Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I have a savanna monitor, and would like to turn the spare bedroom into his new enclosure.

Any ideas as far as setting it up, as far as heating lighting. What should the bottom of the room consist of, we were thinking linolium but having an area of substrate Any ideas would be very helpful

What's your budget?

Do you want to do this in a way that the animal could be removed and the room quickly restored? Like if you needed to sell the house?

Or do you mind doing a bit of repair and rebuilding in the case of a future sale? Or is this simply not a problem?
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Currently keeping:

6.10 Gonyosoma oxycephalum (Javan, mixed colors)

1.1 Philodryas baroni

1.1 Lampropeltis triangulum multistriata

1.0 Rhodesian Ridgeback

Yes where the room could be restored, hes almost 3 ft long,
It would be where he would spend most of his time. His enclosure will be in the room also where if need be he can go in there at times as well. Im trying to figure out how I would do the lighting and heating aspect, like if I would have a basking area where he could go to that also has uva and uvb lighting. I just want to make it where he has plenty of free range, there won't be much else in the room but his cage and a couple other cages against one of the walls.

almost forgot would like to keep it around the the 2-300 dollar range

Well then ignore my previous post.

I would instead consider an epoxy floor coating that could be covered with carpet when you need to restore the room. Wainscoat the walls with some sort of cheap and easy to remove paneling.

Then use an oil filled radiant space heater for ambient. Hanging heat lamps for basking.
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Currently keeping:

6.10 Gonyosoma oxycephalum (Javan, mixed colors)

1.1 Philodryas baroni

1.1 Lampropeltis triangulum multistriata

1.0 Rhodesian Ridgeback

It would cost at least a grand to set up a room to house any varanid.
Frp all the walls and ceiling, thick, heavy coating of epoxy paint on the floors and at least a couple feet up the wall several troughs to dig in, a good size bank of lights for basking, an oil furnace for ambient, and forget about other cages in the room. You also have to account for higher humidity's and a constant ambient temp of 80.

I would instead plan on building a larger cage of the trough form. Ask Happy hillbilly for some pics of his cage. I'm sure some others could chime in with their pics for ideas. If you plan on building a cage suitable for a monitor expect to pay at least $500.

As much as I love monitors I don't keep them just for this reason. I keep all my Herps in way to big of cages and if I had Varanids I couldn't justify anything smaller than 10'x10'x20'

Nate

Since you want to be able to restor the room quickly, I would not recommend any sort of vinyl sheet flooring as I think it would need to be replaced.

Some sort of tile would be great. Maybe even a natural stone like slate which hides scratches well. I would look for one of the harder stones or tiles. I would also run it up the walls a way.

For heat you could do in floor radiant heat to maintain ambient temperatures and then hang heat lamps with CHE's and MVB's to provide sufficient heat for basking and light intensity.
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Currently keeping:

6.10 Gonyosoma oxycephalum (Javan, mixed colors)

1.1 Philodryas baroni

1.1 Lampropeltis triangulum multistriata

1.0 Rhodesian Ridgeback

Here is a link that I found http://www.infloor.com/products.html
I thought it was pretty cool

Hey there!
I know I'm a bit late replying to this but just wanted to say that I agree with everyone else here about what it would take to convert the whole room. You'd be much better off to either use that money to make an addition onto the existing cage or save up more money & build a bigger one.

Many people have tried using whole rooms with just a few modifications to keep monitors. Most of them end up being death traps, lacking ample ambient heat & humidity.

The only way whole rooms work is for them to be completely converted into large cages. Moisture-proof walls, sufficient ambient heat & basking spots. With such a high ceiling it takes quite a bit of heat to keep the ambient temps at the monitor's level where they need to be.

Have a good one!
HH
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Due to political correctness run amuck,
this ol' hillbilly is now referred to as an:
Appalachian American

www.natures-signature.com