# 8'x8' of outdoor fun!



## MizM (May 8, 2009)

K, mine is VEWWWY basic and not at all pretty, but boy do my teggies and monitor LOVE it! (Pic taken before substrate added so you can ee the chicken wire stapled to the botton.)

One HUGE problem though, all the fresh air and sunshine has made the male tegu very "randy"... but he's after the black throat, NOT the female tegu!! The monitor just wants to be friends and is probably tired of getting mounted by another species!  















Note: I didn't enclose the top because the 3 large dogs in the yard will not permit predators of ANY kind in their territory!


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## i0r (May 8, 2009)

Nice! Always good for them to get a chance to be outside with natural sun and all. Makes them more active and healthier.
However....that chicken wire mesh really scares me. I don't have any personal experience with it. But i know a lot of guys who had their tegus losing toes with it. Especially when on ground covered up with substrate. They start to dig with their powerful legs. Then they get to the mesh and...nip. So look out for that.

Other than that....Good job! Your reptiles will love you more now


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## Greenmanbacchus (May 8, 2009)

i0r said:


> Nice! Always good for them to get a chance to be outside with natural sun and all. Makes them more active and healthier.
> However....that chicken wire mesh really scares me. I don't have any personal experience with it. But i know a lot of guys who had their tegus losing toes with it. Especially when on ground covered up with substrate. They start to dig with their powerful legs. Then they get to the mesh and...nip. So look out for that.


*Yep...that's a top-notch setting all right...but I'm scared o' that poultry netting too. An alternative might be 'aviary mesh' which is is half inch by one inch mesh with much thicker wire. If you're not planning to move it at all, another viable option is to pave the floor. At any good landscaping place there's a wide variety of two inch thick paving blocks. You might go for 12"X12" and line the entire floor with paving stones...'tain't likely they're gonna move 'em if they dig down to 'em....esp if you've got 'em counter-sunk in the ground.
That's just my two cents  Personally, I'd probably have to rig a screen top of aviary mesh too, only because there's a lot of big hawks in my area. Dogs wouldn't be any help there. In the Spring and early summer there's a lot of first-year hawks that are still young and dumb and will attempt prey items that an older and wiser adult wouldn't even look at. Beautiful setup you have there! 
GMB*


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## jmiles50 (May 8, 2009)

It seems to be the same wire mesh that Bobby is using in his " Housing and enclosures, Ideas on how to build one" section of the Varnyard Site. Aviary mesh sounds like a good idea though.


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## PinkPunisher (May 9, 2009)

I guess everyone missed the spot where MizM said that the pic was taken before the substrate was added so you could she the wire? LOL 

My only problem would be having the tegus and the black throat in the same cage. Personally I would take each out separate times or put in a divider for each to have their own half.

Other then that though it looks all good, I don't mind the simple look. All my outdoor lizard cages look like crap, they are made from scrap wood and materials so they have been bit and pieced together. One of them even uses white plastic mesh to keep in the iguana  

Spencer


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## Greenmanbacchus (May 10, 2009)

PinkPunisher said:


> I guess everyone missed the spot where MizM said that the pic was taken before the substrate was added so you could she the wire? LOL
> 
> Spencer


 *Nope, nobody missed that. The perceived problem is the danger of the tegu digging down through the substrate and cutting off its toes on the poultry mesh. Chicken wire is very thin, therefore sharp...esp when it's been stretched tight over a frame. Tegus can, will and do dig, and such amputations are well-precedented. On the whole, a good attitude for a caretaker to have is this: "If any possibility exists for your pet to harm itself, your pet is sure to find it."

GMB*


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## omgtaylorg (May 10, 2009)

Agreed, but Bobby has his ground set up the same way, you simply add sand/dirt to the bottom to cover up the wire with a good amount, and then you add the mulch on top of that, tegus dont need to dig down very far to create a burrow and im sure once they dig through the mulch (if they even do) they would stop at the sand/soil, also...having a premade burrow would solve the digging problem because the chances of them digging with a premade hiding/sleeping spot is pretty slow, and especially that far down. Just my thoughts.


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## Omega (May 11, 2009)

Nice cage


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## i0r (May 11, 2009)

From the pictures I've seen Bobby also digs out a foundation about a feet or 2 deep, then putt's the mesh and cover it up well and compacts the sand/dirt. But simply placing a mesh on the lawn and then fill it up with cypress mulch won't help much. The mesh would be too exposed and uneven.


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## argus333 (May 11, 2009)

i hope that is not chicken wire? if so those guys will dig right out of there also id put some kind of top on as well..


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