Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I need some suggestions for my new uro cage in progress. The cage dimensions are 48"X 24" x 24", and it will house a pair of mali uromastyx. I was planning on using plexiglass for the front and hardware screen for the top.

If I built elevated basking level that the uro had to climb to, would he use it? (this will be my first pair of uro's) With a tank this high, should I mount heat lamps on top of the cage or inside of the cage? Has anyone tried insulating thier uro cage to prevent heating up their entire room? Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

The only thing I would really reconsider is the use of plexiglass for the front panel.
I had used lexan in the construction of my first uro cage and not only was it really expensive but within the first year the scratches from a yearling egyptian made it look really bad(looked like somebody took a sander to it....)
The dimensions for your enclosure really depends what
Uro you plan to put in it. Obviously a pair of egyptians would need a different environment than a pair of Hardwicki...
I would also recommend putting the heat lamps on the top shining down...my experience is lights (especially the UVb heat lamps) tend to burn out faster when mounted sideways up. Sorry, I guess I weighed in a few topics.
Blame the fathers day margaritas.......
Just my input.
Ed
>>I need some suggestions for my new uro cage in progress. The cage dimensions are 48"X 24" x 24", and it will house a pair of mali uromastyx. I was planning on using plexiglass for the front and hardware screen for the top.
>>
>>If I built elevated basking level that the uro had to climb to, would he use it? (this will be my first pair of uro's) With a tank this high, should I mount heat lamps on top of the cage or inside of the cage? Has anyone tried insulating thier uro cage to prevent heating up their entire room? Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.
>>

I'm starting to design my new cages which are a stackable modular format (48x24x18, 36x24x18) so I don't have to deal with an open top. The front door(s) are going to be some sort of transparent material pivoting out and down. The bottom pivot will be a 1.25" dowel with the glass set into that with a frame on three sides. I'm expecting this to totally resolve jamming with substrate and all related problems with other cage designs I've seen so far (some Uros love to dig).

If you mount your heaters inside the cage then you'll have less radiant heat loss into the room from the start, but you'll need to put more effort into protecting the animals from overheating conditions.
If you insulate the tank on all sides you may need to back up your heater with a thermostat to prevent flooding the environment. To maintain a hot spot you rely on continuously pumping heat into the container and often you expect to bleed part of that away. Insulation should promote a consistent average temperature in the environment, which really is not what we look for (gradient instead).

I've been replacing the lids on my glass containers and plastic bins with pegboard so there's at least some venting. I'm using the Megaheat units instead of ceramics for general efficiency and due to their focused nature there's minmal radiant heat leakage. No complaints from the animals and I've had them climbing on them with no harm.

I think if a Uro needs to climb to a heating spot it will, but you'll need to have soem sort of surface with traction in it to help- stacked rocks, tiles, a board with slots in it, etc. My hardwickii haven't been faring well on climbing a smooth board. Otherwise, my animals readily ascend whatever I put in their way. Generally, they prefer to sleep in the vicinity of the heater (under a rock under the heater) so you may consider accommodating behavior like that in your design. Probably helps them wake up in the morning
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2.4.0 uromastyx geyri (Saharan/Nigerian)
0.0.4 uromastyx hardwickii (Indian)
3.7.0 uromastyx macfadyeni (Somalian)
1.3.0 uromastyx ocellata (Sudanese)
"Yes, it's a problem. No, I don't want to talk about it."

What sort of a lighting/heating sceme would you recommend? I planned on placing a 100-150 watt lamp on top of the cage shinning down to provide heat, and placing a flourescent strip mounted inside the cage to provide UVB. Is there a better way to provide heat or UVB?

I have a cage with similar dimensions that I built last fall. I was surprised at how hard it was to get the temperature gradients where they needed to be in a cage that tall. I am currently running two (2) 150w ceramic heat emitters and two (2) 150w basking spots, plus the UVB of course. This not only gives Archie 2 basking spots, but it was necessary to keep the temperature gradient high enough. I prefer not to use some of the alternative forms of lighting, such as Mercury Vapor bulbs, for various reasons, but some people have used them with great success.

Elizabeth
http://web.ics.purdue.edu/~echarris/archcage/

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1.0 Mali Uro Archimedes
0.0.1 Egyptian Uro Zuberi Mosca Khu (Mosca)
0.0 Fish
0.1 Sulcata Minnie
1.1 Iguanas Flik and Loki
0.1 Newfoundland Jasmine (RIP)
0.1 Feline Winter
Indiana & Wisconsin

You're putting about 630 watts into the enclosure? That's more than my budget for six cages! My 36x28x18 Visions have a single 60w MegaHeat in the shroud (used to use 150w ceramics) plus a 3' UV bulb in the back (30-40w ambient). Works well with ambient SoCal temperatures (nights drop to around 50F) and I don't control my environment with AC or anything like that so there's no competition amongst devices. Four foot glass tanks get the same treatment and I sometimes worry about overheating with summer coming.
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2.4.0 uromastyx geyri (Saharan/Nigerian)
0.0.4 uromastyx hardwickii (Indian)
3.7.0 uromastyx macfadyeni (Somalian)
1.3.0 uromastyx ocellata (Sudanese)
"Yes, it's a problem. No, I don't want to talk about it."

That is what it seems to take, even on my little 40 gallon breeder I have 300w the uvb bulb. However I do NOT live in southern california. I keep the house about 78 in the summer, and 68 in the winter, so I am sure that has some bearing on the necessary wattages. I am sure there are things I could do to decrease the amount used on the big wood cage, covering, or partially covering the back, and finishing the glass doors so that there isn't a 3in gap between them and the top of the cage... but there is only so much time in a day!

Elizabeth
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1.0 Mali Uro Archimedes
0.0.1 Egyptian Uro Zuberi Mosca Khu (Mosca)
0.0 Fish
0.1 Sulcata Minnie
1.1 Iguanas Flik and Loki
0.1 Newfoundland Jasmine (RIP)
0.1 Feline Winter
Indiana & Wisconsin

I don't know much about building a cage, but i do know that my 7 month old mali loves to climb. I've put in a few decor obstacles and elevated a portion of his/her tank. When Zazu isn't sleeping near his heating pad he's running and climbing around. So in my case, my mali loves to climb.