Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I am in the midst of creating the plans for my bearded dragon enclosure, and have run into one big question. Since bearded dragons require high wattage bulbs for basking, how do I build the lighting fixture hood out of oak hardwood without the worry of it catching fire or getting scorched from the hot bulb fixtures that will be attached to it? The cage will be designed to look like a piece of furniture since it will be placed in the main living room, so the oak hood will be built to completely hide the lights from the “viewers” view. Does anyone know of any good websites that illustrate examples of dessert terrariums?

Thanks,
Jason

I'm not sure exactly what it is you're trying to do. If you want to hide the lights, why not just make the top lip of the cage drop down far enough to cover them?

Here's a picture of a false-ceiling design I use. What you see in this picture is a 1" stock frame that runs from the bottom of the top lip of the cage to the top of the back panel of the cage.

The frame is covered with screen.

The back panel then stops 8" from the top of the cage. This gives you an 8" open area all along the back of the cage. Through this opening lights and heating elements can be accessed. And the animals in the cage are out of harms way from them. You'll see that better in another picture.

In you look closely at this picture you'll see the light cast out of the back of the cage and onto the wall. Only the 8" above the frame is open.

You can also see the top lip of the cage. This is where the top glass track runs. Once again, this screen covered frame runs from the bottom of this top lip the to top of the back panel.

For reference, the cage is 48" tall. The back panel is about 40" tall.

For safety you can either set a light fixture directly on the screen or, better yet, hang it from the ceiling.

Here is a picture of my Bearded Dragon cage. This served as a prototype of sorts for the cage in the previous pictures.

I've had two different heat sources in this cage and will soon try a third.

I took one of those horizontal combo light fixtures and put a 160 watt self-ballasted mercury vapor bulb in it. The combo light easily slid into the false ceiling area. When the MV burned out within three months I decided to try something else.

I took a regular old electrical box and screwed it to the top of the cage. I found a cover for it through which I was able to screw a 600 watt light fixture (made by Pearlco many years ago). I then put a ceramic heat emitter in the fixture. To replace the light lost from removing the combo light I put a shop light fixture in the false ceiling area. Plenty of room for both the ceramic and the shop light.

The electrical box distributed the heat nicely to eliminate fire risks.

However, I left just under 6" in the false ceiling for my bearded dragon cage and only have room for the 100 watt Pearlco. The basking area does not always get above 100* F. so I may try a radiant heat panel.

Sorry for the photo quality. This cage looks much better in person, although not as good as the cage in the previous posts.

Your first picture is exactly what I was thinking of doing to conceal the lights. I guess I should not have used the term "hood". My concern with this design is keeping the heat bulbs from burning the light enclosure. You mentioned an electrical box that eliminates the risk of fire, but I cannot picture what you are talking about. Any chance you could take a picture with the lights off?

Thanks for all your help,
Jason

Unfortunately the cage is 500 miles away from where I'm at right now.

What kind of light/fixture do you want to use for your Bearded Dragons?

I bought one of those electrical boxes that is about 2"x2"x4" (probably a bit smaller). The kind that are attached to wall studs and then have light switches, etc. wired into them. They're normally recessed into the wall, surrounded by drywall, and covered.

If you take the face plate off of one of the light switches in your home you may get an idea of what I'm talking about.

Then I happened to find a galvanized cover with a `1" hole cut out of it. When I screwed apart my fixture I was able to screw it with this face plate sandwiched inbetween.

I had to redrill the screw holes in the face plate as they did not match the electrical box. Then I just screwed it all into place and ran the cord out of one the punched out holes in the box.

Any easier option is to buy one of the square electrical boxes and then attach one of those circular light fixtures you see in closets, attics, basments, etc. They often have a pull chain if that refreshes your memory.

I've heard there are high-wattage versions of these. Check that closely. For the high heat of some reptile lights/heaters I prefer to have a wattage rating well in excess of the power output. My assumption is that the higher wattage fixtures will be more tolerant of the high heat often put out by the reptile products. In other words, I'm not sure if a 100 watt rated fixture can handle the heat of a 100 watt ceramic heat emitter.

A lot of this will depend on what you plan to use. If you use a ceramic heat emitter you'll have to have this installed vertically. That takes up a lot more space. If you want to use a self-ballasted mercury vapor bulb, many of these can be installed horizontally and that saves a lot of space.

I think halogens can be installed either way. But if it were a flood or spot halogen you'd be wasting a lot of light intensity and heat by using it horizontally.

All these factors are why I asked what light/heat product you planned to use. Sorry if you discussed that in your original post.

OK, I’m on the same page with you now, about the electrical box. I actually thought of using those circular ceramic fixtures with one of those boxes. I have some laying around that I took out of my garage to replace with shop lights. They are rated for 600 watts! Currently though, I have purchased a 10” aluminum dome, 300 watt, “Brooders”(brand?) lamp fixture to house a 75 – 150 watt flood lamp (dependent on what is required to elevate the temp to 105-115 degrees) for the basking area. I thought of using a MV bulb, but they seem to be a bit costly, and I don’t like the warnings that say to limit your exposure while in the same room as the bulb, (the cage will be in the living room!). For the UV-B, I was planning on using a 36”-48” Reptisun 5.0; the only thing that concerns me here is that they say it is most beneficial to have the tube within 6” of the reptile. I realize the basking area may be that close, but how does the dragon get the benefits of the UV when it is anywhere else in the cage?

