Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hi everyone...

I have a 632 Vision cage that I used to house my savannah monitors in before they died. I now have a six-month-old black and white tegu who will soon be outgrowing his current housing. How can I modify the 632 so that it will be suitable for my new fella? If anyone has pics of their Vision cage setups, that would be great.

Thanks.

The best option is to sell the vision and use the money to build a cage. visions are for snakes. there is no way to make a proper set-up in one for a tegu, or a sav. there no room for substrate, or a proper temp gradient.

I had no problems with temp gradients with my savs in the Visions (that was the one husbandry problem that never surfaced in my sav years)--my temperatures were quite in line with what the major care sheets and my veterinarian recommended.

what exactly was the temp gradient, and to get the correct substrate for a sav in a vision cage, it would be full to the top.

but anyhow. building an enclosure is the way to go. boamaster does make a good one, the large wood ones. but thats about the only commercially available cage worth the money. you will be much happier, and so will your animals in an enclosure designed for thier needs.

I'll take a look at it.

It's true that I never got the substrate ideal (obviously). That was a drawback that I was hoping to figure out. The temperature gradient averaged 85 ambient with a 125 degree hot spot according to the temp gun. It took some work, but that was never much of a problem--the only temperature-related mishap I had was during the heat wave when ambient temperatures in my apartment were 120 degrees (melted rubber and candles!). Both lizard and I were unhappy then.

I'm curious how deep does the substrate have to be for tegu?
Best, FH

It will be fine as long as you get the right basking temp (around 110 degrees in a decent-size area) and gradient (80-85 cool end). You can use a 12 x 24" radiant heat panel and an elevated slab of slate (place on a foundation of bricks) to get the right basking temp. An additional 6 x 12" rhp might be needed for the cool end, depending on your room temps. And then you'll need to use good cage lighting.

(I am using a 12 x 24 rhp and a 6 x 12" rhp in a 6-foot Animal Plastics cage that's 18" high. My setup is as I described above. I also have two cage-protected fixtures for 24" UV bulbs (from Cages by Design).

If you use a humid hide box you do not need to have deep substrate throughout the cage. For the rest of the cage a couple inches of mulch will do just fine.

Get a plastic storage box (not a clear one) that comes with a top. Like the tubs they use to collect dishes in restaurants. Cut an access hole in the top, secure the top onto the tub with four small bolts and nuts. Keep the box half full with damp, clean mulch. Your tegu will use the box every night as they use their burrow in the wild. And the rest of the cage will be much easier to keep clean. Make sure the box is cozy fitting - a burrow that the tegu can fit in, but not a larger predator.

The humid hide box is a recommendation of Ron St. Pierre, and people have been keeping tegus like that for a long, long time. Successfully.

If you need a company to get the tub from, let me know and I'll dig out my catalog. Rubbermaid makes them. Mine is gray.

Bill

Thank you for your help. I know if I were buying a cage with the tegu in mind I might not have gone with a Vision, but that actually sounds like a great set-up, and one that I could manage.