Had another idea that I had not seen on the group messages.....owe the idea to seeing what Manny is doing in Florida and how we build aviaries for Parrots and Macaws...........Tuff Sheds at Home Depot has a group of heavy plastic storage sheds and bins that can be placed on the inside garage wall that is common with the outside wire enclosure.......... and wired for pig blankets or other heat........the bins they make are about 4 feet by 4 feet by 8 feet and can be divided into compartments....... and have a one piece top lid..........are almost air tight and made with heavy plastic meaning easy clean and good pest control and electrical safety......you can place them in the garage against the common wall......... where the herp environment is built against outside of garage wall....... similar to aviculture setups where you keep warm houses for bird inside central bird house and then flight cages for the different species outside so they can fly out into aviary when weather is good............exception here is that the Tuff Sheds are ready made for Ctenosaura hide boxes so less work and they are portable and can be moved inside the garage with Ctenosaura in them as the tuf shed bins can be put on a 4 x 8 sheet of heavy plywood with wheels added.............cut round hole for each compartment in bin to match hole cut in base of garage walls for pipe burrow access to bin hide boxes.....cover outside garage wall burrow pipes as Manny shows he is doing...since most garage foundations are raised this will further help in reduction of any kind of flooding as the Tuff Shed Bin would be sitting up off the floor on 4 x 4s as a permanent structure or on wheels as a movable structure.......temperature control inside garage and inside Tuf Shed bins in colder climates is easier regulated and less expensive......more convenient system also as garage is already wired for electric......make sure to design a drop dooor on the burrow pipe on the plastic bin inside the garage...will save a lot of energy and money to heat if you can close the burrow pipes at night to keep the temp regulated and animals in at night...tops of Bins that they make are made to be weather proof and this also makes them almost air tight to retain heat at night...........access from top to all burrows is like opening a 4 x 8 sheet of plywood door..to access all hide boxes at once as seen in some of Mannys pictures....with this kind of arrangement you can use pig blankets and reduce heating costs even more and the added benefit is you can keep Ctenosaurus in colder climates if the indoor garage bin system is used and refitted with heat lamps or radiator heater system or pig blankets.......I mean who uses garages for cars anymore....best they are used for indoor Herp Center that allows for a nursery and juvenile area as skylights can be added to garage or double glass garden windows with small window garden can be used for babies....hope this helps others in colder climates keep Ctenosaura safely as there are many that will need to be relocated from Boca Grande on Gasparilla Island......a community panel has recently been approved on ways to rid the island of Ctenosaura and now they have an iguana tax there to do the job......there also seems to be similis and pectanata hybrids on island as well as a Ctenosaura Sp Sp so relocation rescue program would be great for Breeders and new color phases.......can keep up with what they plan to try and do by going to www.bocabeacon.com as it is a weekly newspaer for that community online for those who have not yet heard of the difficulty on Gasparilla Island Florida
Good Luck
Kevin Schneider
Iguana Rescue Southern California
