Reptile & Amphibian Forums

ive been reading up on chameleons and specifically the panthers quite a bit and ive decided for sure to give them a try , i want to go ahead and take care of all the housing needs beforehand though, the cages for sale are quite expensive so i was wondering if any of u experienced chameleon herpers are in the habit of constructing your own cages from wood/wire/mesh... any pointers would be great

Also any product recomendations for lighting/heating would be very helpful as well, i know they have specific uv needs and there are several reptiles bulbs/lights out there

thx alot -ryan

Hello,
My personal suggest for ease and cost effiency would be to go with the Reptariums, you can get them from www.lllreptile.com quite inexpensive and easy to assemble. I have all reptariums and love them. They are a mesh bag in the shape of a rectangle that slides over frame work made of PVC. They are put together in less than 5 mins. I would say that a 35gallon reptarium would be quite suitable unless you want it to be more of a specticle then you might choose the 65. I believe the 35 g is about $30. Also I use reptisun 10.0 UVB bulbs but that is not absolutely nessasary, certainly 5.0 would suffice. The difference is the penetration distance of the UVB 5.0 is about 10" while the 10.0 is about 20". As for heat with the reptariums and basking I use normal hood lights (the type witht he clamp and silver dome) they are availible at walmart for like $6 and i use a 75 watt normal lightbulb. The nice thing about that is that you can place the fixture and lightbulb right on the reptarium mesh with no worries of melting it... I know I have 10 currently setup with a few 4 ft strips of UVB (my mini tanning salon lol)

Hope this helps
Holler if you need more
Jason

I would agree with FRFGHTR9141, the ZooMed Reptisun 5.0 or 10.0 UVB bulb plus a heat light is the way I would go. I raise lots of Chameleons every year and that is all I use. For heat, I only use regular old light bulbs.

The size of cage that you need depends upon the size of Chameleon that you are going to get. The most common size Panthers available are young ones about 2 1/2 to 4 months old. These Chameleons would only be about 4 to 5 inches long overall Chameleons this size would get lost in a large cage so you would want to have a smaller cage for them so they can be near their food and find it easier. Something about like a 38 gallon reptarium or a 18"x 18" x 36" all screen cage.

I would recommend LLLReptile for finding a cage and also the UVB bulbs they have weekly specials and also super sales for everything you will need.

Also, there we're some really good posting on building the all screen cages about a month ago so I would search the forum if you are really interested in going that direction. Good luck.

np

Just a photo of some cages.

If you look in the gallery for photos by Adam, under the user name of AnkInc you'll find some great photos to think about if you decide to design your cage.

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CANADIAN CHAMELEONS