Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Does anyone know who sells this type of enclosure? There was a guy who had a website but it is no longer up. Thanks.

I don't know if they ever took off. Most of the cham people realize they could create an open enclosure for chams on their own that actually offered more space and microclimates.

Do you know of any literature online that shows easy ways of doing this?

My husband and I wrote an article for chameleonnews.com about how we built our free range. It's not the easiest way maybe, but it might give you some ideas.
http://www.chameleonnews.com/?page=article&id=121

There are a couple of "free range" idea on chameleonnews. Search through the previous issues for ideas. It's not all that difficult. Basically you create a clump of potted trees for the habitat, protect the floor from water, hang lights overhead, and once the cham gets used to the space they tend to stay there. But, to be safe you should plan on confining the cham's roaming to a safe part of a room or shut the door.

Thanks for the ideas. I will look into this. I would still like to find one of those "turnkey" (almost) wall-less enclosures. Thanks again.

Quite honestly I never really trusted those "wall-less" chameleon enclosures that used to be out there on the market. The ones that looked like some kind of space-aged hanging plant basket. Although they don't do it often chameleons can jump and I always figured that they would do just that with those things. Of course the fact that I keep lizard eating dogs tends to change my perspective on things not to mention that I build my own cages and can build something way better that you could ever buy comercially. Which brings me to my next point, if you give it a good amount of thought first you can come up with something on your own that will not only work but will be much better than anything you can buy. If you are worried about possibly not being handy with building things give it a try anyway. When I started working on enclosures I knew less than nothing about working with wood or power tools and less about hand tools which are harder to work with than power tools and a common source of people failing to gain woodworking skills (old, dull, poor- quality handsaws are not the right way to start trying to cut wood-buy or borrow a circular saw.) Now I am quite good at it and am starting work on some timber framed outdoor chameleon cages. Just think about what you want to do, try and come up with an idea on how to put it together and go slowly from there. Check out as many of those ideas for free range cages mentioned that you can find and go from there.

Again, I think those of us who were interested in trying the "turnkey" version found out that we could easily create something better, larger, and spend less $$. Most chams will want more space that the wall-less enclosures provided and that there just weren't enough climbing surfaces, drinking surfaces, hiding areas, and range of microclimates that we could provide by doing something ourselves with a clump of potted trees, our own lights and misting systems. Some of us had kept chams years ago in hanging potted plants connected together around a window too which might have been how the idea got started.

Don't waste your time on that idea. Chameleons can and will jump off things and that was the biggest issue with the so-called "Chameleon Condo". You're better off with 4 walls of screen or a free range type set up if you have the ability to build things.

Ok. Thanks for all the tips. Will a 18 x 18 x 36 screen type be good enough for a jackson's or a panther?

That cage size will be MINIMAL. You'll have a harder time getting good bushy plants to fit it. Might work better for a jax.