Reddit reviews Zoo Med ReptiBreeze Open Air Screen Cage, Extra Large, 24 x 24 x 48-Inches

They need airflow, so they need a screen cage.

I've kept chameleons for almost 10 years, and I think I can give you at least a jumping off point to get started.

In my opinion, the biggest thing to put time and money into is the setup for the little guy. Having the proper enclosure, UVB lighting, heating, hydration, and positioning (in your home) is the single most important thing to have in place before you even start looking for the chameleon you want to buy. Panthers, in my experience, are somewhat more environmentally demanding than other generally "beginner friendly" chameleons like Veileds.

This shouldn't scare you at all. I want to make that clear. This is not a reply that is meant to discourage you from getting a chameleon, but rather to make sure that you have thought your way through the commitment you want to make. These are fairly demanding pets, and the last thing I want to happen is for you to spend 200+$ on a living work of art and then get into a losing battle trying to keep it healthy. I just went through that battle with a rescued veiled chameleon, and believe me it's not fun.

So long as you have prepared your chameleon's environment, you should have a nice and easy time keeping it hale and hearty.

A brief overview of what to expect when owning a panther can be found here

More in-depth details about setting yourself up can be found here

To give you a better idea about what I think you should look into, I'll give you a rundown of my personal setup for my female veiled chameleon. I've gone a bit above and beyond what the minimum is, but I cobbled all of this stuff together over about 3 years so that I could have a really nice enclosure and setup I can reuse over and over. I'll give you costs for my final setup and a few options you can use to save some money at the end here.

My personal setup for my current chameleon, a female veiled, is a screen-walled cage that is 2ftx2ftx5ft. It's difficult to find large cages that are at all economical to buy, so I built mine myself. I placed wooden dowels throughout the cage to provide a basic vertical structure, and a hanging ivy plant provides cover and extra structure as it grows throughout the enclosure.

I've placed the enclosure near a window that gets sun all morning, so I open the window to let the natural sun provide a nice basking area and plenty of ventilation during the day and close it at night when it gets cold.

On top of the cage, I have two halogen basking bulbs (incandescent filament bulbs die on me constantly, so this works better). One weaker bulb provides a concentrated basking spot at about 90^o on a dedicated basking "branch", and a stronger bulb provides a cage-wide gradient from about 78-85^o at the top down to about 65^o at the bottom. In addition to those, I have an Arcadia 12% UVB High Output T5 bulb and hood to give her the UVB she can't get past the morning.

I invested in a rainfall system by Exo-Terra to make sure hydration wasn't an issue.

With those points hit, I think my cage is a very solid environment for Pasquale to wander about in.

Here's the price breakdown on everything I have put into the enclosure:

Cage itself

• Building materials for the structure (wood, screws, glue, hinges, varnish, latch, screen) - 100$
  
• Internal structure - 10$
  
• Foliage - 20$ for the hanging plant
  
• Time - Priceless
  
  Heating
  
  
• Light hoods for the halogen bulbs - 50$
  
• Halogen bulbs (1x50W, 1x75W) - 15$
  
  Hydration
  
  
• Monsoon Rainfall System - 100$ (Christmas gift)
  
• Tubing to extend the range of the system - 3$
  
  UVB - MOST IMPORTANT
  
  
• Arcadia 12% UVB T5HO - 30$
  
• T5HO hood - 15$
  
  Total price for above and beyond cage setup ~ 320$
  
  You can save quite a bit of money on the lighting and hydration. Use 2$ 100W food heating bulbs ( USE CAUTION IF YOU DECIDE TO DO THIS make sure you cant catch anything on fire and make damn well sure that your chameleon has plenty of room to get out of the heat) or 8$ incandescent (non-reflector type are cheaper, reflected spotlight-type are usually 12-15$) pet basking bulbs, buy a 2$ spray bottle from walmart to hand-mist your enclosure or set up a drip system that constantly drips water through the screen onto your plant.
  
