Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Well, i added another heat lamp which i had laying around (turns out one of the 5000 old bulbs actually did work, heh) so i put the monitor in.

The enclosure is insulated with glass wool (i think thats what its called in english, its that yellow stuff that irritates the skin) and its has two layers of glass.

I know the cage looks pretty empty at the moment but i didnt want to put in plants or a water bowl just yet as i have a feeling he is going to tear the cage apart over the next few days. Ill let him settle in first.

He seems happy, hes been running around ficking his tungue at EVERYTHING.
Anyway, without further crazy ramblings:

He was digging within 10min but he quickly lost interest and went off to explore again.

A quick break

It was funny to watch him when he came to the big glass. He obviously doesnt understand that he cant see it but it still stops him.

The view from my desk:

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"From my rotting body flowers shall grow, and i them - and that is eternity."

Your cage is not too bad. But way too much wasted space. Why all the empty vertical space? Plus all your hot air is going up there. Put some shelf-like furniture in there. Also, the way your basking lights are, your basking temps will not be proper, at least without turning your cage into a pressure cooker. Don't bother putting plants in as they will last 2 minutes. Also, he will outgrow that very quickly. But it's decent structural starting point.

Hmm. No plants huh?

Im going to the park later this week to cut down bigger branches to fill in the space. Ive never had a cage this big before so i didnt have stuff to put in.

As for cage size. Its made in parts (sides, back, front, floor and ceiling) and you can take it apart pretty easily. When he outgrows that i'll take off the front and build on it.

As for the heat lamps, what would you recommend. The shelf idea sounded pretty good and will be easy to make. So i was thinking about moving the hot spot on that. But then how do i heat the cool end? At the momment in the cage, the cool end is about 80-85. Hot end is 90-110 with the hotspot being about 130.

Anyway, i did manage to find a branch that he powered up litterally 2 seconds after i closed the enclosure again.

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"From my rotting body flowers shall grow, and i them - and that is eternity."

Good idea for expanding. If your temps are what you say, then they are pretty good. I just thought the basking lights were too high off the ground to get good basking temps up to 130-150, as that's what you want. Here's pic of a cage, with my wife as well.

The cage looks great. I agree that a shelf in there for the basking spot would be nice. It would give him more variety and somewhere else to go and explore. All in all I really like the cage. It is not too bare.

Just for an idea, here is one of my cages with a shelf for a basking shelf. The shelf is behind my wife. (she was packing the dirt down, I don't always keep her in there)

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Ed

There are chameleons, pythons, and monitors in my jungle room.