Well, there are my ideas for lighting. As you can see, my highest wattage requirement would be around 150 watts. Does my lighting configuration sound about right to you?

Thanks again for all your help!
-Jason

I agree with your concerns about self-ballasted MV bulbs. I think the dragons respond well to them but I did not like the fact they burned out so often and that you can not use any sort of temperature controller on them without shortening their life even further. And then there are the safety concerns.

I would not worry about using the flourescent UV lamps. Provide plenty of rocks/perches and your dragon(s) will be able to get within 6" of them often enough.

One problem you'll have with an aluminum dome is that it will take up an awful lot of space. To provide a false ceiling area that will hold it means having an upper and lower lip on your cage that will be pretty large. This does not look very good unless you make your cage very tall. But if you make your cage tall you end up not providing as many opportunities for the animal to get close to light/heat sources and have to use more energy to heat the cage.

Oh yeah. To further confuse things the upper and lower lips should be about the same size for aesthetic reasons. If you build a low hanging upper lip you'll end up with a very tall lower lip. Then you'll need to raise the floor a bunch so you can see the dragon. This is what I did with my cage. I raised it with high density styrene foam and then covered that with vinyl flooring.

What I'm getting at is that you should consider heat/light sources that don't take up a lot of vertical space.

Have you considered a radiant heat panel? Or you could go with a halogen mounted horizontally. You would not be able to use a flood bulb unless it was mounted vertically. But then that gets back to taking up a lot of space.

I am not familiar with the radiant heat panel; I assume it is much like baseboard radiant heaters?

Thanks for bringing up the aesthetics of the cages appearance. That’s one thing I probably would have not thought of until it was too late. I may consider a different basking lamp so I can reduce the height of the false ceiling.

You have been a big help!

Thanks,
Jason

Follow the link to read about radiant heat panels. I believe these are popular among the folks on the bearded dragon forum. You might post a thread over there or even here for that matter.

I'd write more but I'm not all that experienced with them. I can tell you they are the thinnest radiant heat source available.

Also, you might do a Google search on them.

http://www.pro-products.com/proheat.html

Chris -

Wondering what sort of track you used to mount the sliding glass doors. Did you use a pre-made plastic or aluminum track? Or just route grooves into the bottom and top boards? I'm thinking I might try building cages with sliding glass doors rather than hinged and just wondering what the best approach is...

Thanks!
-- Scott

Hi Scott,

In both of the cages pictured I used prefabricated plastic glass track. In the bearded dragon cage I used the "tan" glass track made by Knap and Vogt (spelling??). As you can see in the picture the track is more of any orange. I was not happy with the color but used it anyways.

I originally used a sand substrate in that cage and the floor was 6.25" below the track. With about 1" of sand the dragon was easily able to fill the track with sand (by digging) and the doors did not slide well. He was having impaction problems so we switched him to a bran substrate and then raised the floor area 2" on the cool end and 3" on the warm end.

The track was a bit beat up from the sand so I buffed it with a dremel and the appropriate attachment. I then rubbed in a silicone lubricant and it now works wonderfully. The bran does not cause the doors to sieze like the sand did.

In the large oak cage we used the brown plastic glass track from Rockler. It looks great on that cage and it's what I'd use in the future. I'm not sure what the practical size limit is for glass doors and plastic track, but I can assure you these doors slide well. For reference, the doors in that cage are about 31" tall and 26" wide. We used the silicone lubricant with these doors from the start.

Even with doors this big you can nudge them with your finger and they slide open.

When building your own cages sliding doors are a great option. You can control how high or low the lips are which can help keep substrate out of the track(s). Also, these tracks are beveled on the bottom to funnel debris away from the sliding glass. Lastly, when you order the glass you can have the edges buffed appropriately for plastic track. Same would hold true for acylic or lexan doors, I suspect.

With the sliding glass doors on many pre-fabricated cages you do not always get these features. Often the tracks are flat (i.e. not beveled) and of low quality. Also, in some cases they seal the ends of the glass doors with plastic U channel, making for poor sliding.

Regarding the hardwood glass tracks, I understand there are very few woods that are appropriate for this. They do make hardwood tracks if you really want to use them.

If you route your own make sure you 1) use the appropriate wood, and 2) have the wood clamped perfectly straight and parallel with the fence on your router table or parallel with whatever guide you use with your router.

For larger doors the aluminum tracks with wheels and/or guides would probably be better. I've never used these and don't know how they work with substrate build up, etc. Junglehabitats would be the person to ask.

Thanks for the info, Chris! Your cage pics look great! I'd been looking at the Rockler plastic track, just didn't know how well it would work. Going to remodel the entire snake room, so I'll probably end up building a dozen new cages over the next couple of months. Hoping the sliding doors will be a bit less labor intensive than hinged doors! I'll give the Rockler plastic track a try and let you know how it turns out...

-- Scott

>>In the large oak cage we used the brown plastic glass track from Rockler. It looks great on that cage and it's what I'd use in the future. I'm not sure what the practical size limit is for glass doors and plastic track, but I can assure you these doors slide well. For reference, the doors in that cage are about 31" tall and 26" wide. We used the silicone lubricant with these doors from the start.