  The one thing I would say you MUST have above all else named above is a good UVB source. UVB lets reptiles synthesize vitamin D3. D3 is marginally responsible for mood stability and neurological health, but more importantly it enables the absorption of calcium into their bones. Chameleons cannot easily make use of ingested D3 from supplements or gut-loaded insects, so they must make their own using the UVB they are exposed to. Without a good source of UVB, they will develop what is essentially rickets. Their bones will become brittle and malleable, bending, fracturing, and then eventually freezing that way when they begin to get what they need. It's an awful condition that is very simple to avoid.
  
  The generally available/recommended Reptisun 5.0 or 10.0 bulbs are beyond awful. I make it a habit to get my lights tested by my vet before I install them to make sure they're outputting useful UVB, and without fail every Reptisun bulb I've tried has produced about as much UVB at 3" as standing in the middle of a dense forest on a very overcast day. The Arcadia bulbs are wonderful, often producing more UVB than a bright summer day at about 12-18" and are very much worth the 10$ (+shipping) higher price tag. They're quite difficult to find, and not available in any pet shop I have yet visited, so you'll have to get them online. I sourced my bulbs and my T5HO hood from here. Make sure you match your bulb to the hood size. I believe that reptile basics' 24" hood fits only the 22" bulbs, not the 24" ones.
  
  OK. So. There's your enclosure setup needs explained. Everything from here on is easy as pie.
  
  You will need to keep 3 basic things on hand at pretty much all times: food, supplements, and gut-load. All of them cost less than 10$ each.
  
  Choose a couple kinds of feeder insects (crickets, calciworms, mealworms, superworms, wax worms, butterworms etc) and keep a supply of them on hand at all times.
  
  
• Crickets need to be gut loaded a couple hours before you feed them and they tend to die off quickly, so they're gonna be the ones you buy quite often. Biggest advantage of these is that they're cheap and large ones only cost about 10-12c apiece at the very most.
  
  
• Mealworms and superworms can be kept on hand as an "oh shit I forgot to buy/can't afford food" food as well as a general mix food because they don't really require much maintenance. Prices range from $2.50 for 100 small ones to $6.00 for maybe 50 giants. Superworms especially can be a little more expensive than crickets, but they're still fairly cheap (at least at the shop I get them from) at around 15c/ea. Biggest advantage is that you can buy a zillion of them without having to worry about them dying. If they pupate, you can feed the pupae and even the beetles without issue. If they grow into beetles, there's even a chance they'll lay eggs. That just happened to me recently. Free food is nice.
  
  
• Calciworms are my current staple feeder of choice. They have, as the name implies, a lot of calcium in them. They turn into soldier flies (big-ass scary looking flies, but harmless), which Pasquale LOVES to eat.
  
  
• Wax worms and butterworms are usually pretty fast to pupate, turning into small moths that you can let flutter around the enclosure to be eaten at the chameleon's leisure. I personally find that annoying because they die soon after hatching from the pupa, so I don't often buy them.
  
  
• Hornworms are EXPENSIVE at $2.50-3 EACH!!!!, but are nice for when you want to give your chameleon a treat. Christmas/Thanksgiving dinner or a birthday present, for example.
  
  All in all, expect to spend about 10$ on food a month.
  
  Supplements are important to have around because they make up for the deficiencies of the food you'll bee giving your chameleon. They'll have calcium, phosphorus, vitamins, proteins, and other minerals your chameleon needs that it may or may not get from its food. If you're a master of gut-loading, you may eventually decide to just formulate a diet that covers everything they contain, but it's almost universally a good idea for a beginner to have supplements around. I currently use Zoo Med's Reptivite as my dusting supplement, and I quite like it. Be aware that it has a very very high phosphorus content and can be somewhat hazardous to overuse.

I see, the one you were likely looking at was the led deluxe. Zoo Med ReptiBreeze Open Air Screen Cage, Extra Large, 24 x 24 x 48-Inches https://www.amazon.com/dp/B001PHABI8/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_i_7RScBb7XZY2HD
That ones $100, pretty much the cheapest you'll find unless you build one

I can't see the animal clearly but I suspect it's not healthy. I would be leery.

