Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I'm in the process of building a new enclosure for my Savannah monitor and wanted to share the idea. It would be 90"x34"x36". I have such odd Dimensions because I'm building the cage to fit under a rack I've already purchased. Anyway the outter frame of it is going to be regular plywood with Cement board on the inside frame. I thought this would be a good idea since I'm going to be using so much dirt inside and need somthing sturdy to hold it along with moisture. I can't quite decide on having the lights inside the cage or have them on the outside resting on screen to give him a few more inches of head space. Any ideas, thoughts, or pics would be helpful.

myself, i'd get a stock tank. plywood and cement board will cost more and will be heavier. Plus time in constuction. Clint

Great looking healthy Savannah . You can tell its well cared for.
If no one can help you here have you asked in the monitor forum?
I cant help you as far as small monitor cage goes but wanted to say great looking animal.
Luis

Your dimensions are fine. Plywood and cement backer board are good to, just be sure to seal them with the appropriate sealer. You could even leave out the backer board, plywood will do just fine.

As far as putting the lights in or out, its up to you. At 36" you'll probably have to have a raised baskig area regardless (depending on how deep your substrate is). I prefer to put my lights inside. I have never had any problems with my monitors touching them and they keep the cage nice and warm. I always mount them at one end so the opposite end is the cool side.

Good luck and your sav looks great!

I would agree with Latimer on mounting the lights on the inside, that way your not loosing any heat. Are you planning on filling the enclosure with "dirt"? Clint

Yes I do plan on putting dirt all throughout the cage, at least 12 inches which is a hell of a lot of dirt, which is my reason for choosing the cement board. By putting lights on the outside of the cage do you really believe you loose heat? Thanks for all the compliment on my savv, i rescued him from a horrible petstore.

I don't understand the need for the backer board. It's fairly textured which will make it difficult to clean.

Plwood can be sealed and handle both the weight and moisture of dirt so I'd just use that.

>>Yes I do plan on putting dirt all throughout the cage, at least 12 inches which is a hell of a lot of dirt, which is my reason for choosing the cement board. By putting lights on the outside of the cage do you really believe you loose heat? Thanks for all the compliment on my savv, i rescued him from a horrible petstore.
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Current snakes:

0.2 Gonyosoma oxycephala - (Silver/Yellow)

3.3 Gonyosoma oxycephala - (Green)

2.1 Gonyosoma janseni - (Black)

3.3 Gonyosoma janseni - (Black & Tan)

I had my ackies in a stock tank and loved how it worked. I did have the lights mounted on the outside, using some hardware cloth attached to the plexi lid. The reflectors for the lights got hot enough that i had to use a glove whenever i had to move the lights. I was using 2 50 watt halogins. My thought was that it was a lot of heat that could have been kept in the enclosure.
Clint

I re-read this thread, And this is my thoughts on your material of choice. For alot of herps, plywood cages are a good choice. If you are going to keep your sav. (which does look like you keep him well) properly, example- soil,lighting,waterbowl for soaking. All that dirt you will be putting in there needs to be keep damp, or the burrows will collapse, not to mention alot of monitors will flip their water containers. Now hears my point, the material of choice has to be able to with stand constant moisture and dampness. The cement board will not keep the wood dry, any concrete product absorbs moisture. This moisture will wick through the cement board and affect the plywood. So, the plwood will have to be sealed well, adding more cost and time to the project. If you are still going to go with plywood, line the enclosure with frp or some similar material. This will cut down on weight as well as being more appropriate for your application. Just out of curiosity, why are you opposed to using a stock tank. I can tell you that after using alot of different cage materials over the years, for keeping monitors a stocktank is very hard to beat. For my Ackies (now traded) tank, I cut a viewing window out of the front, bought a piece of tempered glass and siliconed it in place, i used plexi for the lid. Keep us posted on this, i'll give you my thoughts on this. This cage you are building is big and going to cost a certain amount of money, and time to construct. Think things through because a mistake is going to be a bummer. Build it right the first time. Clint

I agree with everything Clint said, especially the part about thinking things through and doing it right the first time.

Again, the cement will absorb water if you don't seal it and paint it with some type of pool paint. Even then, one scratch from your monitor and the seal is broken. I'm not sure if you've priced cement sealer or pool paint lately, but its not cheap.

Plywood is plenty strong and its easy to work with. Seal it, silicon the corners and paint it. Simple!

Keep us posted on what you decide!