Reptile & Amphibian Forums

The best compliment I've ever received about a cage I've built was one I got this past Sunday. A friend of mine came to visit who isn't into reptiles at all, despite having known me for the past five years. He came into my room to check out my monitor's cage and simply stared at it for a few minutes, not saying anything. I couldn't figure out what he was staring at (was there a poop or something I'd missed?) and asked him, and he said, "It looks... it looks like it's made out of... REAL."

Photobucket appears to have changed its format, hopefully I'm using the right links:
Warm side

Cool Side

Happy monitor

Thanks for looking!

~jen
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"We call them dumb animals, and so they are, for they cannot tell us how they feel, but they do not suffer less because they have no words."
- Anna Sewell (1820-1878)

That is a real nice set up.
If thats a UV bulb, thats great... but just make sure he / she has an alternate heat source as well so he can get warm without getting a dose of uv, if the animal wants to..
Cheers
Todd G.

Nice looking vivarium, gives you the serene feeling of a nice fish aquarium when looking at it. Nice and natural looking with hides for the monitor so it looks. I dont want to comment anything negative but looking at the distance of the bulb and wondering just how far it will be from the monitors back when basking raises an eybrow::> Just wondering what the temps are? You are much further ahead with a warmer ambient temp [85-86F] and keeping the bulb further away to avoid thermal burns. You maybe fine the way it is, I dont know the bulb you are useing or the temps of the vivarium? Something to keep in mind though.
Nice job! Bob

Cage temps on a cool day like today are around 80 on the cool half, 90 ish on the warm half, and the top piece of wood itself ends up being a little over 130. When he settles down to bask, his back ends up being about 6 inches away from the light, and I've tempgunned him at 145 -150 a couple times. There's a reason I leave it so high, though.

The only time he really basks directly under the light is for about 10 minutes immediately after eating rodents, and then he'll wedge himself into a hidey hole in the top of the stack under the light. After a few months of "is his stack too close to the light" and tracking where he was spending his time, he seems to prefer being able to hide at that height/temperature, rather than bask at a similar height and temp. Even when he was kept with a red light at a similar temp, he preferred being hidden and warm to basking and warm.

I know the bulb looks close but a lot of that's due to the angle. And it is closer than I'd recommend for someone who wasn't familiar with their lizard's habits. And if the cage hadn't been free, I wouldn't have a cage styled like this in the first place

It's fun to invest the time in a functional and pretty cage. I've got a bunch of ball pythons I can breeze through in half an hour, but I end up cheerfully spending hours maintaining the big monitor cage.
Thanks!!

~jen
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"We call them dumb animals, and so they are, for they cannot tell us how they feel, but they do not suffer less because they have no words."
- Anna Sewell (1820-1878)

I like this set up very nice. My cages are kind of a embarassment just top soil with wood stacks and plastic water bowls and big ol clunky lights. Very functional but not pretty at all like this one.

It takes more effort to upkeep than a basic setup, but since the ball pythons make for lousy display animals, I figured I'd go all out for my monitor.

Thanks!
~jen
-----
"We call them dumb animals, and so they are, for they cannot tell us how they feel, but they do not suffer less because they have no words."
- Anna Sewell (1820-1878)