advice on small room sized cage...

72xmulch · Member Joined: Feb 12, 2008 Posts: 15

i plan on just adding a wall in the bedroom and giving my dude alot of room to play with... my main reason is, i dont have enough room for a giant cage to take up 8 feet of floor space, i'd like to be able to hang out in the cage and read the paper and do puzzles and whatnot instead of tripping over a big box everytime i try to walk through my house. first question is, can i use an electric baseboard heater as a main heat source, or is there an obvious reason not to that i am overlooking? im not trying to eliminate using a basking light, but just for heating the cage as a whole... my house is cold.

worleygurl · Posted: Tue Feb 19, 2008 8:39 am Post subject:

Will this set-up be his main cage? I see a few problems with this set-up. Will it have a top? In order to hold in the heat and humidity, it really needs a top. Will you be putting mulch down for the substrate? Tegus do best on a substrate that they can dig down into and hide. Using the electric baseboard to heat will not provide his basking area of 110 degrees so you will definitely need a basking light. He can also burn himself on the electric baseboard heat so I'd think a bit on that one before doing it. Those are just a few things to consider with a set-up like this. These are just my opinions. Hopefully Rick or Diegar will chime in with some advice as well.
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Davii · Posted: Tue Feb 19, 2008 12:23 pm Post subject:

room is usually a problem with most larger reptiles I persume..
I always plan out where I could put a full sized cage before I even start on a smaller enclosure for the baby

I'm lucky, I have quite a few places I could stick large cages.. and with my family being largely tradesmen orientated, even extending the house will be no problem
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txrepgirl · Posted: Tue Feb 19, 2008 2:21 pm Post subject:

worleygurl you got some good points there.

Tegster · Posted: Tue Feb 19, 2008 4:17 pm Post subject:

It has to be closed in enough to be humid, HUMID, H-U-M-I-D.

It has to have a temperature gradient 105-115 F in one area, down to 70-75 in a cool spot.

Gotta have substrate to burrow/hide in.

Can't have a heat source he can come in contact with. Even the reptile heating pads are known to burn.

Did I mention it needs to be humid?

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Renee

72xmulch · Member Joined: Feb 12, 2008 Posts: 15

i guess i left too many of my thoughts out to explain my whole plan, so here goes. adding an extra wall to an existing room, i don't need to build a top. the top of the cage is the ceiling. the floor will be tile with a drain, so i can mop and flush everything once and a while like a shower. I use a humidifier all the time while i sleep because the dry heaters make it hard to breath. im assuming this will also work in a smaller area (the cage) h-u-m-i-d-i-f-i-e-r
i will definitely have at least 6 inches of cypress on the floor, along with a small kiddy pool or something else big enough for the dude to take a dip when he wants. He will have a basking light, i mentioned that in the first post. i don't want to put my tegu in a minimum size cage, i feel bad enough hes not roaming the jungle mountain side where he really should be. A timed mister like one i use with my bonsai trees will also be in place because i plan on having plants that also crave humidity on shelves too high for him to reach, they are are already on the existing wall. i guess my only question was if a baseboard heater would be good enough to bring up the ambient temperature in the cage and how to keep him from hurting him self with it, i will build a lizard proof cage around it to keep him from making any direct contact with it out of chicken wire or whatever. heatrocks are for retards. im convinced pet stores sell products like these to kill your pet so you have to spend more money on a new one over and over again. its a good thing i have places like this to come and get such helpful answers or else i would just keep buying more tegus to kill every week by putting it in my industrial meat grinder with an oil lamp for a heat source.....

txrepgirl · Posted: Wed Feb 20, 2008 1:21 am Post subject:

I'm glad to hear that you don't put him in the meat grinder with the oil lamp.To me the enclosure sounds good.Please make sure that the plants that you will put in the enclosure are non toxic.I'll try to find the site I saved in my folder and I'll send it to you if you want to.

Tegster · Posted: Wed Feb 20, 2008 9:03 am Post subject:

Sounds like you've thought of everything....

...except when you build the cage around your heat source don't use chicken wire.

Other than that it sounds awesome. What we built for Tegster amounts to a shower stall layed on it's side. It will be easy to clean. And a little fancier than a shower stall.
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Renee

tegulevi · Respected Member Joined: Mar 10, 2005 Posts: 489

you would be better off building a cage that is floor to cieling of the room and to the size you want it. otherwise you are going to regret permanently screwing your house up.

look at taucher's enclosure. it is awesome and a great inspiration if you want a big project