Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I'm flirting with the idea of building a large outdoor enclosure that I saw here:
http://www.chameleonnews.com/diy_outdoor.html

The problem is, where I live (in the Florida Keys) we have tons of ants. The design for this cage is floorless, so Im trying to think of ways to keep the ants out and any food insects in. Sure, I could incorporate a floor, but Im tryin to stick to the given design. Plus, I want it to be relatively easy to take apart, in case of a hurricane or something like that. I feel like adding a floor will make that more difficult to acheive.

As for the cages potential inhabitants, ideally I want to use the cage to breed some of the less commonly CB chams. Given the climate of the Keys, (real hot, real humid) what do you all think might be a good candidate? I wanted a live bearing cham, but the majority of them wouldnt handle the climate too well. I was thinking a species from, say, Madagascar.

Any comments/suggestions are appreciated. thanks.

You can put the cage on legs and then put the legs in oil. Or even put the cages on a table and do the same with the table legs. As far as species goes I would start with rare panther like N mitsio (which I have by the way) or Oorana Mena which I will have with a little luck. Also furcifer lateralis (carpet ) would do well and are hardy when captive bred. If I lived where you do I would be surrounded many sun loving chameleons the only problem I see is the weather. you could lose everything with one bad storm. If you wish to continue this conversation you can contact me at. chameleondean@yahoo.com.

Here is a set up of a fellow Floridian, link below. A little bigger than what I think you want to use but all the principals are there for you to scale down. IMO if you want a more rarer CB animal that will handle the higher temps with ease, go with an Oustalot or Verracousus. You see them a lot as WC but not too often offered as CB. Plus, they are fairly cheap, even as CB animals and would do excellent in a cage set up similar to the one below and are big. Of course, the more rare Panther locals are another choice but I wouldn't totally rule out all Montaine live bearing species from the list either. As long as you have plenty of shade and plenty of water they can do well.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I4vQuB-o2Is

Thanks for the replies everyone.

Dean, Wow! Those are some amazing chams. I was also thinking about the oil thing, but Im not too sure how exactly to incorporate it into a walk-in type of cage. I also want the cage to be relatively easy to knock down. As you have noticed, we do get the occasional hurricane from time to time. I'm out of the country right now, but when I return in October and get the cage up and runnning, I may be interested in one of your little guys if they are still available.

Thanks for the link. Thats a really cool cage. I think Im going to hi-jack that person's idea of sinking the solid bottoms of the sides into the ground. Then maybe I can run some sort of moat around the enclosure. Or put two sided tape along the sides. I dont know.

Any ideas on making the cage more or less self suffcient, especially as far as hunting prey is concerned. I dont know if that could work, but i think it would be real cool. It might prove too difficult to monitor food intake and such, though. I would worry about the prey overwhelming a cham as well.

Finally, the cage in the link I originally posted is about 12 feet long. Do you think it would be possible to house multiple chams (same species) in such a large enclosure? I realize that this is frowned upon, and even dangerous in smaller enclosures, but could it work if chams were given adequate space? Of course there would be a huge amount of visual barriers and the like. Just curious.

Thanks again for all the knowledge!

I am looking/reading the posts here as interested in chamaleons and not sure which tupe best for first one.

I wanted to add I live in Miami and have seen wild chamaleons further north .
I am going to say they were Jacksons but could be wrong.

Either way the oil method someone here gave you is great its fool proof .
I have finch cages in backyard patio and use same method on cage legs not 1 ant or anything else has ever made it .
You can even smear vaseline on can bottom if you prefer to keep oil clean as that in itself prevents them from moving further but ofcourse keep oil in cans,etc.