Posted by:
jeffharding
at Wed Oct 10 12:30:49 2007 [ Email Message ] [ Show All Posts by jeffharding ]
This is a repost from the end of my other post. BTW, he is eating again, I went back to mice and he mauled them!
I just wanted to run my cage idea by you guys. 3 sections, base, cage and hood. Base is a 6'long x 3'Wide x 2'deep metal round end stock tank framed and put on casters. This has 2 feet of top soil/sand/vermiculite mixture at a 50/25/25 ratio. The middle part is the cage that is 6'long x 3'wide x 4' tall. Framed in wood with acrylic front sliding door and sides and laminate back. On top of that is a hood that is 6' long x 3' wide x 1' tall to house the lighting. This will be framed in wood with laminate panels and a wire grating for the bottom.
Questions include:
-What kind of lighting and heating setup should I implement?
-4ft too tall for monitor? I plan on putting ledges and branches in there for him
Response from HH-
I like the idea of framing a stock tank & putting casters on it. I would still put some kind of protection between the wood frame & tank.
If your sav is a female the 6ft tank would probably do, but if it's a male that gets to be 4 1/2 - 5ft long, I'd be concerned if it was big enough when your sav is full grown. The cage I'm building is only a 6(L) x 4(W) but it's a temporary cage that I plan on modifying later for something else. If you start a new thread you might want to ask if people think that's a good size or not.
The middle part is kinda high at 4ft tall but you could make it work with additional levels like you mentioned. My main concern is housing all lights within the hood. Most people suspend the basking lights from the ceiling to where they're usually less than 2ft from the substrate surface. Take a look at "newstorm's" cage in the 2nd pic of this post: forums.kingsnake.com/view.php?id=1402762,1403426 I'd be concerned about whether you'd be able to keep the ambient temperature high enough with all lights in the hood.
I don't like the idea of acrylic doors/windows because they get scratched up too easy.
Keep in mind that this is just my personal opinion and we all have different ideas and tastes. I see cages every now & then with bare plywood interior walls. I imagine they don't last very long but it's the way some people do things. It's up to your skills and how much money & time you can put into it.
Catch ya later!
HH
I got the idea of the base from Proexotics and the idea for the cage from Cagesbydesign. It incorporates the best of both worlds and everything necessary for a monitor setup. ANy thoughts?
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 Cage Construction - jeffharding, Wed Oct 10 12:30:49 2007
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