Reptile & Amphibian Forums

All -

I just acquired two adult male iguanas.

I'm looking for some decent temp caging - and so far the only thing - other than building something myself - that is affordable is the Reptarium screen caging.

Has anyone used these before? For example, one website is offering the 260 gallon basic - which tops out at 72" tall and I believe 36" wide - all for $80 bucks. Seems like a good deal - BUT I just wanted to see if anyone else has had experience with these types of enclosures before. It's one hundred percent screened - all the way around with light PVC (I believe) poles to keep the thing upright.

I appreciate the input.

- D
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2.0 Dogs (Dante the 110 lb. drooling lab & Amos the mutt)
0.1 Bearded Dragon (Lazlo - the pickiest lizard every met)
1.4 Leopard Geckos (Randall, Dagny, Kira, Dominique and Ayn)
1.0 Husband (the most obnoxious and yet rewarding pet of all!)
dacia2002@yahoo.com

Nope. Thumbs down. Grass came to us in one of those things, and it takes maybe a couple hours for her (a four-footer) to put a nice big hole in it and take off.

ps: You're going to want to make sure that those two males are in separate enclosures, or you're going to have some very nasty fights on your hands.

ditto. i had one for 5 months, it is not worth it

ig can tear it

ig will scrape nose on it

it has nowhere near enough space for even one medium sized ig

you have to get or build things inside it for the ig to climb

uv needs to hang inside it

it doesnt hold heat or humidity well

etc. try building something of your own. http://www.iguanaden.com/housing/pvc1.htm
http://www.iguanaden.com/housing/pvc2.htm
http://www.iguanaden.com/housing/pvc3.htm

sarah
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Sarah

Ditto to what they said PLUS they can tear out nails while digging and there is really no place to put shelving for basking as well as no place to anchor lights to keep them from being bumped AND the cages burn VERY easily even with a 75watt bulb 3 inches from the cage AS directed!!!
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Heather, Vern, Andy, Router, April And OODLES of fish

AND and, they're a pain in the @$$ to clean; veg & dead skin gets stuck *everywhere* in that mesh no matter how much hosing/soaking/etc you do.

not to mention if they *accidentally* poop in there! ack! I used layers and layers and layers of newspsper lol but sometimes it gets through or they poop down the sides *yuuck* lol. and its HARD to clean!
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Heather, Vern, Andy, Router, April And OODLES of fish

I don't like them, either. When we saw them at the petstore last year, we decided to buy one for Xander and try it out. It looked cool in the petstore. They had a veiled chameleon all set up in one and looking happy and healthy. But there were a lot of problems with it.

We had to set his spot light on top, and we were always worried it would burn through. We had some appliances like an electric water pump on the inside, but we had to run the cord out throught the zippered part, which made me really nervous.

Also, Xander would climb up the side walls and fray the cloth and a couple of times he got his claws stuck. It doesn't hold heat and humidity well at all.

I looked long and hard for a good commercialized iguana cage, but I haven't found one. Cagesbydesign makes some pretty okay looking reptile cages, but they are horribly expensive. I've decided that the best way to get everything you need in a cage is to build one yourself. We've put a couple hundred dollars into building Xander's cage, but it will be worth it in the end

Alika

i bought one for my conehead lizard. its made with pvc pipes and a mesh type material. it works great for my conehead but i think an adult ig could rip right trough the mesh with their claws. but you could make your own using a stronger material like that plastic coated chicken wire type stuff. and i think it would work great. also the cage i boughd is very light weight so it is easy to take out side and let my conehead bask in the sun. but make sure you put something heavy on the bottom to weigh it down.
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brandy

Just an fyi, since you use it as a basking cage...ive read that the finely woven black mesh filters out up to/around 50% of the UV from sources outside of the cage

sarah
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Sarah

hmmmm...that really stinks. the box said it was great for basking and wouldnt filter out rays. maybe i should build him an outside cage.
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brandy