use a plastic mesh for the screen, gonna cost about 19bucks a roll. Use a plain old pine for the wood, umm live plants, ficus, and umbrella plants....anytype of ferns will work and yes sp is a great humidifier for them, my custom reptarium is 2ft thick of moss on the bottom. get lots of vines, fake ivy, anything green they love the chamo :lol:
Meow, that's a beautiful Nosy Be Blue! So many people over here call greens "blues" it really hard to find one anywhere near as nice as yours =0) Advent, I'd probably use aluminum screen so the crickets can't chew holes through it. I use hibiscus and ficus mostly but will use anything rally that can support their weight and offer good coverage to make the cham feel secure. I also add some nice, pre-treated wild caught branches. I'd also include heavy duty 3" or 4" swivle caster so it's easy to move the cage around and use some plywood or extra cross supports in the frame to support the potted plants, the later being preferred. With wheels, you can roll the cage outside for some natural sunlight when the temps are good enough and also be able to hose it out, making cleaning a lot easier. With an open bottom cage, I use cheap ($0.90 per foot) clear plastic carpet runners from Home Depot to place under the cage to protect the carpets from feces or water. Personally, I wouldn't bother with rocks, moss, or even the water fall in the bottom. Set up a dripper over one of the plants and use a misting bottle to provide water inside the house. On days the cage is outside, make it rain with a sprinkler for 30 minutes or so. One thing about using live plants with chameleons... if your plants stay nice and green you're providing enough UV and water for the cham in most cases. FWIW, I recently noticed an add for ZooMed 10.0 bulbs that would be worth checking into. I haven't read up on them yet but with the proven record of the 5.0, it's probably a great bulb. These are some 2 x 2 x 4 cages I made for keeping chameleons and uroplatus in. Casters are great!
Something else to add regarding the screen.. I'd go with the plastic too if you aren't concerned with cricket escapes. It's a lot easier on the chameleon's feet than any type of wire but it ins't available in a fine mesh that will keep crickets in. Also, you can buy spruce for the same price as pine and it's less sappy and softer so it doesn't split as easily when screwing it together. It's also a lot easy to staple the screen to than pine. When selecting your pieces, try to find clean board with few knots and sight down 2 sides and pick the straightest boards you can find. You'll probably go through 5 to 6 crappy boards for every decent one you find but believe me, it's worth the effot when you start constructing the cage to have nice straight pieces. To sight the boards, just set one end on the floor and hold the other end up so you can see down the length of the boeard. If the side looks nice and straight, rotate the board 90 degrees to check the other side. I like 2 x 2s for contruction. It's light weight but strong and thick enough to give you good screw holding power and support a door.
Thanks for the advice. Alright, for the cage I was going to go with something like green god's cage that he posted in the "building veiled cages" topic. Only I think I might put wheels on the bottom. I guess I won't put a waterfall or rocks in the cage. I'd want to make it as easy as possible for cleaning. For feeding, is it best to let crickets roam freely, or take off their legs and keep them in a bowl at the bottom of the cage? And also, I'm a bit confused about size of the holes in the screen. Are they small holes or larger ones? I couldnt really tell what you were talking about with cricket escapes. (like they could crawl through the holes, or eat through it?) I've build a TON of stuff out of wood. So i'll be fine with the accual building part. Thanks. -Advent I'm going to draw up a plan in MS Paint for you guys to see.
"P" = Plant The green/brown thing is a wood-shade giver thing, it will be close to the ground like that, and the cham might like to sleep under that for darkness and more cover or something, kindof a sleeping hut. There will probly be fake vines outlining the wood inside the cage. How does it look? -Advent
Crickets/holes.... the answer is both. Mesh size in the plastic rolls is usually 1/2" squares. For the aluminum screen, it's like window screen with 1/16" or 3/32" openings. The crickets won't be able to eat through the aliminum screen, but they can eat through regular window screen which is made from nylon I think. Obviously, using the plastic with a 1/2" hole, they will be able crawl right through the mesh opening. I use 60 qt Rubbermaid tubs in the bottom of the cage to toss crickets in or hang 2 gallon buckets on the side of the cage. It's easy enough to rig a branch, rope, or vine to go down inside the bucket or tub to give smaller chams access to the crickets. Adults have no problem at all shooting crickets from the rims. The design looks ok to me but I like a full size door on the front to give better access to the inside. The igs were just used for a size ref and do not use these small cages...
Alright cool, what screen size is that? Do you think I should use aluminum? You can see through it easier, but it's hard on the chams feet.. I think I am going to keep a tub of crickets in the bottom, because it would be crazy trying to pick them out at night. Thanks, -Advent
That's 1/2" mesh. If you use that I'd go with plastic instead of the metal. Looking at the pic of the cages on the patio a few posts up, the black ones are the plastic. Use losts of plants too.... I can't find a picture showing the whole cage with the plants but here's a few to give you an idea of how much cover a few good plants can provide. The top photo is a Tamatave and the bottom is a Ambilobe.
