Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I am all moved in to my new house and bult this for my Argus. It is 7'x5'x4' and both front doors swing open.

Thanks for looking
Dave

I like the way it is built into thw wall. My wife wants me to do that when we build another house.
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Ed

These heat lamps make my electric bill to high.

Where did you get your Argus x Flavi cross from? Im looking to buy one,and cant find them anywhere.Goannaranch.com said they had some but when I E-mailed them telling them I wanted one they never responded back.

I'm with drzrider on this one, that's awesome how u built it into the cage. How did you make it where the substrate doesn't fall out when u open it? It there blocks or somethin? Also, how'd ya get the lights in there?
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1.0 Savannah Monitor - Artimus
2.0 Emerald Swift - Jesus, unnamed
1.0 Baby veiled Cham - Sir August De Winter 1-20-05 RIP
1.0 Green Iguana - King Arthur
1.0 Rose-hair tarantula - Bill
1.0 Basilisk - Adam
0.1 Water Dragon - Lady

The doors open about 10 or 12 inches above the substrate. the lighting is a pair of outdoor floodlights with weatherproof fixtures. I'll post some more pics later

He is actually a Gouldi cross. Got him from a local reptile place.

Dave

Beautiful job! You do great work! That should be one happy monitor.

Leslie

First, let me say, what a nice job and great craftsmenship. Then let me say, it does not appear that that type monitor is not meant for that cage. Heres why.

To understand monitors is a bit like understanding amphibians. Amphibian normally means to us, using both land and water. Either during stages of life or as a normal lifestyle. With most monitors, and particularly this type. Their life is divided between underground and above ground, like that subterranean mammal, the gopher. Like with gophers, they spend most of their life underground. What is rarely understood is, monitors are not always sleeping underground, but are actually living their life. They actually spend a small percentage of their life above ground.

I once spoke with the late Dennis King, about a study he did on Sand monitors, V.flavirufus. He said, they only come out, on small amounts of time, on one or two days a week. They spent the rest of the time underground. Remember, this was at a time when they are considered active. At other times of the year, they spent much more time underground.

Why I bring this up is, your beautiful cage does not give them the ability to burrow. Remember, they are burrowers. You also have them on cypress mulch or some such thing. That my look good in your mind, but its not what sand monitors perfer, or even recognize. In fact, they avoid it completely is givin a chance. In your cage, there is no chance to avoid it.

To me its like not giving water monitors water, or climbing monitors a place to climb. Would you put a greentree monitor on nothing but dirt???????

If you go thu some monitor books and look up habitat type, they generally offer perfered habitats and types of earth for ground monitors, and of course types of forest and trees for climbing monitors and again of course, types of water for water monitors.

Of course, you can and will do whatever you like, so if you already know this and choose to not apply it, then thanks and have a good day. I just thought that someone who would take the effort to do such a great job on building a cage, would want to know what to build. Cheers FR

Thanks for the input Frank. Let me complete your vision of the setup. There is approximately 1-1.5 feet of dirt under that skim coat of mulch. The photos are kind of misleading as to the actual depth of the enclosure. There is about two feet of cage wall below the edge of the window frames. The cypress will eventually get mixed up as he burrows and I am aware that Sand monitors need and enjoy plenty of dirt to burrow in. I am in the northeast and just ran out of good dirt for now. As soon as the weather breaks I am going to add some more dirt, but for now this is what it is. Let me finish by saying thank you for your concerns, and I am not taking any offense to your comments.

Thank You,
Dave