Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Just finished my mali's new cage. Took me about a week and I believe the total was around $75? It measures 5'x2'x2'. I made it so I could put about 10-12" of substrate in for him to burrow into. It has two doors on the front, both of which open down, rather than out. Constructed with 1x3's and 3/8" CDX. It's not my best work thanks to the tools I had available, but it's not too shabby.
Enjoy!
-Brian

LOOKS AWESOME, great job, hope your guy loves it !! I'm sure he will.

Eve

Hi, I'm just wondering, not critisizing your cage, but would an all wood cage be good for an uro? I thought that they would need more ventalation, but if an all wood cage would be suitable, and healthy for a mali? Any other input would be very helpful because if it is better, than I might want to try and build my uro a cage.
-----
Puff (The Magic Dragon) ~F~ Bearded Dragon (color scheme name coming) ~ 1.5 years.
Fluffy ~M~ Mali Uromastyx ~ 2.5 years (?).
Taco ~F~ Green Iguana ~ 9 years old.
Brogan ~F~ Tokay Gecko ~ 4 years (?).
Danny ~M~ Australian Velvet Gecko ~ 2.5 years.
Sargon ~M~ Tabby Cat~ 14.5 years. Our real fluffy.
Henry ~M~ Leopard Gecko ~ Deceased at 2 years .

I have built wood enclosures for iguanas, monitors, basilisks, and chameleons. The only differences were: chameleon cage was wood frame wrapped in hardware clothe, monitors/iguanas/basilisks were just like the uro cage, except the tops of the cages were hardware clothe. I had originally planned on making the top of this enclosure hardware clothe also, but after reading some of the archives (Thanks to Pro Exotics page) and reading one of Robyn's responses to my inquiry below about a suitable cage, I decided a plywood top with a 9"x9" square hole for the basking light would be suitable. As Robyn pointed out to me, the natural ventilation from the edges around the doors, and areas like that, is actually a fair amount in a home made enclosure. After I finished this enclosure, I looked at it and realized there actually is a lot of areas for ventilation. In my case it was because I only had a circular saw and drill to build this with, so not all the cuts were perfect, so there are multiple gaps which can't be seen in the photo. So, I'm going to give this one a try and if it seems there's not enough ventilation, I can easily fix that with a saw, some hardware clothe, and about an hour of work, if that. Sorry for the long response
-Brian

I understand your whole cage explanation, except what kind of hardware cloth you used, metal or plastic...?
-----
Puff (The Magic Dragon) ~F~ Bearded Dragon (color scheme name coming) ~ 1.5 years.
Fluffy ~M~ Mali Uromastyx ~ 2.5 years (?).
Taco ~F~ Green Iguana ~ 9 years old.
Brogan ~F~ Tokay Gecko ~ 4 years (?).
Danny ~M~ Australian Velvet Gecko ~ 2.5 years.
Sargon ~M~ Tabby Cat~ 14.5 years. Our real fluffy.
Henry ~M~ Leopard Gecko ~ Deceased at 2 years .

It's metal wire, with I believe 1/2" openings. Home depot, Lowe's, and places like that sell it.
-Brian

If you are going to use dirt as a burrowing substrate, I would line the bottom and sides with plastic or something else to make it water proof because the moisture will rot the plywood and also cause it to delaminate.
-----
Rick
1.1.2 Mali's
0.1.0 Nigerian
0.0.1 Ornate
137 lb. Male German Shepherd named Sabbath. Don't come knocking on my door unless you have an extra pair of skivies.

Well, I went and bought (5) 40lbs bags of top soil today and one large bag of vermiculite. To my surprise, it only filled maybe half the area I wanted to fill! So sometime this weekend or next week, I'm going to pick up a couple more bags of top soil. But anyways, I let the enclosure heat up and then moved the little guy in. I gotta say, I really liked how it turned out and I *think* he may not mind it either. He's already much more active than he's ever been and he's not even bothered with the cave he used to stay in most of the day. It doesn't seem to be activity due to stress, but more of a sense of curiosity and "space." He's been openly basking and exploring and not running and hiding when I walk in like he used to do. Anyways, I'll get a photo this evening and post it under this post.
-Brian