Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hi all,
im gonna acquire a cham soon and I am righ now faced with two choices concerning its future cage...

1)buy a metal fenced cage originally made for birds ; its 70 cm(28" long and high and 40cm(16" wide...Now i know that's not high enough so i'm planning to cut the top of the cage and add an height extension made with 5mm/0.2 inch wide plastic fencing...I also have the possibility of using aluminium anti-mosquito screen which is just about 2 or 3 mm wide...
Which would be the best?
This is crucial, i really appreciate any info concerning the eternal screen problem...

The good points are that the cage is cheap (45euros/50$), well built and bears a full plastic bottom with pull-able trays perfect for storing excess water from the mist system and to keep feces and any other organic material right at the bottom of the cage, about 10 cm away from the nearest place the cham will be able to go...

The bad points is that the fencing is made with mainly horizontal wire kinda like this :
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which undoubtably will let small and medium criquets through, not locusts though...Now since i have the cage in my sleeping room i was nonetheless planning to feed the beast with locusts and/or cockroaches instead of criquets because of their inevitable noise problem...Am i correct up to here?
Do you see anyother possible bad points?

2)make my own cage using a wooden structure like the one on this page : http://www.amphibiancare.com/frogs/chamcage.html except since i dont have access to those aluminium windows i will be using either the precedently mentionned screens, the plastic .2" or the aluminium .1"... fixed using a stapple gun...

Good points are that its cheap,built to my exact desires and makes my hands do something productive...

The bad ones are that its tricky to build, i need a waterproof bottom to receive excess water from the misting and i dont see how i could build a reliable one...Apart from that theres also the fact that esthically the screens available are not as attractive as the rather aerated bird cage screen layout as far as see-thru goes....

OK i know im leaning towards the cage but thats because im a lazy bum...

One last thing , some breeder had this sentence on its site

"Jackson do not have the attitude veileds have, and once trust is established, Jacksons will take food directly from you hand."

can anyone relate?I mean is there like a big bad boy attitude inherent to veiled?Are jacksoniis harder to keep?

Thanks for any feedback/opinions, especially concerning the screen and insect questions...

AYA

Yeah decoration is crucial!
What kind of mesh did you use for your wooden cage?
Thx!

if you want a cham that you can take out of the cage without even coming close to being hurt i'd go witha jacksons. jacksons are very shy and dont like t be held but they will almost never bite you unless you put your finger it its mouth.

veileds on the other hand have been know to try to bite and they hiss and get mad at you. but that is not all of them some are nice.

Ha well i didnt know that, thanks a lot for clearing that up!
I'll see into the price difference...

thanks for the help...and what about the cage, what do you think about the possibilities i have?

THX

well i like the reptariums which you can get on ebay for about $30 less than store price.

For a jaxs the minimum is a 38 gallon reptarium or if you build your own 30"X18"X18" (bigger is better)

since a veild gets twice as bigg as a jacksons i'd go with a 65 gallion reptarium. 36"X36"X24" if you build your own (that is a little bigger than the minimum but that is the size i'd go with)

I had my jax in a 3.5ft tall by 2.5ft deep by 3ft wide....i had trouble filling that with enough plants and then crickets excaped everywhere and it was a mess.....so i would buy a cage.

Oh suposidly veileds can endure higher temps(up to 100 F) but jacksons can endure lower temps (down to 45 F if alowed to warm up i nthe morning)

I thought my jacksons was very easy to care for once i got the hang of it....but then i fed him slugs....they eventually killed him so STICK TO CAPTIVE RAISED BUGS!!!