Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hi,
I have been wanting to make a cage for my lizards, that have environmental needs similar to that of an iguana, for some time now. They are called Prehensile-tailed Skinks (Corucia zebrata). They need high humidity, so PVCX is probably the best thing to use. Their current cage is made of MDF that I painted and sealed(by the way, I did not build this cage, I got it for free from a friend and modified it for my lizards). However, the constant humidity has taken its' toll on the cage, so that the 3/4 inch material it is made of is now about 1 and 1/2 inches near the bottom of the cage. I want my new cage to be at least six feet tall, at least two feet wide, and at least three feet deep. I am thinking of using 1/4 inch PVCX. I want one side to be made of clear doors with vents near the bottom. I am not sure yet what I will use for the door. I plan on using a chemical weld in addition to the PVC angle stuff. I may just heat up the PVCX and bend it to avoid joints. This may be a problem since I have only seen PVCX in 4'X 8' sheets. Oh, I completely forgot why I was posting. I want to have a few shelves in this cage, but I have not idea how I would accomplish this with PVCX. Could I just use L-brackets? Would there be any way to make this cage more portable? Since I will probably chemically weld the angles, I do not see how I would break it down to make it more portable. I also want to use PVCX because it is not very heavy, but it is still strong. Since it is not very heavy, it would make it easier to move around. If there is some other material that would be better for my cage, please tell me about it. I don't really want to use plywood, but I suppose it would make a good cage as long as I sealed it well. How would I go about installing branches and what not in the cage? I don't really want to drill a bunch of holes to install the branches, but I may end up having to do just that. Any suggestions or comments about any part of my post would be appreciate. Thanks for the help, Josh

>> I have been wanting to make a cage for my lizards... they are called Prehensile-tailed Skinks (Corucia zebrata). They need high humidity, so PVCX is probably the best thing to use.

I've kept Corucis zebrata and a few of my friends breed them. Do not keep these lizards in a PVCX cage. I love PVCX but a C. zebrata will just scratch it up.

PVCX is two, very thin layers of PVC sandwiched over a foamed layer of PVC. A Corucia will easily scratch through this thin layer and water will seep into the cells of the foamed layer.

What happens next is the plastic expands, very similar to what you've seen with your MDF.

You could choose another matieral but you will have weight issues.

Also, I highly recommend you do not use any 1/4" material for a 6' tall cage - it just won't be stable enough.

I can think of two choices.

One is to use a modified shower stall similar to what monitor breeders use.

Another is to find a source of the square aluminum tubing connectors and make a frame out of that.

Then you can have a thin plastic material set into the frame.

Similar to this cage from Freedom Breeder. This picture is linked from Chondrolicious.com

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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)