Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I have a 65 gallon mesh cage for my very first JAckson's Chameleon. I need to decorate it in the next few days and wanted bounce a few ideas off you guys.

Can I buy vines and such from Michael's (craft store)? The fake stuff at pet stores seems so expensive. I think the vines and such at Michael's would be much cheaper.

I assume I need to position my heat lamp in a corner on the inside of the cage. Correct? Wattage? Red lamp or what?

Substrate? I know he will be in the vines and branches most of the time. What would be best for him? What kind of a mister cycle do they need?

Thanks all for the help.

Tortuga

Hi Tortuga,

If the vines are appropriately-sized and don't have any varnish or anything on them, then you could use them. You can also use sisal rope, that's what my husband and I used in our veiled chameleon's cage.

Substrate is not usually recommended for chameleons. Our mister goes off three times a day, we use a Rainmaker Junior and it is set to go for one minute each time. We will probably lengthen those times a bit, tho (like maybe to 2 minutes) because he seems pretty thirsty by the time the mister goes off.

Because chameleons bask from top to bottom, the basking light should be positioned above the cage. I think 100W might be your best bet, but you might need to experiment with different wattages until you get the basking area in the right temperature range.

Hope this helps!

Julie, Justin and Frasier the Veiled.

That helps alot, thanks!

What are the basking temps supposed to be though?

Thanks

Tortuga

You need to do some detailed reading about jax to set this up properly. Go to these sites for info.

www.adcham.com, www.chameleonnews.com, www.chameleonjournals.com, www.chamresearch.com, and www.geocities.com/ccicenter

They should answer most of your questions. I didn't hear you mention a UVB light. You MUST have this in addition to the heat spot. The safest UV bulb to use for a jax would be the ReptiSun 5.0. Many other brands claim they emit UVB but they don't.

Thanks!