
  • Peace lily
  • "wintergreen" club moss (Selaginella kraussiana)
  • Fittonia nerve plant
  • varigated creeping fig
  • creeping fig
  • Various mosses (locally foraged)
  • various airplants (tillandsia sp.)
  • fluffy ruffles boston fern
  • macodes sanderiana (jewel orchid)
  • macodes petola (jewel orchid)
  • Brazil philodendron
  • neon philodendron
  • lipstick vine (Aeschynanthus sp.)
  • flaming sword bromeliad
  • Neoregalia chiquita Linda
  • neoregalia Fireball
  • neoregalia gorion
  • Purple wandering jew
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Blueprint for my layers and drainage:

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Drainage access pipe:

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And, of course, the cutie who lives there!

20200121_183918.jpg
 
You know I can't resist a good enclosure thread!! :D

~4.5 month old bioactive enclosure, for a female veiled chameleon. :love:

Enclosure: 36x18x36 ExoTerra. Front glass doors have been replaced by a screen panel for better airflow (mostly because I dropped/shattered a door :oops:)

Lighting: x2 HLG 65 quantum boards, suspended 8" off the top, as well as a 36" 5.0 UVB.

Plant List (in no particular order):
  • Small leaf Virginia creeper (sugar vine)
  • Peace lily
  • "wintergreen" club moss (Selaginella kraussiana)
  • Fittonia nerve plant
  • varigated creeping fig
  • creeping fig
  • Various mosses (locally foraged)
  • various airplants (tillandsia sp.)
  • fluffy ruffles boston fern
  • macodes sanderiana (jewel orchid)
  • macodes petola (jewel orchid)
  • Brazil philodendron
  • neon philodendron
  • lipstick vine (Aeschynanthus sp.)
  • flaming sword bromeliad
  • Neoregalia chiquita Linda
  • neoregalia Fireball
  • neoregalia gorion
  • Purple wandering jew
View attachment 256781

View attachment 256782

View attachment 256783

Blueprint for my layers and drainage:

View attachment 256784

Drainage access pipe:

View attachment 256785

And, of course, the cutie who lives there!

View attachment 256786

Nice!!! Does your girl tend to eat foliage?
 
Nice!!! Does your girl tend to eat foliage?

Thank you! :D

Kismet has taken exactly 3 bites of her plants, and it's all been limited to her philodendrons (which are about equivalent to pothos). She's been very polite so far, but if she starts getting adventurous I may have to redesign the enclosure. Everything in there is safe (or at least, not outright toxic), so I'm not terribly worried yet! If she becomes a voracious veggie fiend, I'll see if I can make something pretty using only nutritious, edible plants.
 
Hi all! I’ve been silently watching threads and building my husbandry knowledge over the past few months. I started a custom build in the fall and it has been empty until a few weeks ago when I decided to add a new friend to occupy it!

The enclosure is 3’x2’x5’. Has a sealed drainage tray below that I can just remove and dump. I know it can probably use some more foliage, banking on the pothos growing out more and currently trying to revive the ficus before I purchase anything else for it. Thought I would share, always open to suggestions for improvement! I added pics of the new guy in it as well, courtesy of Matt.
 

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You know I can't resist a good enclosure thread!! :D

~4.5 month old bioactive enclosure, for a female veiled chameleon. :love:

Enclosure: 36x18x36 ExoTerra. Front glass doors have been replaced by a screen panel for better airflow (mostly because I dropped/shattered a door :oops:)

Lighting: x2 HLG 65 quantum boards, suspended 8" off the top, as well as a 36" 5.0 UVB.

Plant List (in no particular order):
  • Small leaf Virginia creeper (sugar vine)
  • Peace lily
  • "wintergreen" club moss (Selaginella kraussiana)
  • Fittonia nerve plant
  • varigated creeping fig
  • creeping fig
  • Various mosses (locally foraged)
  • various airplants (tillandsia sp.)
  • fluffy ruffles boston fern
  • macodes sanderiana (jewel orchid)
  • macodes petola (jewel orchid)
  • Brazil philodendron
  • neon philodendron
  • lipstick vine (Aeschynanthus sp.)
  • flaming sword bromeliad
  • Neoregalia chiquita Linda
  • neoregalia Fireball
  • neoregalia gorion
  • Purple wandering jew
View attachment 256781

View attachment 256782

View attachment 256783

Blueprint for my layers and drainage:

View attachment 256784

Drainage access pipe:

View attachment 256785

And, of course, the cutie who lives there!

View attachment 256786
That is such a beautiful enclosure! I'm just curious; are peace lily plants safe for chams? I have a peace lily as well, but when I searched if they are safe it said no. If they are safe I would love to put one in my chams enclosure as well, it looks stunning.
 
