Mark,

Several good points in your post.

Maybe a little description of the enclosure is warranted.

10' x 15' enclosure that is completely encircled by concrete slab. The walls are standard block walls 1 - 2' high (it's on a sligh slope, makes for good drainage) capped off with red bricks. I've tiled the upper 8" on the inside to insure the animals can not scale the walls. On the top of the bricks I've incorporated a dog fence to keep the dogs, racoons and cats out. For the top of the enclosure I'm creating a cover consisting of several panels with 1/2" galvenized screen that will lay flush on the bricks. Nothing should be able to get in, and nothing should be able to get out.

Location is in a Southern Cal. Urban housing track ~ 15miles from the Pacific. Full sun exposure all day. Temps are relatively mild due to being so near the ocean, but we do see 10-20 days of 95 /year. Because of that, I plan on providing shade cloth on ~ 1/3 of the enclosure.

Substrate....dug out the bottom 3-6" and trucked in granite sand to back fill 6". Mixed in a few bags of organic desert plan mix (no waste materials involved) as a fetilizer. I plan on covering that up with another inch or two of Play sand.

Cleaning....I'll watch it to see what's needed. No real plan in that department yet. I only have a couple of animals, so it shouldn't really be a problem.

Pesticides....that could be an issue as the neighbor in back does spray occasionally. Pretty sure I lost a couple of babies in 2004 due to that his spraying. If I see it happening, then the animals will come in for a week or two to allow all the contaminated insects to die out, meanwhile I will spray down the enclosure to dilute what ever may have drifted across the fence.

Mites/parasites/bacterial issues....hadn't thought of that. Hopefully the location along with the concrete slab will act as some sort of barrier. Still, will need to come up with some sort of protocol to insure sanitation in that area. And since I hibernate everything non-native inside, under controlled conditions, I'm not really worried about it being an issue during the winter.

Observation....the enclosure is just 3-4' from our kitchen window. We will be able to watch them while we do the dishes. Little motivation there. I also have 3 benches surrounding the enclosure, so I will be able to sit and view them at my leasure.

I like your idea of an elevated enclosure. May adopt that idea in my larger lizard pit.

Thanks,
Roger

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