Well, after a whole ton of work I finally finished building a trough for my new flavi, who I picked up over the weekend. I live in New York and so to pick up the trough I had to drive down to Pennsylvania on Saturday. I had to settle on a 6X2X2 model as it was the largest one I could transport back to New York. I followed the instructions that were laid out by another member here a few months ago, I don't remember who it was but that guide to building was invaluable to me! The one part about it that was extremely difficult for me was cutting the 1/4 inch acrylic (I had to settle on acrylic as all of the stores around here only sell the 1/8 inch lexan). None of the local hardware, lumber, or glass stores were willing to cut it for me so I had to do the whole thing using a handsaw...all told about 4 hours of cutting.

Anyhow, the cage size is not ideal, I had hoped to put her in an 8X3X2 model (unfortunately was too large to transport back to NY), but I suppose this will work for the Fall until I move in January to a better location. Now, this is the part where I could use advice from anyone experienced with these monitors. She's been kept on newspaper for the last 3 years, and is now 5 years old. She was also fed a lot of catfood, which I feel has left her somewhat overweight and sluggish. What can I do to remedy these situations? Since she's arrived I've offered her one meal of small F/T mice, and I feel that the situation could be helped by adding at least one more light to enlarge her basking spot, as a lot of heat will likely help get her energy up. I mention the newspaper because, without the opportunity to dig, her nails have grown very long, almost forming full circles on some nails. Should I trim them to leave the sharp tips pointing out for digging? I had to settle for playsand to fill the trough as around here, the dirt is completely unsuitable for digging, a far cry from the arid soil of the Southwest, where most of the flavi keepers seem to be. I'm planning on adding some basking stacks tomorrow, so please forgive the bareness of the cage at the moment as I only completed it yesterday.

Any input, advice, or constructive criticism is welcome, thanks,

Evelyn

P.S.
I keep referring to her as "she" because the guy who bred her told the guy I purchased her from that she was female. Input on her sex is welcome!

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