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I am building a collard lizard cage which will be made out of wood with a partial glass front. The cage will be 65 inches in length by 27 inches in width and about 35 inches height. It has a wooden top. The only source of ventilation will be the lid. I was thinking about drilling about 8-10 3 inch holes in the lid. Will this be enough ventialtion? I have noticed that for other lizards such as leopard geckos especially with breaders there are only very small holes in the cage. The reason I am thinking about using 3 inch holes instead of a large ventilated area is because it will keep the heat in better in the cage.

Thanks,
Miled

You probably already have a plan for heat and light. And I don't really know just how much ventilation is required. But, here's my 2 cents. I would put 2 layers of screen over most of the entire top. The bottom layer being regular fine screen like window screen and the top layer being heavy duty wire screen, also called hardware cloth. Choose hardware cloth strong enough to support light fixtures. This will keep hot fixtures and bulbs out of the enclosure. And you can "redecorate" the enclosure as basking lights will not be in a fixed position. The fine mesh will keep crickets from escaping, as they could easily slip through the hardware cloth. A strip of metal, (a couple of inches wide) between the wood frame of the lid and where the screen begins will keep most crickets from getting from the walls onto the screen top.

Many people here on the forum will disagree with me, but I heat from the bottom of the cage. I use a product called flex-watt heat tape on the floor of the cage. I have a piece of Plexiglas directly on top of it and sand and rocks on top of that. It is controlled with a thermostat and supplemented during the day with basking lights. I also have a heat rock in the enclosure that the lizards seem to love, another controversial item. Along with basking lights, I also provide fluorescent lights for their required uva/uvb. I have had great success with maintaining heat in the cage while providing a lot of ventilation this way.

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Valerie Rae

We may have all come on different ships, but we're in the same boat now.
--Martin Luther King, Jr.--

God bless the USA

Here's a visual of an enclosure I just made. The top vents were made to allow the heat generated by the flourescent and halogen spotlight that would otherwise accumulate and raise the enclosure temp. The back vents are for extra and overall enclosure ventillation.

What I am planning on doing as the enclosure is partially built and now only lacks trim on the outside and painting is to heat from above and below. I am going to purchase a herpstat thermostat. For the heating below I am going to use 2 50-60 gallon under tank repti therm heaters on one side of the cage. I was thinking about sticking them to a piece of sheet metal and placing them at the bottom of the cage and then placing sandand rocks over them. I read that you use plexi glass and that sounds like a good idea. For the above heating I am going to use 1 or two ceramic heat emmiters. I have made provisions for them and the lights to be mounted just under the lid. The cage is ~ 30 inches high and they will hang down about 6 inches leaving 24 inches of clearance. I hope this is enough clearance. The reason why I do not want to put them on top of the enclosure is because when I feed the lizards I have to take them off every day and set them down. They get hot and can burn our wood floor. It is even more difficult when I leave town and have someone feed the lizards. I hope the lights and heater are not low enough that the lizards could jump and touch them. I was thinking about mounting a screen below the heaters inside the cage. The enclosure is going to be in my study and I wanted smaller ventilation holes to retain more heat the enclosure so the study does not get to hot in the summer.

Miled

It sounds like you have a great plan going. I think protecting the ceramic heater(s) with a screen or something is a good idea that you won't regret. One of my collareds hangs upside down and crawls around the screen top of her enclosure; it is 2 feet high.
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Valerie Rae

We may have all come on different ships, but we're in the same boat now.
--Martin Luther King, Jr.--

God bless the USA