Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I'm getting ready to build a 72''x48''x 24'' wood cage for my fast growing Colombian female. What kind of wood is acceptable as far as being non-toxic. I understand that pine is bad and that cedar stinks as well. Also, my tegu is fond of her heat pad. I am concerned that if I switch from her current 90 gallon aquarium to a wooden setup that it's going to be a fire hazard. Is it safe to use the Kane or Cobra mats with wood? She just seems to do so much better with a supplemental heat source in the substrate. She only emerges from it for about an hour a day when she realizes it's dinner time. Finally, I'm going with FS lighting and was wondering if I could get by with the 5.0 UVB rating flourescents as opposed to the 10.0 I'm using now. They're a lot cheaper and she doesnt seem to have much use for them anyway. Between her and my ever-burrowing ackie you'd never know there were anything but empty tanks full of substrate in my herp room!!!

Put a thermostat on the heat pad (which you should be using anyway) and you'll not having any problems with it being a fire hazard. As for the best material to use for your cage, read up in the cage building forum on here. There's tons of great advice and ideas. You definitely want to stay away from using cedar though. And as for your lighting question, you'll get ten different answers from ten different people. The whole UV issue is very debatable. So I think you'll have to come to your own conclusion as to how much is enough UV.