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My monitor is outgrowing his current living quarters. want to build one that is about 6x4x4. He is less than a year old now. anyone have a mangrove that has built their own enclosure or another monitor with similar humidity requirements. The humidity is what is throwing me. I imagine the entire thing would need to be glass with wood framing and a screen top. 20ft of tempered glass runs about $1040 in these parts. It is what it is but any suggestions as to size and/or materials would be greatly appreciated. I was thinking 3 sides plexi with a tempered glass front? thank you in advance for all of your thoughtful suggestions. please help

Screen tops are not a good idea. Why not just make it from plywood and have a glass front?

Why do you feel the need to build a plexi or glass cage with a screen top? Even the small glass enclosures with screen tops have a horrible time holding in humidity. Try to build something out of wood; you will find it much easier to work with and cheaper. Put some glass doors or a big window in it. Maybe drill some holes or put a vent in the sides for ventilation but don't go overboard, or the humidity will escape. And I would advise against using plexi at all. I used it in my cage and within a matter of days it was scratched to hell and all foggy. Go with glass.

i got a 4x8 1/4in thick plexi glass sheet for 200 in pittsburgh. Homedepot/Lowes didnt realy have anything as big and thick as i wanted it. had to find a small glass store around. and was proly alot less price than to have a homedepot/lowes special order you your glass. heres a pic of what i built for an idea you can try. For a Top i used chicken wire and a sheet of ridged plastic shed stuff from Lowes. it works good cause it keeps teh humidity up and i can slide them off to help control temps for summer time. used normal insulation and house wrap to keep walls warm and parged all the inside walls with concrete.

that's a beautiful cage. do you have any pics of your monitor enjoying his new home? what kind of temps and humidity measurements are you getting in there?

cheers
shay

dont realy have any good pics with him/ her in it. most on old hard drive and on camra. but here is 3 i have on the kingsnake photo page. bottom pic is when he was just a lil digger and had a tough time maken it up into his pond. he/she is 4ft and close to 10 pounds now...so the big climb to the tops just a step now.

i was woundering about how much did that cage cost you 2 make and what materials u made it with. i think your cage is very nice and i want to one day build one as nice as yours for my monitors

Wow I really didnt expect to see any responses. I am going with a wooden enclosure with a glass front and maybe a side window. 4x6x4. I appreciate the heads up on the plexi but for the time being I think it will have to do. My mangrove tends to frighten easily and take off running into stuff so maybe the wooden walls will help.
I plan on having tow large water containers two hiding places and some sort of climbing apparatis sp?. One light heat source in one corner. Any idea with creating humidity. Ihave looked into foggers but I think that might be a little much? I have been spraying the tank heavily three times a day.

by the way nice pics...

misting systems on a timer arn't too costly.

Ian