First Tegu enclosure in full room - ideas?

It's finally that time! The young tegu I was keeping in a 70gal rep tank since I bought him has officially outgrown his enclosure, in just a few short months. His new home is going to be in a room we have in our finished basement. It's 7' by 10+' and instead of building an entire enclosure, I was planning on just converting the entire room into a living space for him.

Attachment 5124

Unfortunately for the moment...

Attachment 5125

The room is being used by a roommate for storage. My next project will be focused on cleaning it out so I can begin preparing it for Terezi.

I was honestly thinking about just making a giant sandbox-type thing in the room. There's no need to have the area completely enclosed, just a pit enough for me to pile his substrate in without it falling out of the room when I open the door. I'm starting to get ideas, but I'm not very handy so I'd like to know if anyone has any really reliable tutorials or good suggestions for how to best keep a tegu in a room. I assume there's things I'll have to do to the walls and floor to prevent damage from the humidity and stuff.

The room does have some cool details, like I figure I could mount his basking lamp on this incline of the wall.

Attachment 5126

Anyway, I'd love to hear any suggestions. Is this a solid idea, or should I go ahead and just build an enclosure to fit the room? Pros/cons? I'd like to give my baby as much room to dig and explore as possible, so if I could use the full room that'd be ideal.

To be honest with you I would build one big enclosure that is closed. It will hold better humidity. If you have a humidifier in the room your walls might start to mold. That wouldn't be good. You always can put a doggy door in the enclosure so Terezi and go in and out of the enclosure.

http://www.homedepot.com/b/Doors-Win...s/N-5yc1vZc1i9

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by txrepgirl

To be honest with you I would build one big enclosure that is closed. It will hold better humidity. If you have a humidifier in the room your walls might start to mold. That wouldn't be good. You always can put a doggy door in the enclosure so Terezi and go in and out of the enclosure.

http://www.homedepot.com/b/Doors-Win...s/N-5yc1vZc1i9

---

This.

A lot can happen when you dump a lot of dirt/moss in a big area and bump up the temperature(from heat lamps) and humidity. And then theres the problem of UV lighting which you would have to have at least two 4' bulbs in the room to try and effectively get the rays to your tegus skin. Building a cage is hard but very doable. I think having a cage in the room with a doggy door would be very ideal and is what I plan on giving my tegu as soon as I have a room for him.

The doggy door is a good idea. I'm going to be taking him upstairs and downstairs anyway because the room he'll be living in is downstairs and I would want him walking around upstairs rather than the alternative.

I'm not sure how to fit an enclosure big enough into that space is my only concern. It's got a very small door. Hmm. These are very good points though, and things I did consider while deciding whether I'd make a whole enclosure or just convert the room. I guess I'll just need to work on blueprints for an entire enclosure then.

How wide is the door? I would think making the enclosure 2' wide wouldn't be that big of a deal just have it longer.