Reptile & Amphibian Forums

im looking into building another cage here soon for my german giant bearded dragons. Im looking at the mdf as of now since melamine is nowhere to be found. I looked everywhere for it, no luck. I love the mdf because its pretty easy to use. Ive worked with it and its fairly strong. I figured a few really good coats of poly should do the trick to seal it, ill also caulk the corners, ect. Anyone here try this stuff. It seems like it would be ok. just want a few opinions on it.
thanks
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2.0.0 Veiled Chameleons (Eros & Himeros)
1.1.0 Senegal Chameleons (Francois & Fifi)
0.0.1 Pigmy leaf Chameleon (Franklin)
0.1.0 Adopted Beardie (Sissy)
1.0.0 Sandfire red/gold Beardie (Whitey Ford)
0.1.0 Red Flame Sunburst X Hypo Red Beardie
0.1.0 Brown Basilisk (Leroy, I know shes a girl!)
1.1.0 Chinese Water Dragon (Merl & Maggie May)
0.0.1 Marbled Gecko (Chalmers)
1.0.0 15 year old Eastern Box Turtle (Radar)

No help for you here... but I'm also interested in using MDF for my enclosure and am hoping there will be some help on the matter!

Carmen

I'm not crazy about MDF for larger cages. It's heavy and tends to sag when used in larger designs. Furthermore, it does not readily accept and hold nails, screws, etc., at least when compared to other materials.

It does work well with bisquit joints.

But it is very cheap and has a two smooth surfaces to work with. If these are important to you I think it is worth the tradeoffs.

It is nice for small cages.

Hi,
MDF has some great qualities, that were previously pointed out by chris. I have used this before in cage construction. It works well, but make sure you seal it up. I read you are going to do this, and that's good. I sealed one of my earlier projects, but for got to put caulking in the corners. Next thing I knew, the humidity was going in the cracks and soaking into the MDF. Now I have these big bumps where the water seeped in. jrbl