Cage Buliding Please Help!!

[Lord_Duron]

I know that i want it
4wide 8 feet long and 3' 1/2 feet tall.
plexiglass slides *with Locks*
just incase she figure out how to open them
waterproof flooring and sides.

But what I dont kno is what kinds of materials should I
used??

[Teiidae]

I'm building one now out of melamine - At least the bottom, back, sides, and framework for the front - The melamine seems as if it will not absorb any moisture other than having to silicone the seams - Gonna move this to Tegu Housing Forum...

EDIT: And it comes in 8x4 sheets here so works out well...

[tegulevi]

I line the inisides of minw with showerboard (8x4 $10) and caulk the corners. works great and easy to clean.

[Rick]

Melamine already has a water resistant coating on it. Just be sure to buy the iron on molding for any of the cut edges to keep moisture out of there.

I use the Melamine board for my snake racks and it works well, even with the tight fitting humid snake bins which have no covers.

Rick

[Johelian]

Just a quick tip for you - whatever you do, if you decide to have sliding plexi doors, make sure they are set in at least half an inch or so; any less and your tegu will work out how to bend them out when it gets bigger (I learn from experience ;) ), and any deeper and you wont be able to hoover out any substrate. Looking at the height of your cage, I would personally recommend hinged doors with plexi windows, as sliding plexi doors will bend outwards more easily the taller the cage is.

This is just a recommendation, but for reference my (near) 4' tegu broke the sliding doors out of his cage several times, in spite of the cabinet locks on it! Its almost scary how strong and determined they can be. He's now in an 8x3 enclosure with hinged, locking doors that (hopefully) will stop any escapes.

We used melamine-faced wood for the last two (beardie and tegu) cages we built, but we couldnt get it in big enough sheets here to make the new cage out of so our new enclosure is 18mm MDF coated with an acrylic pond paint, which is low VOC and has resisted all attempts to scratch it with tools etc. All the joints are sealed with some kind of sealant (not my area of expertise - Ian has done all of that :) ) I really cant say how it will hold up in the long run, but if it keeps humidity and the tegu in, it can only be a good thing.

Dont forget some kind of ventilation too! :D The back of our enclosure is hardboard, which was easy to cut to fit soffits into. Its also coated on one side so its waterproof and reflects some light into the enclosure, since the paint dried a little darker than we would have liked.

PS great size cage!

[Jar_Head]

Johelian,

I noticed you mentioned something about the ventilation. How much ventilation do you recommend? I don't have any vents on mine and I seem to have a hard time keeping the humidity in, as is.

For those of you that suggest melamine, can you cut through that with a standard circular saw and blade or do you need anything special to cut with?

As far as the sliding plexi doors go, I agree. When building mine (40 inches tall) they seemed very "flimsy". I decided to used framed hinged doors with plexi windows. I also found out that glass is just as cheap as plexi at Lowes and much stronger. They will cut it for free, but you need to find a way to drill the holes for the hinges.

JH

[Teiidae]

For those of you that suggest melamine, can you cut through that with a standard circular saw and blade or do you need anything special to cut with?



JH

Circular saw will cut through it just fine, however I'd suggest using a jig saw - Takes a little more time, however the finish does not chip off as bad...

[Johelian]

Johelian,

I noticed you mentioned something about the ventilation. How much ventilation do you recommend? I don't have any vents on mine and I seem to have a hard time keeping the humidity in, as is.



Well, ideally you want a good air flow going through, so the recommended way of doing it is to place a set of vents near the top edge of one end of the cage and then the second set at the bottom edge of the other side, which will drag air through as the warm air rises and leaves. This is what we have in our new tegu cage (our beardie cage has a set of I think 5 soffits along the top edge) just to prevent mold etc.

Probably the least effective way to ventilate according to several accounts I have read is to simply havea screen top to your enclosure; for something like a beardie tank this is not a problem, but for reptiles needing high humidity you will lose virtually all of it through the top of your cage. For this reason I have heard several people claim that things like tegus shouldnt be kept in enclosures with open or screen tops. I personally have never had a cage like that, but I can see that that makes sense. If you have a screen top to your cage, I would recommend covering part of it up with plexi or something to trap some moisture.

[Lord_Duron]

Ya I had to do that with my
Tegu current cage, I had
to cover the top right part
of it and now the hum is just fine
I like to say thanks to everyone
for all the great idea. And I'm
putting them all to great used .