# enclosure questions



## Rhetoric (Sep 11, 2011)

I'm going to build my first enclosure.. I've lucked out and found my current ones on CL or from a friend. I've never built anything before lol. I'm wondering if it would be better to make it out of 2x4s or 2x6s instead of plywood, I'm not sure what I'll be needing to house in the future or if I'm ever going to stack anything on top if it. I want to make sure I do it right the first time and that it will be something that lasts. If I did plywood I would no doubt make a frame with 2x4s or 2x6s.

Guru's enclosure is made from 2x6s (i think), here are a few pics when I first bought it last year. This things a beast, its suuuuuper sturdy.










The other enclosure is plywood with 2x4s for a frame. Not my pics but the same enclosure.


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## james.w (Sep 11, 2011)

3/4" plywood framed with 2x4's will be plenty strong. Search for Toby_H's enclosure on here, he stacks a large fish tank on top of it.


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## Rhetoric (Sep 11, 2011)

Ok cool. I've seen his but I didn't think about it when I had posted this. Thanks!


Here's another, a lot of you are drylok fans. The second enclosure has drylok. I'm not entirely sure what brand the first enclosure was sealed with but someone told me it was probably a marine sealant. It's at least 8 yrs old and has no sign of rotting or warping. It holds humidity really well, without damage.


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## james.w (Sep 11, 2011)

I need to figure out how to test my enclosure to see how much weight I can stack on top of it. I want to build another enclosure the same size for my Savannah and stack them.


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## jdpFL (Sep 12, 2011)

Is that a BED on top of that enclosure? Wow....how cool!!


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## Rhetoric (Sep 12, 2011)

Yeah the kid I got them from had a smaller room so he made an 8x5' and put his mattress on top of it


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## herpocrite27 (Sep 12, 2011)

I used 2x2 poplar for an internal frame on mine and its super strong. Poplar, oak, or ash is much stronger and harder than Pine, so you will not need as much. I have stood in the center of it and no movement at all. It you use 1/2 inch birch or oak ply it will be plenty sturdy. I currently have a ball python cage on top of this cage at the moment. This cage has survived the move from Michigan to Iowa and is about to move into my new house in a couple weeks. I knew I would be moving allot, so I built mine in two pieces so that I could get it through any door or 90 degree stairway. When you are building your cage, make sure you glue all your joints with liquid nails or a good water resistant glue, then screw with appropriate type of screws. Glued Joints are much much stronger than ones with just screws. 
As far as sealing the cage there is a product made by PolyGem. Its a two part reptile safe epoxy "Its used by zoo's and museums". I made an oak Ball bython cage sealed with this stuff and my tegu cage. It holds up great to water and long nails. Plus it allows you to use cabinet grade plywood and show off the beauty of the wood. 
Just some options, take what you want and leave what you dont. Hope it helps and good luck with your cage, I cant wait to see some pics.

Pics of my cage along with the plans and dimensions.


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## james.w (Sep 12, 2011)

I partially based my cage off of yours. If you don't mind what was the cost of the materials to build it the way you did? I like the idea, but think it would be rather expensive. I used pine 2x2's and 2x4's along with 3/4" plywood ( not furniture grade) and the cost was very reasonable. I didn't glue the joints either, just screwed and caulked them.


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## Rhetoric (Sep 12, 2011)

Thats awesome. I've seen that first pic before and was wanting to do something similar but wasn't sure how you were able to get the two halves to stay together so well. Definitely something I will be considering. How does it open? Does the glass slide up or something?


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## Rhetoric (Sep 13, 2011)

Soooooo I think I'm going to do a 12'x4'x3' to house 2 males. I'm going to take herpocrites idea and make it in a few sections for easy transport. I had thought about doing "3" 4x4s but after talking to my dad (who's helping me put it together because of my shoulder) he suggested doing "4" 3x4 sections so they would fit in the durango if need be. 

