Finally moved to my own house and could realize my outdoor enclosure (pics later).
I decided to show off my lumberjack skills to my wife. So far the only skills she has seen in that area is beer drinking
So off we are to home depot. During the hardware collecting I am detecting a mild form off distress in here. "Do you really need that much wood"?
Anyway I started building away and 5 hours later I had my cage ready. 6'L * 4'w * 2'h quite and enclosure.
The funpart was about to start, release the happy couple in the semi-wild. I made the mistake of having them all warmed up while putting them in there. She looked a little confused and decided to pick a nice warm rock and bask in the real sun.
The male on the other hand couldnt really handle his less limited freedom. He looked around and sprinted on his hind legs full force into the mesh. Man I forgot how fast they are and by the sound the mash hitting made I was afraid he was going to brake his neck. Unbelievable speed out of those little legs.
After darting back and fourth for numerous times he chilled out and found a rock himself. Green and blue colors flaring up in him like never seen before. Lights are definetly no substitute for sun.
So far so good alltough I was a bit worried about his neck.
temps were great in the basking spot about 115 and shade around 85.
It can get pretty cold here in Socal at night Oktober typcal nighttemps are about 55 in Novmber probably around 50.
I bought the smallest heatpad I could find and attached to a small kitchen tile. By adding more tiles I could regulate the temps quite good. Now at night with 4 more tiles in between I have them with ambient around 55 at 71 degrees.
One night she slept under a rock so she must have been really cold when she woke up, it didnt seem to have any ill effects on her.
Now after 10 days he behaves like a wild lizard, whenever I approach the cage, he hides it is really funny to see. Whenever little tweetie birds fly over they both look up and are ready to go into hiding
If you have the room outside I can really recommed this. They look so much better in the real sun. I'll post back later with pics.
Good luck
Learux
Eve