Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I am in the process of designing the permanent enclosure for my U. geyri and since I will be limited to 4' wide I was wondering if anyone had tried using a double height (say 4' tall) enclosure. I will be doing the entire inside with fake rock walls so figured I could make nice wide ramps up to the top section.

It would be much easier to control the tempature gradient with cool air intakes on the bottom level and a temperature controlled exhaust fan in the top level. It seems that it would be just as easy for a lizard to learn that the gradient is up and down instead of left and right and be able to thermoregulate just fine. You could still provide different areas of basking temps on each level, but I think the ambient air tempature gradient would be much easier to control this way.

I am thinking a MV bulb in the top and a 36" 5.0 flourescent in the bottom for UV and 50 watt halogen in the top and maybe some low voltage halogen spots in the bottom for small warm basking areas.

Am I missing something here? Other than I could build all this and my uro refuses to use one of the areas I don't think he will have any problem getting to the top level as his current favorite activity is climbing straight up a cork bark tube I have set vertically, running down the ramp next to it then repeating the process over and over... crazy lizard

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Mike Wilson

I've not tried anything like it, but I believe that's part of the benefits of a Retes stack. They provide climbing area and multiple basking areas with a vertical temperature gradient in a minimum of floor space.
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Torey
Salem, Oregon, USA
1.1 Uromastyx Geyri (Joe and Arthur)
1.1 Uromastyx Maliensis (Tank and Turtle)
1.1 Anolis Carolinensis (Bowser and Leeloo)
1.1 African Dwarf Frogs (Bruce and Sheila)
1.0 Betta Splendens (Mr. Miagi)
1.0 Sunset Dwarf Gourami (Sideshow)
0.0.1 False Spotted Corydoras (Spot)
0.0.2 Metae Corydoras (Frank and Jesse)
0.0.2 Dwarf Sucking Oto (Tootsie and Dum-Dum)
1.1 Felis Domesticus (Roscolux and Jenny)

One of the nice things about raising animals in captivity, is that you're in control. The down side of this, is that if your idea works, we all want pictures! I don't think anything about what you're planning on, really will be an issue. Knowing what I know now, I would try it...though, I doubt I would have thought of it!
Good Luck, and I want reports!

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2.1 - Rocky, Runako, and RoxyIII

>>One of the nice things about raising animals in captivity, is that you're in control. The down side of this, is that if your idea works, we all want pictures! I don't think anything about what you're planning on, really will be an issue. Knowing what I know now, I would try it...though, I doubt I would have thought of it!
>>Good Luck, and I want reports!
>>
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>>2.1 - Rocky, Runako, and RoxyIII
>>

I am still in the design phase right now but I will post back when I start building. I have decided to go forward and build the enclosure at 48" wide 24" deep and 48" tall. The basic structure will be 2 48x24x24 enclosures on top of each other with ramps from the bottom up through several holes in the top. All the sides (except the front of course) will be covered in fake foam rock structures. That should provide great insulation and should make it much easier to heat in the winter.

There will still be a left right gradient as I will place the main heat sources on one side. This should basically give me a four temperature zone enclosure and is big enough to put hides in each zone.

Not a new idea I know, people have been doing the same thing with arboreal species all the time. After seeing what good climbers U. Geyri are I just thought it might be a good idea to try for them. The main difference is that instead of a large open arboreal enclosure I am putting a floor to seperate the enclosure as uros don't seem to spend a lot of time actually up in the air but do like to explore vertically.

Worst case is that it doesn't work and I seal off the holes, adjust the heating for a standard left right gradient and end up with two enclosures. Then I get to go looking for another lizard to put in the second one

I still have lots of other geeky ideas to work out to put into this "concept enclosure" of mine (temperature controlled fans, built in probes in all the zones) and still have to figure out the thermostat situation, I will probably end up with two helix systems unless someone knows of a multi-zone proportional thermostat?

I will post a link to the construction website when I start.

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Mike Wilson
mwilson@fuu.net

I've not ever tried one this way for my uros, but do for my Iguana. She's too big to have in a long cage so my sunporch is setup just for her to go vertical to regulate.

Just be sure that the lights are close enough to be useful on the basking/UVB areas and can hold the right temps!
Good luck!
Renee