Reptile & Amphibian Forums

in a couple of years i would love to own a frilled lizard, however i currently have a couple of questions regarding their care. i currently do not know much, but i have plenty of time to research. what would an ideal display enclosure size be? my father routinely designs atriums and such into buildings (architect) and i would like to create a similar effect in a new york apartment setting, on a smaller scale. as it is a display enclosure, i would like to use leaf litter as a substrate, as there are several large house trees in a loft my family owns (ceilings are high) , where its likely i will end up living for a couple years into my 20’s, and the leaves would be available free. i believe the trees are ficus, I’m not entirely sure though. is this a suitable substrate? i imagine it cant be more natural.if not, how would textured Formica work? its been recommended to me by my dad for my bearded dragon, its just i couldn’t find it in smaller than a 96x48 sheet. now, in terms of height, would 4 feet be sufficient? i was looking into this enclosure, and wondered if it would be suitable to house one adult animal?

http://www.customcages.com/index.cfm?do=detail&productid=46

in order to emulate a tree or small group of trees i was considering mounting PVC pipe as a support structure and then fitting cork bark tubes over it, is this an acceptable design? as at the time that this would be set up, i would be in Manhattan, which is much more difficult for the collection of suitable climbing branches, although i suppose a student on the subway carrying five or six massive tree limbs would be lost in the usual level of unusual subway existence, but i digress. lastly, i tend to err on the side of whole meals for the animals that can eat them, whats the recommended portion of their diet that frozen/thawed mice would compromise? I’m fine with insects, i have large amounts of supers on hand for Rex, its just i feel they don’t offer the same nutrition that a small fuzzy or hopper would, my question pertains to if they can eat, and how much, mostly due to the bearded dragon world the feeding of mice is frowned upon, and I’m just checking if same rules apply.
thanks for your time and help, even though none of this will likely take place soon.

That cage that you posted is a bit too small. For frilleds you want the height to be 2xs the frilleds total length, and the length to be the same. The width can be just as long as the frilled is. Now... frilleds can get up to 3 feet long. if that were the cage and you had a 2 foot wide enclosure...see where im going... Frilled do get bigger and need more room than a beardie. I know its sounds like a lot but 5x3x6 would be a good size. Frilleds tend to sulk, where they stop eating and drinking and sometimes die if not given the right habitat and treatment. Also, if you live in an area free of pollution which is not too many places these days, id go against the leaves. Farms, cities, suburbs, highways, etc are dangerous places to live around to give reptiles stuff from outside.