That is such a beautiful enclosure! I'm just curious; are peace lily plants safe for chams? I have a peace lily as well, but when I searched if they are safe it said no. If they are safe I would love to put one in my chams enclosure as well, it looks stunning.

Hi, sorry, I don't come by the forum very often these days! What kind of cham do you have? If you have a panther, you can really use whatever (within reason, of course). Veiled are more prone to sampling!

"Safe" is a relative term. Peace lilies are not true lilies, and the thing that gets them labelled as toxic is the concentration of oxalate crystals. This is the same stuff that makes pothos, a favorite in the hobby, "toxic". True lilies, such as Easter lilies and tiger lilies, are very poisonous to cats (and to a lesser extent, dogs) and I'd avoid them. This is a common mixup!

Toxicity in reptiles isn't well understood. I use bird safe plants, and cross reference with the Pet Poison Helpline to figure out the exact reason something is considered unsafe. If it's oxalate crystals, I don't hesitate to use it. If it has irritating sap or an actual toxin or something, then I won't.
 
I just thought I would share a picture of my Jackson's cage to help inspire others to try to re-create a natural environment!

The cage is 24W X 18D X 36H for a female Jacksons. The branches are from a large (nontoxic) shrub in my backyard that needed to be cut back. I cut them to size and intertwined them with some other horizontal pieces to create a interconnected branch network throughout the entire cage. I used fishing wire to connect everything. I have a branch parallel with the linear UVB, another under the heat lamp, a horizontal branch tucked into the back that provides the best possible privacy, and two more branches near the front to help connect everything together and provide a place to attach the feeder cups.

Plants include a golden pothos on the left, a fig tree on the right, two asparagus ferns and a tiny watermelon vine. As a note, asparagus ferns need wet soil, so they are a great choice for putting under the sprayer. The leaves hold water really well. Jacksons don't eat vegetation, so I don't know how they hold up to a hungry Veiled. These plants are either hung from a piece of wood across the top of the cage or tied to the branches, again with fishing wire.

Cheers cham community!
MrsJackson.jpg
 
I just trimmed mine back, so they look a little sparse. Will grow back in super quick.

We didnt build our own enclosure, but did build a custom base. The bases add an extra 2’ of height, drainage, and substrate. We put Dragonstrand Atriums on top. We have 2 finished, 4 more to build. :oops:

View attachment 257117View attachment 257121View attachment 257123View attachment 257124

Oops - should've clarified... the 2nd pic is first planted... the 4th pic is after a few months of growth AND after cutting it back. Its back up to the ceiling again.
 
So.... I got a little bored with Millie's cage and decided she needed an upgrade. It's not done yet but here is what I have so far.

We have a Tech center in the kitchen that doesn't really get used and mostly just accumulates junk. So I am using that for her Ex-closure.

I am building a trough type feeder that will be covered in foam and painted, as well as building a foam mold to put all the plants in. I will definitely add pics as I get more done
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How would something like this end up working if you were to break off the glass, replace with screen, place a screen between the chameleon enclosure and the light to prevent touching, and install a misting system?
The wood obviously would be treated to prevent molding. I was also considering lining the wood with acrylic to prevent anything from happening to it.
I'm a big fan of decorative enclosures and if this were to work it would just be gorgeous. It's 30x30x70
View attachment 266740
 
You know I can't resist a good enclosure thread!! :D

~4.5 month old bioactive enclosure, for a female veiled chameleon. :love:

Enclosure: 36x18x36 ExoTerra. Front glass doors have been replaced by a screen panel for better airflow (mostly because I dropped/shattered a door :oops:)

Lighting: x2 HLG 65 quantum boards, suspended 8" off the top, as well as a 36" 5.0 UVB.

Plant List (in no particular order):
  • Small leaf Virginia creeper (sugar vine)
  • Peace lily
  • "wintergreen" club moss (Selaginella kraussiana)
  • Fittonia nerve plant
  • varigated creeping fig
  • creeping fig
  • Various mosses (locally foraged)
  • various airplants (tillandsia sp.)
  • fluffy ruffles boston fern
  • macodes sanderiana (jewel orchid)
  • macodes petola (jewel orchid)
  • Brazil philodendron
  • neon philodendron
  • lipstick vine (Aeschynanthus sp.)
  • flaming sword bromeliad
  • Neoregalia chiquita Linda
  • neoregalia Fireball
  • neoregalia gorion
  • Purple wandering jew
View attachment 256781

View attachment 256782

View attachment 256783

Blueprint for my layers and drainage:

View attachment 256784

Drainage access pipe:

View attachment 256785

And, of course, the cutie who lives there!

View attachment 256786
How long did it take for you to build this? I'm getting my cham in September and i'm going to start building my enclosure in about a month, im doing a lot of research at the moment to get ready for a bioactive. I plan on having it set up for a few weeks so i can get the hang of a bioactive before getting a cham and being stressed about both at once lol.
 
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