Comments I do.
Please Mike, you know I love you brother, but you have a habit of jumping the gun.
You've gone a year with your very nice cage and then you make assumptions about ten years. No offense, but one year is not ten years, and that type of statement has caused lots and lots of problems with monitors. You know, longterm assumptions based on short term or NO experience.
About FRP cages, I have not idea why you would even make that statement, but I have some up and in use for 8 and 9 years and they have not aged a day. On top of that, the person who showed me this has had cages of this design for many years before I used them. If you have heard of failures, I would look at the builders ability to do quality work, not the material. Most folks are not good at building, and or do not have the tools. In the case of building, TOOLS ARE EVERYTHING.
So your statements about them(FRP) are also assumptions or wishes.
Your cage is great, at least for you and for now. Which leads to my next comment. I like simple cages with easy access and can be completely redone without modifying the cage itself. That makes them valuable for the now and the future.
For instance, your cage is simply a trough based cage. No more, no less. The top part is awkward, but does have a couple of nice abilities, like its wood, so monitors can utilize it. And its has an uneven surface, again monitors can utilize that, at least smaller individuals.
Whats not so handy about it is, when you decide you would rather have a different texture, or wall covering. While you can still cover it with anything you like, its awkward and heavy and takes up more room then it needs too. Again, I like the ability to switch the insides of all cages. The reason is, I am not so smart as to get it right for all species and all stages of a monitors life. Oh, you do understand, much like humans and other animals, monitors change as they age. And yes, aging much more then a year. So, I like to change with them.
Again, older monitors, even climbing species will lose the ability or need to climb.
Lastly, when posting on a worldwide forum like this one, your addressing keepers from all over the world. In this case, wood will not work for me because we are in the dry DESERT and it would dry out and warp and crack in a very short time. Yes sir, that is my problem and not yours, but then that allows me to make comments based on how that would work for me. Not how it works for you. If this does age well for you, wonderful. But again, your not me.
So as you know, I fully respect and congratulate you for making the special effort you did, and yes, you have reaped the rewards from making that effort, congrats.
So now its time for me to make one of my rude comments, I only wish more folks would actually DO THE WORK(like you did), and quit the babbling. After all, its all about effort, not about how smart we think we are.
If the academics had the ability to think, they would have realized a long time ago, "my" SUCCESS is base on two things, One, I work my arse off and two, I believe in monitors not academics or myself for that matter. Cheers and keep up the effort. Cheers
