Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I love my pets, and I want the best for them, though sometimes there seems to be a small clash there. What I mean is, as you may remember from back when the great soil debate was raging, one of my concerns with a full burrowing setup was not being able to get to my uro if I needed too without having to dig her out (unlike with hidespots, where if you really need to get to a reptile, you can just lift the hidespot, though I avoid this when at all necessary due to stress concerns). This isn't about soil or anything, because we all know that that just ends in pointless debates, eventually ending in all of us realizing that we don't all have to conform to such specific husbandry practices when there are many safe ways to go. I'm really more interested in seeing if I'm just crazy or not for having such a concern. I know there are people on here that use soil setups, and others that don't, so I figured there would be a good mix of people to lend their thoughts on the subject.

I don't like to dig my animals out unless I need to move them to another tank for some reason, or they have meds that need to be given, so I understand your dilemma. I haven't had an increased amount of trouble with accessing my uros due to dirt, I normally see them above ground a lot during the day.
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April
1.0 Mali Uromastyx- Embrodak,
0.1 Saharan Uromastyx- Scheherazade
2.1 Mountain Horned Dragon- Beren, Luthien and Tinuviel
3.0.5 Hermit Crabs- Violet, Polly, Jennifer, Trogdor, Hedwig, Penelope and Sinistra
1.1 Five lined Skink- Leela and Fry
1.0 Bettas-Nuala

that it might have to do with a number of things. I think mainly it has to do with the individual animal. I like being able to get to my mali if I need to (I almost never have to get her straight from the hide though), partly because she has a strange tendancy to "hold it in" until she's not in her cage, so having to take her out every other day is sort of a normal thing for me, and for her. She does seem to enjoy her out time too. She gets lots of exercise by scurrying across the room. But then when I think about it, in the future, when I'm out of my parents house and everything, it would be pretty cool to have a big 8' enclosure with tons of dirt, and a few uros (maybe ornates) that act more like wild animals, and in a cage that large they wouldn't need to come out regularly for exercise. But then I'd probably also want a mali ro something (hopefully Sam will still be around then) that can be a little more personable. As of right now though, I don't really have a choice as far as either concerns go...I only have a certain amount of space for enclosures, and my parents don't want anymore reptiles in the house, so for now I can just dream about it.

I don't know. I guess I'm wierd.

I understand where you're coming from. I want to invest in a large and tall-ish cage for my uros. I intend to build an underground network of burrows using flexible piping and buried tubs for easy retrieval if need be. I will also build "up", meaning putting in branches and rocky outcrops for them to climb. This way, they can go vertical, underground or just run around. I'm waiting until Isis's quarantine is up and will introduce her to Ra in their much larger common enclosure. I sure hope all will go well.
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1.1 Mali Uromastyx (Ra and Isis)

That seems like a great idea for a burrowing system. Not sure how it will go, because uro's seem to be free spirits that want to burrow where they want, but good luck with it. it seems like a very cool idea for an enclosure. I'm about to start building my new enclosures, and they will just be the standard 4'x2'x2' stacking cages, though the idea of a huge, tall enclosure sounds quite tempting. The plans for the cages I'm building have a framed front (for the framed glass doors to attach to), so the built in litter damn is only about 1.75-2" tall, but it does work well with my current plan, and my current setup. Right now I have a setup that's actually loosely based on yours (it's where I got the idea for it). I have a short tank, so even a two story retes stack was a little tall (and each stack is only 2" tall, so you can tell this is a short tank). So, I seperated the retes stack, which is about 10" by 11" I believe, and I submerged them in dirt on the warm side of the tank so now the temps are perfect up on top, and it's a fairly long hide, so there's actually a good thermal gradient inside. So far it's worked out great, and I don't need to use as much dirt (about 1.5", but I filled the hide with dirt for her to dig out).

So basically thanks a lot for giving me the idea. I've noticed that sometimes she'll try digging further than her hide will allow (and her cage too for that matter), so with the new cages I'm going back to the drawing board to design a new burrow/hide for her. Since the new hide is probably going to contain more dirt, I'm probably going to use a mixture of a thin layer of soil for the rest of the cage, and probably some slate tiles in some areas. Then, I'll of course have normal hides on the warm side and the cool side, and a designated basking spot for her. As you can see I'm quite excited about this. I'm trying to figure out what I'm going to do for my bearded dragon's new cage setup and I think it's just going to be a combination of good pieces of grapevine and lots of cork bark.

I sort of went off on a tangent there I guess, but since you were talking about your new cage idea (let me know how it works out...and post pics of building it and the final setup...how big will it be?)... I just sort of let loose some of the ideas that were flying around my head. I want her to have the benefit of being able to dig, without having to have 300 pounds of dirt up in my room. Plus, she'll be in the middle cage, so I can only put in a certain amount of substrate. The bottom cage will just be a cabinet for my cricket container for my beardie, and his feeding container (I feed him outside of his cage, it's much easier for me and him...don't have to go searching for crickets later).... but eventually I'm going to want another reptile for that one...I'm hoping for a ball python I've got college to worry about in a couple years though, so I'll have to put that on hold. Darn you college!!!

P.S. I've determined that when i get typing about something that I'm interested in I write a little too much. Sorry about that.

Rabbit season.
Duck season.
Rabbit season!
Duck season!

::confused::