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Posted by iwana on April 29, 2003 at 19:25:29:
In Reply to: Building a new cage soon. Need advice/suggestions/comments posted by Jack31081 on April 29, 2003 at 18:44:16:
We're right in the middle of building a wooden screened cage for our veiled chameleon. Join the club! :-)
Only really useful suggestion I can offer at this point is something we used with his old cage that really worked well to waterproof the floor and make it very easy to clean. We used clear self-adhesive vinyl. It's very easy to apply and surprisingly, looks nice too and much easier than sanding and coating the wood. It is also surprisingly resiliant (we were initially worried it was going to tear within a week), but do make sure you get the thick stuff (the kind recommended for covering shelves, tables, etc.) and not the thin stuff used for arts & crafts.
Hope this helps! Good luck with your project and please let us see the end result! :-)
Julie and Justin
:After a number of months with my current veiled's cage I decided that I need a better solution. The PVC cage I have now does not allow for easy cleaning at all and it's a real hassle, so I'm just gonna start over from scratch. Here is everything I'm taking into consideration:
:Size: Probably going to be 30x30x40. Is this big enough for an adult male veiled? He's about 16 inches tip to tail.
:Materials: I'd like to go with a wood cage this time, made from panels that can be easily disassembled for transport. My idea is to have plastic coated hardware cloth sides framed w/ wood, like a big picture frame. The back wall will likely be solid wood.
:Access: It'd be nice to build it with double doors on the front that open up and give me full access to the full height of the cage. There will be some kind of latch so he can't open it himself, obviously.
:Drainage/Cleaning: This is where I could really use some help. I want to be able to very easily clean out the bottom of the cage, so I'm thinking of making the bottom out of solid wood as well. But then drainage is an issue. So I was thinking perhaps building the bottom at an angle towards one corner and drilling a drain hole, but then there are a lot of complicated angles that come into play when cutting the wood for the sides and such. Another idea is to build the cage so that it sits atop a cement mixing tub or some other tub type thing that I can buy at Home Depot...something with a 'low point' for the water to travel to.
:
:Well, that's my idea as of right now. I'd greatly appreciate any advice or suggestions from those who have built their own wooden cages. Also, what would I be able to coat the wood with to make it waterproof and at the same time safe for my cham?
