Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hello all,
I was recenlty looking at some storage sheds, and was considering gettin a coated steel one to assemble in basement and modify to act as a lizard cage. What are your all's opinions on the workability of this? It seems like it would be a great low cost large cage option.
Thanks
-John

My first thought is how cold the steel will get in the basement. Steel sheds tend to absorb heat during the day, cool off fast at night and absorb the cold during the evening. Not sure how much temperature fluctuation would occur if you set it up in a basement.
Steel, like glass, seems to react quickly to environmental temps. We don't have basements in So. Cal, not usually. I cool my colubrids in my garage. Unusual for So. Cal. but the temps dip down into the low 40's because my home is on the back side of a hill. I get very little direct sunlight during the winter. A friend of mine lives just 15 minutes away in the center of the San Fernando Valley. His winter temps rarely get into the 50's. He was unable to breed his greeri that require lower temps during cooling. The male never produced good sperm and the female never even dropped slugs. I bought a pair and when I cooled them I setup a 60 gallon fish tank made with extra thick glass in the coldest corner of my garage. I stood this on end and stacked the sterilite boxes inside. Two days later when the glass was really cold, I wrapped some bubble pack around the tank and covered it with a sheet. Never had a problem breeding the greeri. 100% fertility every year. The tank acted like a refrigerator.
So I wonder if the steel shed will act the same way?
John Q

Thanks for your thoughts on the idea. I was also consern'd about the lack of insulatino that steal would provide. A few factors actually work for me in this way. First, I have a finished basement with electric baseboard heating, so the temp won't be going to cold on the half that's finished. I was also thinking if I couldn't keep the ambient temp up high enough, tack glueing some styrofoam insulatino boards to the outside. Not pretty, but functional. So in these ways, I'm hoping to mitigate the poor insulation offer'd by steal. I'm trying to find any other issues I might come up with as well. Thanks much for your thoughts. If you have any other please do offer. I'm thinking as of now though, that I might give it a try.
-John