Edit: Oh and those lights aren't the best for the cham's health. The tube bulbs are honestly the way to go. The cage looks to be a proper size for a veiled, they only really use the top 1/3 of the cage.


As to the value of the offer. Reptibreeze cage 24" x 24" x 48" is only $95 USD on Amazon. Proper lighting is about $30-40 from a hardware store and the T8 5.0 UVB bulbs are about $20.

Thanks for all the advice so far. It's been difficult not knowing where to look for guidance as newbies. However, my girlfriend and I are really committed to giving him a great home. It's sad we haven't been the best chameleon parents yet.
Financially, I cannot afford to spend a couple hundred tomorrow, but i can within the next week or so for sure. I would appreciate any tips about how to prioritize. What are your thoughts on this cage?https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B001PHABI8/ref=mp_s_a_1_4?ie=UTF8&qid=1484552202&sr=8-4&keywords=reptile+cage&dpPl=1&dpID=51%2BD-HmI2eL&ref=plSrch
I would like to get it tomorrow as i think a new habitat is the biggest priority right?
Also, since the new UVb bulb will be very hot at first, should I just keep his red light on him constantly for the next few days? Or should i introduce the incandescent bulb tomorrow and wait on the UVb still? I just want to do everything I can to prevent his eye getting worse while making sure he is warm enough. We keep him in a finished basement that rarely dips below 70.

Amazon sells reptibreeze. https://www.amazon.com/dp/B001PHABI8/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_awdb_t1_2FcaBbD2VJHJ2

If that is a mesh cage they are hard to see through and cleaning them are a pain. I'd suggest:
http://www.amazon.com/Zoo-Med-ReptiBreeze-Screen-48-Inches/dp/B001PHABI8/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1373590853&sr=8-1&keywords=reptibreeze+24x24x48

I really need a new enclosure for my chameleon. He is getting big very quickly and is outgrowing his current enclosure. I don't have a job, otherwise I would have gotten this a while ago. Poor little guy paces his cage all day.

Im not entirely sure but i believe it was dehydration. My mother thinks its her fault because she hasn't been spraying down her cage while im at school. As for what I use-

I just changed her heat bulb to a 75 watt reptile heat one

Humidity has been hard for the past few days, but i manage to get it past 60 atleast, and when im home i make sure to spray her enclosure down a lot.

As for the cage, its the X-large reptile screen cage from zoomed, https://www.amazon.com/Zoo-Med-ReptiBreeze-Screen-48-Inches/dp/B001PHABI8/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1541196742&sr=8-1&keywords=extra+large+reptile+screen+cage

She eats both dubias and crickets, she refuses to eat vegetables or fruit that i try to give her.

Her food is dusted with Repti-calcium WITH D3 from zoomed.

I currently cannot take her to a vet since its 6 pm for me right now, my mother and I don't believe she'll make it until tomorrow. Ill see if i can get to an emergency one. She's also slightly moving around more and more and has opened her right eye a few times.

Will post pics soon.

For the love Pete.

1. She shouldn’t be in a box. She needs to be a screened enclosure, something like this:
   https://www.amazon.com/Zoo-Med-ReptiBreeze-Screen-48-Inches/dp/B001PHABI8/ref=mp_s_a_1_2?keywords=reptibreeze&qid=1564186636&s=gateway&sr=8-2
   
2. If you’re actually giving her supplements like you say you are - you’re over dosing her on D3. You should have 2 kinds of calcium to dust with. One with D3 and one without. The one WITHOUT you should dust lightly with when you feed her every other day (if she’s an adult, which it looks like she is). You could probably do every other feeding. The one WITH D3 you should dust lightly with maybe twice a month, so bi weekly.
   
3. If you can’t at least making these changes and make them quickly, along with a visit to an exotic vet, give her to someone who can.

Here you are.


The pricing is dependant on the size you choose.