Too much space?

[MontyAndMelissa]

Can chameleons have too big a living space? I have a juvenile chameleon. I also have a fairly large gun cabinet that I would like to pull the back and sides off of and replace with screen to make a larger enclosure for her. Will this be too much space for her?

please exuse the mess. We're trying to move.

 

[absolutbill]

In my opinion (and you'll definitely get different ones on here), no, it's not too much space. I would be very careful to make sure she's got a good temperature gradiant, as well as her laying bin that she's got good access to, and I'd think about cup feeding her for awhile until she gets used to her space. Think about it, in the wild they aren't confined to a single small area - they have the ultimate free range. If you are really concerned about it, you could always put in a partition 1/2 way up the cabinet, and then remove it as she grows up, gradually giving her more and more space. My primary concern would be ensuring she was getting enough to eat, but by cup feeding her you can monitor that as well.

 

[MontyAndMelissa]

Do you think I could get away with just replacing the back? And possibly one of the front be glass panes? I don't know how hard the glass will be to remove, the back is already coming off.

 

[absolutbill]

It's going to depend on what kind of cham she is, and how well you can monitor/control the humidity. It will also depend on where you are moving to. If you still have a cage for her and are able to do it, I'd suggest making this a work in progress. Remove the back and a side as you had thought, and set up a plant, some lights and a mister, then check the humidity levels throughout the day for a few days. If you feel comfortable with the levels that you are getting for whatever type of cham she is then you can stop with just the 2 sides. If your humidity levels are creeping up too much then you'll have to remove another side. From an aesthetic point of view I prefer the front and both sides removed, but I just think that looks nice, ultimately it's going to come down to how much humidity it holds.

 

[MontyAndMelissa]

She is a veiled, and still young. I won't move her until she is an adult as I don't want to stress her out. I would probably have to remove the back and one of the front panes of glass. The sides are most of the support.

 

[absolutbill]

Could you put it next to a wall, and leave the side on that's next to the wall? Then you can remove the front and the side that's away from the wall? That will also help to protect your walls of your house from overspray from misting. Also, if you start when they are young and get your girl used to being handled then you won't have to wait to move her without stressing her out. Just a thought - I let my male veiled grow up without handling him, and he hated me for about 1 1/2 years. Now he will let me pick him up to take him out to his tree on the lanai without too much fuss. I wish that I had initiated the handling when he was younger so as not to have missed out on too much with him, but that's just my 2 cents.

 

[MontyAndMelissa]

Well, the sides are the support. It's like a rectangle of wood, with doors in the front and a thin piece of ply wood on the back. So if I removed a side, it would fall apart.

 

[Carlton]

Well, the sides are the support. It's like a rectangle of wood, with doors in the front and a thin piece of ply wood on the back. So if I removed a side, it would fall apart.

You could build a frame to hold it together...instead of the thin solid wood panel you'd end up with a wood frame with screen panels.

 

[MontyAndMelissa]

I could do that.