Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hey all! Finally completed my baby Water Monitor's new cage and here it is. 7.5' long, 3' high and 35" deep. Made out of 3/4" sandeply (presanded) and has 3 coats of polyurethane on the inside and 2 coats on the outside. It is also on wheels for easy moveability. It has about 8" of good ol' Florida dirt in it right now, but with the litter dam I can add another 5 inches or so as he/she gets bigger. The basking shelf hits 133 under the bulbs (2-85 watt indoor floods). The shelf itself is about 12" away and the mexican tiles deduct another 2" or so. On the right side is a 150 watt, 40" Helix radiant heat panel that keeps that whole end of the cage around 90 at the ground up to around 100-110 12" below it on the ramp. Nightime lows on that end are around 84. The cool end (under the basking shelf) stays around 84 during the day and I don't allow it to get below around 77 at night through use of the little space heater you see on top of the cage (I turn off the floods at night). That little thing keeps the whole garage around 80 or all night! Savane has been in it since Sunday and seems to be really enjoying his/her new "castle". I think it'll be good until around the 5' mark. I am planning on building another just like it for Squishy (slightly smaller, so I can keep it in the house) in the next month or two. Enjoy!
Billy

>>Hey all! Finally completed my baby Water Monitor's new cage and here it is. 7.5' long, 3' high and 35" deep. Made out of 3/4" sandeply (presanded) and has 3 coats of polyurethane on the inside and 2 coats on the outside. It is also on wheels for easy moveability. It has about 8" of good ol' Florida dirt in it right now, but with the litter dam I can add another 5 inches or so as he/she gets bigger. The basking shelf hits 133 under the bulbs (2-85 watt indoor floods). The shelf itself is about 12" away and the mexican tiles deduct another 2" or so. On the right side is a 150 watt, 40" Helix radiant heat panel that keeps that whole end of the cage around 90 at the ground up to around 100-110 12" below it on the ramp. Nightime lows on that end are around 84. The cool end (under the basking shelf) stays around 84 during the day and I don't allow it to get below around 77 at night through use of the little space heater you see on top of the cage (I turn off the floods at night). That little thing keeps the whole garage around 80 or all night! Savane has been in it since Sunday and seems to be really enjoying his/her new "castle". I think it'll be good until around the 5' mark. I am planning on building another just like it for Squishy (slightly smaller, so I can keep it in the house) in the next month or two. Enjoy!
>>Billy

nice cage. I guess that will work for a couple of years. If your water monitor turns out to be a male , I hgope you have a room put aside for him later, they get Huge. Thanks Russ

with water monitors it doesnt really matter on the sex, they both get huge and need enormous cages they are great monitors though. i have a 17'x11'. he is still smaller though. i will put him in that cage he is around 4-5ft. he is just a baby now though.

Yeah, sex does matter with males reaching up to 7 feet on average and some even larger while females generally stay around 5-6. But even a 5 footer is incredibly bulky and thick! When my little one gets bigger, it will go in a room of it's own, or a half room. The first one I had many years ago had an entire room converted over to a very large monitor enclosure and she was only about 5 feet long. She shared it with a 3 foot long Colombian b/w Tegu too. Very cool to be able to interact with them in that type of situation. Walking into their territory is different than having them in a cage and sticking just your hand into their territory. Billy

>>with water monitors it doesnt really matter on the sex, they both get huge and need enormous cages they are great monitors though. i have a 17'x11'. he is still smaller though. i will put him in that cage he is around 4-5ft. he is just a baby now though.