Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hey guys......long time.

I am working on an enclosure that is pretty well room sized but I wanted to get your experiences with using wire. I am considering using it to seperate the monitors half of the room from my half of the room. I will probably use plexi or lexan on the opposite side of the frame to hold in humidity and keep them visable. I just haven't had any luck with that stuff remaining clear after they claw on it for months.

I have considered everything from stockade fence (aprox 2x4 inch holes) to hardware cloth (aprox .5 inch holes) and I am trying to come up with what would be best & safest from the monitors point. Any suggestions? All help appreciated.

This is for Yoshi & his female btw. they are each well over 5 feet.

Thanks, Gene

I used plastic netting that looks like chicken wire for my six foot green Iguana and have been really pleased with the results. Anything else I used he would rip his nails out on. There is pic of my enclosure with this netting in my photos.

I'll check it out, Thanks.

I was concerned with his claws too. Not to mention that I don't know if plastic netting will hold up to his abuse or not. He is at best guess probably arond 30 pounds now.

This netting is really thick. I've seen it at Home Depot and Lowes. Everybody asked me if it would hold up when I put it my cage and its fine.

A friend used that on his salvadori cage, and I knew a guy who had all of his outdoor cages made of similar stuff (smaller wholes and black).

As much as my large waters mess up things I don't think I would try it with them. I have a few other monitors I am not sure I would try it with either, although I will admit it seems to be pretty tough stuff.

NP

Glad to hear yoshi is doing well.

Hopefully wire will work for your needs. I use it on my outdoor cages as well as my cages on my back porch. The florida weather keeps them humid.

The wire I use is both regular and vinly coated. The vinyl coated wire is alot more forgiving on nose rubbing skittish monitors. But on my big waters that are used to everyone and anything the regular wire has been fine. What I use is called welded wire it comes in 100ft. rolls. I bought it off my local farm/feed store. It comes in many sizes 1/2" x 1/2", 1" x 1", 1" x 2", 2" x 2" etc. .

This website sells it and it will give you an idea of what it is that I am using. Bass Equipment

Glad to hear from you. I have been around, mostly lurking, but I have not given up on the hobby. Currently I have 6 salvators of varying age & a couple of ackies. Not to mention the other stuff.

I will check out that wire. I just can't afford to keep changing panels of plexi when they get to scratched up to see through.

Thanks for your help.

of very big lizards or atleast soon to be big. But hey I know the feeling haha

Post some pictures of them if you get a chance, good to see your still around.

Yeah it is.......

I only have this pic at the moment and it's the largest out of the bunch with the exception of Yoshi & his lady. I have only had them a couple of weeks now. Two are speckled & two are Sumatran.

Hi Gene, If your cage is inside, like in the basement or a large room, I would not consider wire. There are many reasons for this.

Lets start with, inside(like with small cages) you must heat the cage, to heat is to dry the air. Heating is normally cooking air. Cooking air, normally removes moisture. Therefore, inside houses its normally very dry. Now if you think about it, if the inside of houses was not dry, they would mold and fungus and rot. Which is what happens outside in normal Wild air.

The question now becomes, do you want to ruin your house to keep the conditions for a "Water" montior suitable??????

I recomend using glass, its the cheapest and the best. But with large monitors I would make the bottom two feet of the walls, solid and use the glass up high, that way they will not tail whip it and possibly break it. On the other hand, I keep lots of monitors and use very thin glass and never had a monitor break the glass. They surely have tail whipped it many times. In the 14 years I have been keeping monitors, I have seen two broken pieces of glass. Both were broken by me, more specific, my knee broke them.

If I were to make cages for water monitors, and I have, I would make the bottom two or three feet concrete walls then build normal stick built walls on top of them. This way, the walls will not rot from all the water needed for waters, hahahahahahaha. You get the picture. I do have some pics somewhere of me pouring such walls, both for inside and outside cages. Thanks FR

Hi Frank,
In fact the cage is in a large room on the second floor of my house so I can't use concrete walls. But I have already built walls 2 feet high & lined them with FRP. I will have that on the 2' walls & on the floor of the enclosure.

I see your point about the humidity & heat / drying issue. I will see what kind of glass is available from some local companies. It will probably be well worth the trouble to do that.

My other idea was wire on the inside of the cage & plexi or something suitable on the out that may be more cost effective and lighter. Not to mention holding in humidity.

Thanks again.
Gene