Currently the cages are sealed with a minimum of two coats of water-based semi-gloss or high-gloss varnish, sanded between coats. A bead of clear silicone at all seams. The floor of the cage is Melamine-coated hardboard. That's sufficiently water-resistant for dry snakes like racers, coachwhips, garters, kings etc., but may not be enough for moisture-loving snakes like boas and Rough Greens, or for community lizards like anoles and skinks, both of which do best with moist substrate.

I plan to start laminating formica to a base (mdf or plywood) and using that to make the bottom, sides and back. That plus some silicone at the seams ought to make it all the waterproof I'll need. I've raised baby anoles and skinks in vented cages with sustained moisture in the soil, and I have an idea for old-world Chameleons. Right now, the hobby says the best solution to Chameleons' need for ventilation is to house them in all-screen cages. A lot of work goes into compensating for dryness when using the current chameleon cages. I have a design for an evaporative cooler-style humidifier to be mounted over the intake screen on a vented cage. That would humidify the cage, provide ample ventilation and allow for a basking light at the vented end. Chameleons and certain other tropical forest herps like it cool anyway, and the cool end of an evap-cooled cage would be in the upper 60s--perfect for things like Jackson's Chameleons. No space in the house at the moment for the chameleon experiment, and even more tight with baby Western coachwhips on the way (why did I do this to myself?), so it may be a while before we see results on humidified cages.

If it works with chameleons and Corkbark geckos, there is another humidity-loving herp to try...speckled racers. No idea where to get any just now but they might do OK in a cage like the one described. Young Indigos also--they like to be able to cool off.

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