planning permanent enclosure

[rrcoolj]

So im currently planning my tegus permanent enclosure and I want to ask some questions...

1) can I make the whole thing out of melamine and not need support"beams". I see that alot in plywood enclosures which is why im staying away from it. My door way isn't 4ft so I need an enclosure I can put together pretty easily inside my room.

2) For lighting, I want to use a powersun 160. Will this be enough to bring the basking spot up? Or should I buy a halogen bulb? Do I need more Uvb than that?

I want my enclosure to be 8x4x3 with 1ft of substrate for burrowing. I've never built anything before and I want to do it with as little cuts as possible so I don't have to buy a ton of equipment.

[Mr Critter]

Melamine is good stuff but from what i have seen & heard is tegu's have been known to scratch the coating off,melamine is coated partical board, if it gets wet or moist it will swell up & fall apart real quick.with the humidity we need i dont know if it wll hold up.You dont have to use supports for plywood.I just posted some pics of the one im building(new enclosure im building)a few threads under yours.I used 3/4 " plywood & sealed it really good,& also built it in my rep. room.Also if you go to Home depot they will cut your wood for you just make sure you got all your mesurements right. Im not much of a carpenter myself,just take your time & plan it out. GOOD LUCK.......

[Ben3233]

So im currently planning my tegus permanent enclosure and I want to ask some questions...

1) can I make the whole thing out of melamine and not need support"beams". I see that alot in plywood enclosures which is why im staying away from it. My door way isn't 4ft so I need an enclosure I can put together pretty easily inside my room.

2) For lighting, I want to use a powersun 160. Will this be enough to bring the basking spot up? Or should I buy a halogen bulb? Do I need more Uvb than that?

I want my enclosure to be 8x4x3 with 1ft of substrate for burrowing. I've never built anything before and I want to do it with as little cuts as possible so I don't have to buy a ton of equipment.

1- You can use melamine or plywood. The problem with melamine is that it can be quite heavy. That is why I recommend to use plywood. You can use 2x4 to make the corner. It will be very solid (I dit it for my tortoise).

2) For lighting, I use 90-125 Watt halogen lamp. It's cheap and will use less energy. Plus those light are very solid compared to bulb bought in petshop. But halogen do not produce UVA/UVB light. So you have to buy a 5.0 or 10.0 bulb or fluorescent tube.

Good luck!

[Timon]

Plywood is going to be your best bet. Just polyurethane coat it 2 or 3 times to keep it from getting damaged from water, since Tegu's like it humid.

The melamine is good, but if it gets scratched and wet then it falls apart like newspaper.

Anyway good luck with whatever you decide, keep us posted! Pics are always enjoyed....

[rrcoolj]

Sorry to disapoint but there won't be any pics for a while. This is just the planning phase.

Thanks for the imput about the wood. I will definatle go with plywood. I'd prefer not to use support beams but I want a sturdy cage since things will go on top of it. Heavy things. As for cutting, that's great I can get everything cut at home depot. But I will definatly need a jigsaw for the door.

As for lighting, mercury vapor bulbs have a higher output of uvb/uva than flourescents and they last longer so I would prefer to get them. Should I get a halogen and an MVB bulb?

[Ben3233]

Sorry to disapoint but there won't be any pics for a while. This is just the planning phase.

Thanks for the imput about the wood. I will definatle go with plywood. I'd prefer not to use support beams but I want a sturdy cage since things will go on top of it. Heavy things. As for cutting, that's great I can get everything cut at home depot. But I will definatly need a jigsaw for the door.

As for lighting, mercury vapor bulbs have a higher output of uvb/uva than flourescents and they last longer so I would prefer to get them. Should I get a halogen and an MVB bulb?

If your cage is for a Tegu, than you will absolutely need a UVA/UVB bulb/tube because Halogen lamp (I think) do not produce UVA/UVB light.

If it's for a monitor, than UVA/UVB light is only a choice relative to each keeper. Some use it, some won't without having bad effect. Some monitor keeper think that UVB/UVB light will have benefit on the appetite and skin (more beautiful) on monitor lizard. But I totally don't know if this hypothesis is true or not.

[rrcoolj]

Oh it's definatly for a tegu and it's defiantly going to have a uva/uvb bulb I was just saying I would prefer to use a mvb as opposed to a flourescnt because mvb's have a higher output and longer life.