If need be, the enclosure can always be split into "2" 6x4x3s. I know the 6' length is short, I prefer 8'. That being said, they are small males and I do have the tegus out for a decent amount of time frequently. I'm also considering doing some kind of outdoor pen for next summer but we'll get to that another day lol. 

I'm thinking I'll use Hem-Fir 2x4s for the frame and Oak plywood (8x4) for the rest of it. I would do one light fixture per section, more than likely only one MVB and the other 3 fixtures will have regular bulbs. If it needs more heat somewhere I'd add a low wattage heat bulb or a CHE. I may or may not do tube style UVB bulbs on the end opposite of the MVB.

I am not sure how many vents to do, I was thinking one per section but I'm not sure if that would cause issues with heat or humidity. 

I haven't figured out the doors completely, I want at least 2 that open downward (if that makes sense) in the center 2 sections. More than likely I will have 4 opening doors to make it easier to get into the enclosure for maintenance. 

Just the wood would be ~$490 for anyone whos wondering. Then there are other costs like light fixtures, finish, drylok, screws, wiring, extension cords, glass, dirt, etc. I'm guessing it'll be $700-800 when its completely ready to be moved into.

Here is kind of a rough idea I made in "paint" so its pretty unporportionate.. After I get off work I'll put it together in sketchup. For whatever reason the smaller pic in the thread cuts off the bottom of where the windows/doors would be but if you click it its all there.


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## xocrieox (Sep 13, 2011)

What are you gonna use to seal the sections together? i really like the take down design of the cage.


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## james.w (Sep 13, 2011)

I would probably put a MVB in both ends, so they can each have a basking spot. They can use the middle as a cool end and the temps will increase outward from there. As far as vents, I don't have any on my 8x3x3.5, so if you put any I would make them with something that is adjustable from fully open to fully closed.


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## Rhetoric (Sep 13, 2011)

I thought about mvb on both ends, do you think 2 - 125w would get too hot?


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## herpocrite27 (Sep 13, 2011)

I used 1 full sheet of 1/4" birch ply for the back pannel and i think i used 3 sheets of 1/2" pirchply for the rest. There is actually a suprising amount of poplar in that internal frame. I ended up glueing two 3/4" boards together and once they set up, i ripped them with a table saw so I got 1.5x1.5" strips. I cant remember exactly but i think i probably spent 650 on wood, screws and the 2 part epoxy.
I used a door seal that has one sticky side to keep any debris and heat from excaping out the center. I actually anticipated having to use smapp C-clamps to hold the cage together. But after putting 3 bags of mulch in there, i found out the lizard could never pull them apart, especially since the wheels are on carpet.
The windows on the front slide straight up and out. I did this so they wont be in the way while cleaning. 
If you are designing a cage that can be moved consider your door ways. Most door ways are around 28 inches, so I would make your cage no larger than 28"tall. That way you can tip it sideways and fit it through the doorway. Good luck and if you have any more question I will be happy to help. 


rhetoricx said:


> Soooooo I think I'm going to do a 12'x4'x3' to house 2 males. I'm going to take herpocrites idea and make it in a few sections for easy transport. I had thought about doing "3" 4x4s but after talking to my dad (who's helping me put it together because of my shoulder) he suggested doing "4" 3x4 sections so they would fit in the durango if need be.



 If you are designing a cage that can be moved consider your door ways. Most door ways are around 28 inches, so I would make your cage no larger than 28"tall. That way you can tip it sideways and fit it through the doorway. Good luck and if you have any more question I will be happy to help.


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## james.w (Sep 13, 2011)

rhetoricx said:


> I thought about mvb on both ends, do you think 2 - 125w would get too hot?



I don't think it would on a 12' cage.




herpocrite27 said:


> If you are designing a cage that can be moved consider your door ways. Most door ways are around 28 inches, so I would make your cage no larger than 28"tall. That way you can tip it sideways and fit it through the doorway. Good luck and if you have any more question I will be happy to help.



