Reptile & Amphibian Forums

This is the cage i plan on building if I get a Monitor or Tegu in the future. I'm still unsure of what type of wood to use and what kind of Glass/Plexi i should use that is resitent enough and is drillable. Any input is welcomed.

My suggestions:

Forget the screening on top. I'm sure you've read by now about how it dehydrates the cage and occupants. Instead, mount the heat lamps inside the cage. You can get ceramic screw in fixtures for cheap.

Plexi will scratch up quickly from your lizard's claws. Glass can shatter. If you don't mind poor viewing quality, plexi is safe , lightweight, and inexpensive. 1/4 inch tempered glass is fairly durable and very scratch resistant, but heavy and expensive. Your choice.

If you go with a monitor, it is best to leave room for 2 feet of dirt for the lizard to burrow in. This might also be good for tegus, too. I have pictures of my enclosures for my argus monitors at
http://www.pizards.com/hbd/tricks.html
This might give you some ideas (not that I use plexi for the windows, so you can see how scratched up they get).

Good luck,

Luke

I was going to put screen on my top too, but I see your point now. I didn't see a door either in the design. I'm getting ready to build another cage for my argus. The plan is to use the current 4Lx2Wx2H box, that has a makeshift lid, as a base. I'm basically using it in place of a stock tank and basing it off the lwcamp's cages. The only thing I'm having problems with is coming up with the sliding doors.

Keep in mind that if the base your using is wood, it will rot out in a couple of years. You could probably make it work though if you got lenolium or plexiglass or something and glued it to the walls and floor of your "base", and then sealed all of the cracks, making a water tight base. I figure if I ever get monitors or more uros and want to do a dirt setup, I'd probably just do a wood cage, but seal the inside like I said, just because it seems like it might be a little easier than building around a cattle trough (to me at least).

Good luck with the new cage.

I'm also in the process of building a new enclosure, I've been away from monitors for a couple years (since my Savannah "Dork" died) but figured I'd see what the all the hubbub with ackies was about. Anyway, you're not asking about that, your asking about cages...

Definitely ditch the screen on top and mount inside lights. Your also going to want to add a "bottom" to your design to hold the substrate, the metal troughs seem to be working great for alot of people. I'm going with a plywood reinforced wood frame coverd with fiberglass. Expensive? Yes. Stupid idea? Possibly. But I always wanted to play with fiberglass and this seems like a good excuse.

As for the glass/plexiglass front. I say go with glass. It doesn't scratch up so when everyone here is begging for new pictures you can just snap one off of the animal in the cage. Plus plexiglass tends to crack around the edges after a while. I was out pricing a couple days ago and first place I stopped I could get 4 X 4 1/4" reinforced panes for about $60 a pop. I plan on cutting 1/4" wide 1/2" deep grooves into the wood frame where each pane will go and sliding the glass in there. Easier and better reinforcement than anything else I could figure out.

I also plan on coating the exposed wood on the inside of the enclosure with epoxy to make cleaning the cage easier (among other reasons) so in doing that my choice of wood got alot easier, whatever's cheapest (other than pine) at home depot.

The problem I have ultimately is the narrowest door the cage will have to pass through is 38". So the entire cage has to be "modular", but I'm figuring it out as I go.

I hope my little advice is not too outdated. Good luck.

-Andrew

the door was on top. Just lift it up. Btw, i'm not sure how to do sliding doors, thats why i was just going to screw the front on in one piece.

Also, that way I wont have to worry about substrate falling out everywhere when i get the animal out. In the long run, i'll prolly build it bigger than what i should to just be on the safe side. Bigger is better.....

The Glass is the only real thing i'm worried about cause finding a piece that big is going to be hard. I may just put a runner in the middle and buy 2 pieces and just do it that way.

I bought a piece of glass that was 3'x2' 1/4" tempered from a place that does auto glass replacement for about $30.00. They said they could make me a custom piece to what ever size I wanted. A good piece of plexi taht size would probably cost a good deal more (based on my local prices a 2x4 sheet of 1/4" scratch resistant plexi was $60.00). I personally would go with 2 pieces since working with that size glass may be awkward. As for sliding doors and substrate, that's what the stock tank is used for in the cage designs on www.pizards.com, or you could build up a substrate "dam" if you don't want to use the stock tank idea. I currently have 3 cages, none with sliding doors, and really wished I had them on all my cages.

If you do decide to put the doors on top, either Only have part of the top open, and have the other part the part where you put lights. You could do the lights one of two ways really. Either do internally mounted lights...3-4 halogens....just go to homedepot or lowes and find those little white porcelain fixtures that mount on wiring boxes. Or, you could cute 9" circular holes in the top and put screen or wire mesh there to hold clamp lamps. I would suggest the first idea because it's cheaper and easier. Occasionally a monitor may touch the lights, but if you find this is actually a problem (most of the time they are smart enough to stay away from them) you can just make a wire or screen cage to go around the bulbs. I'm pretty sure you won't have a problem with this, and you can minimize the risk simply by not putting them right near a cage side (where the monitor can easily crawl up to them), and by not having them too low in the cage...basically you want them just out of reach. Like I said though, this is very seldom a problem, especially with how intelligent monitors are. Oh, and mount the light fixtures basically in a straight line over the basking area.

Also, you can't screw glass, keep that in mind. I would suggest getting glass because it's cheaper though. Someone else on here will give a suggestion on how to fix the glass to the tank I'm sure. If I were you I would definately go with just building around a cattle trough. The ideas me and some other people come up with for basically waterproofing wood using lenolium, plexiglass, fiberglass, etc. will probably work, but I don't think it's really worth you trouble.

I read alot of comments against plexiglass because it gets scratched and it's hard t take a good picture.
From my experience scratching is the least of my problems. My biggest problem with seeing through the glass is all the dirt that gets thrown everywhere. Hell, I can't see any scratches due to all the dirt and dust on the windows.

Scott
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Do not meddle in the affairs of dragons, for you are crunchy and taste good with ketchup.