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i finished a cage today that i converted from a retail display case. reinforced the sliding back doors and use the top glass to gain entry. i use a 60 watt ceramic heater (so i can have 24/hour heat on him and still go to sleep at night) and a 50 watt home depot halogen bulb. keeps the top of his basking area at about 140º surface temp. below his basking area he has little nooks with different temps for him to retreat to. and deep, burrowable substrate. i used "clean fill dirt" for landscaping as substrate. while i was digging it up, i created a large burrow-like hole to get the moist stuff on the inside and it held for 3 or 4 feet back as i kept shoving the shovel into it then i finally purposefully collapsed it.

the dirt has no clay in it, and is slightly sandy dirt and i have a good feeling that it will work well. i'll update later on with results in the future. he immediately ate 2 decent sized rat fuzzies that were frozen thawed without protest. although he's been a little grouchier than usual since being in the cage, but i suspect it's normal since it's a new environment. anyways, sorry about the long paragraphs, here's the pics! enjoy!

this one isn't a varanid, but i thought i'd share my newest baby with you guys!

any comments/questions or (constructive) criticism is welcome!

-shane

Nice looking cage. I've played around with quite a few of those display cases. You can remove the door inserts and replace them with glass of the same thickness as well; to have sliding access from the front/back. Just a FYI.

well, the substrate is so deep that i'd have to make some kind of barrier between the substrate and the doors just to be able to slide the back doors open. but thanks for the idea! i may do that.

Love the cage, The monitor is cute. Paintball fan?

thanks. the monitor is creeping up on 30" rapidly. so those aren't his baby colors anymore. and no, i'm not a huge fan of paintball, although i enjoy playing a few games. i got the case from a friend who IS a paintball fan and he put that sticker on there.

Very nice looking monitor and well-setup cage. The iguana is very nice looking too, but I'd personally get it off the pellets and set it up in a cage similar to your monitor's. That's just what my gut is telling me. I've never kept an iguana before in my life. But I think the Cyclura species are heat-loving, burrowing lizards as well. Sort of like herbivorous monitors.

Cheers,
Ryan
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Please excuse my childish-sounding user name. Unless I created a new account, I can't change it.

thanks . the black throat has been exploring all day and testing out different spots for burrows and such.

about the rhino, they do fine on alfalfa pellets. in the wild they usually hang out around cliffs and rocky outcrops and things like that. hiding inside rock crevices and hollow trunks and stuff like that. the good thing i like about the alfalfa pellets is if they get injested, not only is it digestible, but it has a good amount of nutrition in it as well. and i've never had shedding problems keeping cyclura on them. cyclura become a lot more "socialized" than monitors as they age and become used to human interaction. my big male that i had would walk over to me of his own accord after i opened the cage and sit on my lap. actually seemed to really ENJOY human interaction.

that basking spot looks mighty small. you should look into getting a much wider basking spot.

and how about some hide spots?

you are on the right track, but you still have some fine tuning to do.

best of luck.
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robyn@proexotics.com

Pro Exotics Reptiles

what do you suggest using for hides?