Reptile & Amphibian Forums

In an attempt to maybe jumpstart some more natural behaviors in my Sheltopusiks and perhaps get some breeding next spring I decided to redo the interior of their cage. I made a trip to a local park to collect some grasses and other assorted herbaceous plants to better mimic their natural habitat. So far they're just exploring and trying their best to flatten all those grasses. It'll be interesting to see if they kill the plants because of their high activity levels or will the plants survive. I'm going to install another lighting fixture so that I can run one of the daylight compact fluorescents for the benefit of the plants and also the increased light intensity may help in stimulating breeding. I'll be interested to see just how well the native plants hold up in the cage as well.

This is an image of the right side of the cage

This is the left side

Close up of a hollow log cave/hide

Close up of an elevated area with grass clumps

-----
Matt Campbell
25 years herp keeping experience
Full-time zookeeper
Personal collection - 21 snakes (9 genera), 20 lizards (4 genera), 6 chelonians (2 genera)

The actual cage is constructed using the method used by GTP breeder Greg Maxwell. I decided to try Maxwell's method of cage construction to see how I like it. Certain aspects I liked but ultimately I didn't like the idea enough to make more than the single cage. It's a shell of 1/2 inch MDF with a 1x4 pine face frame. The inside is lined with forest green contact paper. There is heating provided by three 20 watt undercabinet halogen lights. Supplemental lighting is an 18 inch fluorescent tube that can have a UVB bulb in it. I'll be adding a fixture for a daylight compact fluorescent to up the light intensity. There is also a single misting head installed in the ceiling of the cage. The front is bypass doors of 1/4 inch thick plexiglass with a custom thumb screw to keep the doors closed without having to use a showcase lock. All joints were glued with Liquid Nails For Projects and screwed with SPAX screws.
-----
Matt Campbell
25 years herp keeping experience
Full-time zookeeper
Personal collection - 21 snakes (9 genera), 20 lizards (4 genera), 6 chelonians (2 genera)

Matt,

I love Sheltos, one of my favorite lizards. They are absolutely brutal on plants, however.

One thing that works well is to build a planter box a few to several inches off the ground, all along the back panel of the cage and most of the way along the sides. Then plant something that will grow long enough to drape over the planter and onto the cage floor. For a species like a Shelto, they are not very likely to climb up into the planter and crush the plants where they are most delicate. Instead they are only crawling over the parts that are lying on the ground and are not as delicate.

Also, the planter overhang provides another hiding area of sorts.

There is a species of ivy that would work well and I'm certain there are several longer grasses that would work.

The only downfall to this approach is that the lizards will not deficate onto the area where the plants are growing from, which is a nice benefit to naturalistic vivaria. But it can be very difficult to have plants in a shelto cage otherwise, so well worth it, IMO.

What are your likes/dislikes with the Maxwell design? I think it's a decent combo of cheap cost and decent looks/durability. But they are heavy.

Chris,

I had a Sheltopusik a few years back and it too was rough on plants. I tried to get around that by keeping the plants in pots but then it just burrowed into the pots. I ended up having to try to place wire screen over the tops of the pots and that still didn't keep them out. I ended up throwing in the towel regarding plants. With this latest group of Sheltopusiks, I hadn't tried plants until now, so I'll have to see just how well they do long term. I'm more concerned about the plants dieing off from not getting enough light rather than lizard abuse. If they trash the current plants I'll try something more hardy.

As for Maxwell's design - I like the finished look of the cages and MDF is a strong wood for this type of construction - better than particle board/melamine in that it's easier to screw into the edges, especially if you use SPAX screws. A variation of this design was used at the Wildlife Discovery Center where I do some exhibit consulting. Those cages seem to have held up well, but it seems like silicone doesn't stick too well to the contact paper so we had some cages where the silicone came up in the corners - this actually happened with my cage as well. Also, forget using this cage design with lizards that will actively claw at the walls - they'll shred the contact paper.

Maxwell's design is good if you want to build the cages into an area and I like that they stack as well. Working with the contact paper can be a real bear, especially trying to keep the air bubbles out. I don't think there are really too many detractions to this type of construction except that the MDF will not hold up as well when making cages larger than 4 foot wide. I have a feeling that even with 3/4 inch MDF [which is what Maxwell used it would still tend to sag over a longer distance without any reinforcement. I just didn't want to build any more cages with this design because they were too freakin' heavy.
-----
Matt Campbell
25 years herp keeping experience
Full-time zookeeper
Personal collection - 21 snakes (9 genera), 20 lizards (4 genera), 6 chelonians (2 genera)