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Here is a rough drawing of my tegu cage, with dimensions...does this sound good? dimensions are on the pic!

Thanks

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kdrkreatures.com
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the length is good, but the depth and height isnt so great. i wouldnt put an adult tegu in anything less deep than 3' and i know everyone in the forum probably thinks i am obcessed with dirt. but im trying to get across how much tegus burrow and WILL USE a good 2' of dirt.mine have tons of burrows in their cages, and the love digging. and it wears those nails down.i now have Taz in a 8x4x4 with his younger brother. i have 2' of dirt in the cage, and everday they trample the burrows when they come out to eat, and then once all warmed up get back to the fun.

He specified in the cage forum that he wanted the depth of the cage to be 30" so it could fit through the door easily.

As for dirt, this was a big topic in the uro forum, and if you can do dirt, great, but for some people it's just a little hard to have 2' of dirt in their cage. For my uro right now I have a long hidespot I made that's basically buried in a couple of inchs of dirt, and she loves that. Everyonce in a while I'll fill it back up with dirt and she'll have her little burrow dug out again in a day. In the next cage I'm building for her, I'm going to keep with the thin layer of dirt (probably particularly thin this time because she'll be in the middle cage of a stack and I want to keep weight down), but I'm going to add a rubbermaid box full of good dirt for her to dig in. I wonder if maybe this would work well with a tegu? I know everything would be on a bigger scale, but I'm just thinking.

Oh, and also, the only cages that will last for more than a couple of years filled with dirt are those that are waterproofed good enough to hold water (because you have to add water to dirt to keep it diggable). When I get older and move out, and have the ability to do a nice diggable setup, I think what I would do is cover the bottom and sides of the cage (as far up as the dirt will go) with lenolium and seal up all the edges. A good, tested design though is to build around a cattle trough.

That looks like a good size tank for your tegu. The casters are a great idea. If I ever get around to it I will be adding them to mine. Probably not till next time I need to move it though.(lol) The only tip is to make sure your bottom lip is high enough to hold the thick susbtrate about 8" or so otherwise when you open the doors substrate falls out and makes a mess. I had to modify mine. Good luck
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Beau W.

"There are no athiests in foxholes. It is not an argument against athiesm but rather one against foxholes." James Morrow

I agree with the above posters. Nice deep substrata makes for a happy tegu. And definately make sure you have a high litter dam; lots higher than the depth of the substrata, if you can. Mine love to excavate right at the front of the enclosure, and can build up a 12" 'wall' of substrata above the top of the litter dam. I just had to get a long piece of glass cut to extend the hight of my litter dam by 6". Currently, I get a shower of cyprus all over the floor every time I open the door.

Tegus are fun, but they sure are messy.

Leslie

you might want less ventilation to keep the humidity up
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Bennett

www.beardiedragon.com

I would not go with a full hardware cloth top. Do a wood top and cut out a section big enough to hold 2-3 basking lamps, then cover that section with hardware cloth. Makes for much better humidity retention. Other than that, sounds good. Just about the same as my 4' male's cage. Billy

>>Here is a rough drawing of my tegu cage, with dimensions...does this sound good? dimensions are on the pic!
>>
>>Thanks
>>
>>-----
>>kdrkreatures.com
>>Email
>>
>>____
>>
>>Signature file edited; oversized banner removed. Please update/correct. [phw 8/31/04]