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tegu_girl0
12-11-2004, 01:51 AM
can somone show me pics of ther tegu cages? im thinking of a 4ft deep X 3ft high X 6ft long with a foldup top? tell me what u think

Bill_S
12-11-2004, 07:36 PM
I'm concerned with the cage height. Remember, you'll need a basking temp of about 110 (or 120 is it's a red tegu) and the cool end of the cage should be around 80 - 84 or so.

A high cage is difficult to heat. Unless you have the cage in a specially heated room, even if you use low-hanging bulbs to get the 110-degree basking temperature, every other part of the cage might be much too cool.

Other than that, a 6-foot wide by 4-foot deep floor area would be great for an adult tegu. 8 feet wide would be wonderful.

Bill

tegu_girl0
12-11-2004, 08:17 PM
the only prob with a 8 foot long cage is ol berily hav a room! and i think a 3 ft high would be good i cant go to mutch lower or he wont have much hed space

tegu_girl0
12-11-2004, 08:36 PM
nevermind i just mesuted my room and im guna do the cage 2 ft high. il just nave enough roomfrom my wal corner and to the midle ov my window

Bill_S
12-13-2004, 12:06 AM
I use a Neodesha custom cage that's 67wide x 30deep x18high for my adult male blue tegu. But all my cages are in normal room temperature environments so I use radiant heat panels. Because I do not have a specially heated herp room, my cages are 18" high maximum to get proper performance from the heat panels; except for my arboreal cage for my GTP -- since the GTP stays on a perch the cage can be higher.

It is very important that the cool end temps are correct; not only the basking temp. 80 degrees on the cool end, measured an inch or two off the floor. Getting a cool end temp of 80 degrees in a big cage isn't that easy when the cage is in a room that's around 70 degrees or even lower in winter.

Adult tegus do not climb; they are primarily terrestrial lizards and benefit the most from floor space, and need a hide box that serves as a burrow, filled about 1/2 way with damp mulch. An 18" high cage is easy to reach into for cleaning, and is relatively easy to heat properly. Also, if you're using fluorescent UV tubes (good idea) they'll need to be about a foot from the tegu to be effective. Otherwise, you can use Active UV Heat or Mercury Vapor bulbs, but do a bit of research before deciding on which brand to get. UV is beneficial. Some don't use it for tegus, but a lot of folks do.

Regards,

Bill

tegu_girl0
12-13-2004, 12:27 AM
yah thx

Johelian
12-13-2004, 11:22 AM
If you have a 3' high cage you can always fill the bottom 1' with substrate so that they can dig quite deep, leaving yourself with only 2' above the surface. This is my ultimate plan (at the mo my cage is 2' high with 6" of substrate in the bottom).

tegu_girl0
12-13-2004, 04:51 PM
yah ok il mesure 2 C if i have room