Baby Tegu Cage

[SergeMan7]

I am currently looking to build a Tegu living encloser(duh). I am sure there are all kinds of posts about this subject, but I have some special circumstances I'd like to take into account and I am having conflicts with the person I share my home with. I am NOT looking to make a full sized enclosure YET. There are pleanty of guides for the 8x4x4 Tegu homes.

Circumstance: I will be moving from my current apartment to a new home in approximantly 8ish months. My Tegu is a baby, only about 12 inches big, I am accounting for about an inch growth per month plus or minus an inch from the info I've gathered. Once I move to my new home I will built a mobile/collapsable 8x4x4 cage. I plan to put the Tegu enclosure on a table that is 48"x40".

I will idealy be doing a bulk of the contruction on the porch of my apartment, my door frames are about 31" wide.

Ideally I want to build a cage that I can house my Tegu in untill I move, I'm looking at 3'x2' with a hight of around 2.5'. I know it seems small but I feel it is approprate even now in the taming stage I try to let it out and roam a decent amount, once it is bigger and not as easy to lose I hope to increase its roaming time.

So what are some plans I can use to build the cage? are there better dimensions I should use? do you feel the 2.5' hight is nessicary? I understand melomean is a good wood to use for the enclosure, but how should I go about reenforcing it becuase being a partical board interior it doesn't seem as if it would be very study? Are there any good plans already out for a cage of this size that are comprehensive and have lots of picutures?

Thank you for your time and consideration, I greatly appreciate it.Normally I would go out and buy a ton of materials then wing it, but unfortunately for this project I need to get it preapproved and have a 125 dollar spending limit for everything including light fixtures and plexiglass.

[txrepgirl]

Hi SergeMan7 ( neighbor ) . Welcome to the Tegu forum family and congrats on your Tegu. Before you build a enclosure have you thought about using a fish tank for a enclosure ? You could use a 55 or 75 gallon one for right now. If you want to you can check out craigslist.org. Go to the pet section and typ in fish tank, enclosure ... I have gotten some great deals on there before. Do you have a Argentine or a Columbian Tegu ? The Argentine Tegus can hibernate for months so this can give you some extra time, too, to build a bigger enclosure. Some start to hibernate in late August and September and come out around March/April.

[Pikey]

i agree a 75gal would be better than a 3x2 cage and are 4x1.5x2 (i think) you wont need to mod it, & when you no longer need it you can turn around sell it for about what you paid for it (if you buy a used one)

& yes if it's a Red or Argen B&W it should (not always) hibernate till spring then start growing again in a month or so.
which will "buy" you a lot more time.

[SergeMan7]

It is a Columbian B/W Tegu, I wanted something that I could handle all year long and work to 'tame' among other things without screwed up an internal clock. Also I understand the columbian's skin is alot more pleasing to touch than the Argentine.

Thanks for the tips, looks like I may have to look into a huge tank, just a wee bit of a pain. When I look at the prices I feel the pet stores are trying to gouge me and craigslist can be difficult to find repitable people at times.

Thanks for your help so far though!

[txrepgirl]

Your welcome. I bought alot of enclosures for a very good price on craigslist. I have never had any problems buying something on there. So far I just have met alot of nice people. But I leave it up to you if you want to give it a chance or not. You also can check out " southtexasreptiles.com " forum. They sell some enclosures on there sometimes, too. Or you can post a thread about you looking for a 75gallon tank. Someone might have one.