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Here is the outdoor enclosure for my tegus. About 90% of the cage is from things that were lying around the yard. It is a 6ft x 6ft x 6ft.
This was a place that the previous house owners used for just throwing yard items. I cleared it all out added 3 ft of soil to cover the cement floor, bolted a 6x6 section of dog run fencing to the opening in front and left the top open. I used an old 5ft cooler without a lid for a water dish and added rocks into it to raise the flooring of the water dish to make it easy for the lizards to get in and out. I used an old 5 ft watering trough and laid it on its side to act as a large hide and used an old gardening box to create a hide for the female to nest. I cut holes large enough for only the female and added a sand/soil mix into the box. I took apart the tegus old indoor cage and used the duel light fixture and mounted it above the metal hide to provide a basking spot during colder times and wired in a pond pump and filter for the water dish. Finally I ran PVC piping from the top of the cage with a on off valve and capped it off with an adjustable sprinkler head. I added a palm tree, some branches and rocks. I access the enclosure from above.
Hope you like it.

That came out great. I noticed a heat lamp, Does it get chilly by you?

I have seen wild tegus here eating road kill opossums.

Hey there, Thanks. I also think it came out well. I will try to get more pictures up from further away to get a better look of the entire enclosure.
As far as the heat lamp, I live in San Diego CA so best answer is no, it doesn’t get that cold here. Although in case of a cold winter I did install a lamp fixture that has the option for 1-5 lamps to be added but I only have had to use a max of two and that was just to be safe. During the winter time also I get a flake or two of bramuta grass (sorry if spelled wrong) and add a nice thick layer of it to each hide. Also the hides have about 1-2 ft of soil for digging.
Living in California I have yet to see any wild tegus but I have heard of other owners feeding road kill. I personally haven’t offered anything like that; the closest they get would be the small blue belly lizards that drowned in their water dish.

I am in Key west and we have them here . I think they mostly eat chickens and their eggs as plenty available.

I would take the collar off just incase it gets caught on something.

How long have you had them and have they bred?

Mine, I have had since 2005 and have been fairly lucky with. I only say lucky because they really have never shown any aggressiveness. The male did for about 3 months but that was mainly due to me allowing friends to throw live mice and rats into the cage all the time to watch him eat. He started to charge at the doors anytime they were touched so I stopped that and changed the way I feed. My male eats almost anything but the female has been a picky eater her entire life and almost starved herself a few winters back due to it. She refused to eat anything I offered her prior to the winter months. I had to basically force feed her to ensure she would eat. It was a time of visits to the reptile shop and the vet. Thankfully she has recovered extremely well and has overcome the picky feeding.
I have yet to get them to breed but this year is looking best over any others. She has recently begun to widen out and firm up. She is not aggressive but doesn’t like me messing with her hide box much, and exhales fairly loud when I do. I haven’t seen any gravid female tegus so am unsure of how she will look and have yet to witness the mating but I am keeping my fingers crossed. I work 10 hour days so it’s hard to witness when I leave before the sun comes up and get home when its cooled and the tegus have gone back to hide. Weekends I do see them together in the sun but no mating.
I remove the collars often just put it on when I pull them out to lay in the yard or help the vet hospital with vet academy things. (Education shows that the vets use to tell kids about all kinds of animals.)
Have a great day
Anthony

I have never kept tegus but imagine unusual to have a finicky eater.

When I have seen them they have been eating rotted road kill like oppossums and smelly chicken eggs that are laid by chickens than left to rot.

I didnt see any for the longest time after the freak freeze we had 2 yrs ago but saw 2 by a road kill in last 3 months .

Here is a Front view of the enclosure with the sprinkler running. It is located along the top of the enclosure, on the right side about 1ft from the wall. There is a strait PVC pipe capped off that i plan on running into the water dish to allow for easy filling.

I am amzaed they are fairly calm as you mentioned in another post because sunlight turns some of these bigger lizards into vicious lizards.

I have a friend with iguanas and bearded dragons outside , she had their cages built so she isn't any real use as far as cage building advice but either way her lizards are not friendly after getting used to real sun.

Her pair of desert iguanas ,she took out one yr so they get real sun, very friendly untill than, their colors got great so she had an enclosure built and 3 yrs later they live outside.

Every now and then the male does get a bit fussy but only puffs himself up when he is enjoying the sun but nothing bad. Before I built the outside enclosure I would take them out and let them enjoy the sun in the garden. When I put them in the garden for some time to enjoy the sun the male would get fussy and not want to be messed with. He would open his mouth and puff himself up and a few times even lunged. That was his way of telling me that he wasn’t done in the sun yet and didn’t want to go back inside. The female, I have never had any aggression issues but that may be because she has always been babied by me.
I agree that it’s strange to hear that the female is picky but I have tried so many different things over the years and it’s just how she is. I have heard of many eating anything and even rotting carcasses but my tegus don’t. I tried to give them an old rabbit that my snakes didn’t eat and they wanted nothing to do with it. I had to throw it away because they were just letting it rot and the smell got too bad to just let be. I was shocked, especially seeing that my male will try anything that’s meat. Now I just stick to a mix of meats and bananas, and give mice from time to time.
I have to say the reason, in my opinion, they are so calm is because they very rarely see me giving them food. I normally will put the food in their enclosure when they both are still in their hides, as I leave for work or after work before the sun sets. When they use to see me putting it into the inside enclosure they began to think me holding my hand out meant that I had food. Now they see me and will come up to me trying to climb on me or just acknowledge I am there. The female will, on the other hand, chase my toes if I climb into the enclosure with sandals on but I did that once and that was all it took. The moment my feet hit the ground she charged my feet mouth open.

Congratulations on the larger & more naturalistic setup for your reptiles.

Tegus and Monitors are such active, large lizards that I regard your setup size as the minimum needed for healthy animals. (If you were a captive, and given a choice, would you want to live in a small closet - or would you rather have access to a small gym?)

When I've moved to larger, more naturalistic setups (I call them biomes) in the past, my snakes responded with higher activity & curiosity levels. I often add real plant sprigs, abundant in my yard, but fake plants are more practical for long-term usage.

I have three biomes now: 100-gallon, 60-gallon, 55-gallon. I use only one as the main housing, the 2nd I use as the play pen while cleaning the main biome. I change the accessories & setup every few weeks - for my creative fun and to give the snake occupant new things to explore. My Russian rat snake particularly likes to explore any recent changes.

Here is my Flickr link to some former biome setups for the 60-gallon unit. (If you think these are nice, you should see my unphotographed 100-gallon setup.)

Ever forward!!

Ameron
Portland/Vancouver
1.0 Elaphe schrencki
Link

Thank you, your enclosure looks great also but way to busy for any of my reptiles. They are large snakes that destroy full enclosures like that. I use to set mine up that way and for any of my young snakes still do. I understand that you feel this is a small enclosure for my tegus but it’s a great one that allows for plenty of activeness for them. To keep them stimulated and active I often hide bits of food all over the enclosure to encourage them searching. All of the plants in the enclosure are real and with me running the sprinkler/misting system every 2 days grass and other plants grow in the areas that the tegus don’t often lay.

Thank you,
Anthony