Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hey everybody,
Here's a question for all of you that build your own enclosures. For a clear side, do you find that Polycarb (Lexan) or Acrylic (Plexiglass) is more scratch resistant? I know both can be scratched, but which tends to be better?
Thanks!
-Eric

Clear plastics of either kind are not good for the sides of cages. As monitors have very sharp claws and commonly dig at the sides. So glass is far better.

Lexan can be used as a top for trough type cages, as its difficult to dig at the tops.

Which one is better, is not a good choice when both suck. Plexi sucks worse. Or lexan is less sucky. They still suck. cheers

Thanks, thats pretty much what I was thinking.
Unfortunately glass is too heavy and more importantly fragile for my current situation, so that isn't a plausible option, I was curious as to which would be the lesser of two evils. I plan on putting at least a foot of wood below the clear portion above the soil, so hopefully that will minimize his scratching on the clear portion.

If conditions are met fairly well as FR always states,who cares(he doesn't say that)?I did. My Monitors never scratched anything or wanted to get out because I let them out as much as they wanted to(I thought).Carpet,Vinyl it doesn't matter as long a they can exercise(not really good for them).I know, give them 3 feet of dirt and perfect temps are good,but who needs(or can)give them 200lbs of dirt in the house and no a/c.Just a view into reality.Most of us fail and I myself after 20 years of trying to be a decent monitor guy,can't take the failure because I actually love them as living creatures and feel totally responsible for their deaths.It's a great hobby if you don't care or want to treat them as well as cats or dogs or have better luck(skill) than me.I personally can't try to help pet shop dying monitors and not actually help them live.I take it personally everytime.I wish I didn't care but I do and it always hurts and I can't take it.Better luck to peeps who don't care like me Think first before buying that $20 Sav.Life id good for some.

Ok, not really the solution, but instead, a hint at the direction of the problem.

This is a bit like begining algebra, A train left detroit at 2am going southwest at 81 miles per hour, another train left Tucson at 2 pm of the same day, heading northeast at 58 miles per hour. Where and when will they meet.

Ok, its only kinda like that. In your post, you mentioned mine monitors that have lots of dirt and scratch the glass, equals= yours that did not have that and did not have to scratch the glass because you took them out often.

The problem is, our results were totally different. My monitors live forever, grow like weeds, produce tons of babies. Yours died of mysterious causes.

So, our results are totally different. Which means our methods were totally different. The thing that is the same is, we both care. Something I always appreciated about you.

Heres the deal, in our little senario my tons of dirt and active scratching monitors appear to be better then, going out at your leaisure.

I am not trying to start a debate, I only hope for you to think about the differences and the results. In my opinion, its all about available heat. When they get the heat they want. They cannot sit still, they are always digging, they are always modeling and remodeling their cages. They also build a tremedous immune system. It appears no dirt and no(I do not believe going for a walk is activity) activity is not so good on their immune system.

For me, if monitors leaves behind a legacy(their offspring) losing them does not seem so bad. Cheers