I finally have some pictures to post of my Lacies and their enclosures. I've only had them for two days now and they seem to be doing well so far. They're already eating off tongs and are absolutely not afraid of me. The female has made it clear that I'm to keep some distance. The male seems to be fearless and allows himself to be touched. However, they're quite intimidating and I'm very cautious around them.
The enclosures were quite the project. Each Lacie, the male and female, has their own 12' x 14' space with 10' ceilings. The cages can be connected in the middle giving the pair 12' x 32' x 10'. Each cage also has a tree built into it as you can see from the pictures. So far the Lacies spend the vast majority of their time exploring the trees and limbs. They're incredibly agile climbers for such large lizards.
The "barn" was built with reptiles in mind. The large enclosures do not have a cement floor. The foundation footers are about 6 feet deep. About 4 feet below the substrate is a radiant heat system which consists of hot water pipes. A protective layer of wire mesh covers the pipes and will prevent these guys from burrowing into the pipes. About 4 feet of substrate covers the pipes allowing the animals to burrow very deep if they choose to do so. I've included pictures of the water boiler.
The rest of the barn also has radiant heat but the water pipes are imbedded in the concrete. I've included pictures of the cages (under construction) for my Pilbara and Kingorum. You can see the lights in these smaller cages have a protective mesh around them. This is only to pass inspection and it will be removed once we have our final permit.
So far the ambient temp in the Lacie cage is about 80F. The average substrate temp is about 74F and the temp in the burrow (included in the pictures) is slightly warmer. The basking sites are currently about 120F-130F. Each side of the enclosure only has one hot spot but we're adding more lights this week to create multiple basking sites. In addition we will be constructing a nesting box as described in several posts by Crocdoc.
I'm going to keep the pair seperated for a little while to make sure that they adjust OK. They can see each other throught the wire mesh of their cages so they're very aware of one another.
I've been shocked at how fearless they are. I expected them to spend some time hiding in their burrows and trying to avoid me but they've made no attempt to get away from me or conceal themselves. They're so confident and fearless that they make me feel like I've moved down the food chain a notch.
I've enjoyed reptiles most of my life but these are truly the most impressive lizards that I've ever experienced. I find myself just observing them for hours at a time. My wife is starting to feel like a "Lacie widow."
This species is new to me so I'm open to any and all suggestions by those of you have have kept Lacies or species similar to them. Enjoy the pictures:
hahahaha. 4ft is good for them, but not good when looking for eggs. I'm not sure what lacies lay their eggs in though,(no experience) so i wont say anything else.