How deep is your substrate? I originally had my cage at 28" height for this reason, but as I started adding lights and substrate, I realized it wasn't tall enough and added about 9". It is definitely a pain to move, it is one piece though, not 2 like yours. I had to completely remove my sliding glass door to get it in the house.


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## Rhetoric (Sep 13, 2011)

Right now they're in the garage. If we moved I'd plan on keeping them in a garage, its easier to clean the enclosures and I don't need to worry about any messes. I did think about that though. When I got the 8x5 the kid had to completely take it apart to fit through his bedroom door lol. For me a little taller is better, Guru and Rango like to stand on their hind legs and knock everything around thats within reach. I had to remove things in Gurus enclosure and re-screw others so he wouldn't hurt himself. The bulbs will have some kind of wiring around them but I'd hate for them to stand up against something and cause damage to themselves.

The sliding (up) glass might work better. I'm pretty little (5ft) so when I clean enclosures I completely climb into them hahaha. It's a lot easier for me to climb in than to try and reach corners. Did you use real glass? I think I'm going to go for tempered glass, the plexiglass on the 8x5 is really bad, its super scratched and warped from being moved and tegus pushing on it. 

Have you used drylok before? How much of a difference is there between that and the polygem? I'm not too worried about the inside maintaining the oak look, I was planning to just use some kind of finish on the outside of it. There are also marine sealants, I think that might have been what Gurus enclosure was sealed with. I think those are like twice the price of drylok though. Don't get me wrong, I don't want to be cutting corners but if its more of a visual preference I would probably go for something a little less expensive.


james.w said:


> herpocrite27 said:
> 
> 
> > If you are designing a cage that can be moved consider your door ways. Most door ways are around 28 inches, so I would make your cage no larger than 28"tall. That way you can tip it sideways and fit it through the doorway. Good luck and if you have any more question I will be happy to help.
> ...



I thought the same thing, once I get the rocks and substrate in there I want there to be a comfortable distance between where the tegus will be and where the lights are.


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## herpocrite27 (Sep 15, 2011)

I'm sorry my cage is actually 30 inches wide, I dont know why I had 28 in my head. 
So, if your cage is 30 inches high that gives you 29 inches on the inside. If you have 8 inches of mulch there, that still leaves 21 inches. My tegu is not a gymnist nor does he practice his high jump for the lizard olympics. PowerSun says the lizard needs to be a MINIMUM of 12 inches from the bulb to get right amount of UVB. 
I do only have about 4 inches of mulch in the immediate basking area. I do this because I have a mountain of large rocks there for him to bask on. He does go in a cave like space under the rocks but never burrys himself there. He sleeps on the cold side when its time to burry himself at night. I have 9 inches of mulch everywhere else in the cage. On the cool side I have large cork bark chunks he also likes to hide under. 
I understand you wanting them to have more headroom but aslong as he is the corect distance from the light and has tons of mulch to dig in 90 percent of the 7 ft long cage, you will have a happy lizard. And if you keep it no more than 30" hight you can fit it in your door. 
I hope some of you found this helpfull


How deep is your substrate? I originally had my cage at 28" height for this reason, but as I started adding lights and substrate, I realized it wasn't tall enough and added about 9". It is definitely a pain to move, it is one piece though, not 2 like yours. I had to completely remove my sliding glass door to get it in the house.

[/quote]

I thought the same thing, once I get the rocks and substrate in there I want there to be a comfortable distance between where the tegus will be and where the lights are.
[/quote]


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## Lance (Sep 25, 2011)

Just a thought to go along with your design, which is very nice to take down and move it. I am in agreement the 125w should be fine for both ends. I am just now adding a 50w pad heater to the bottom side of my dig box so they have some additional heat with winter coming, and I dont want them to go into hibernation. This will also help keep the humidity up in the overall cage, because I keep there dig box nice and damp. The heater I have found is the oil pan type heater, very small 2"w x 5" long. Should work perfect. 

All you guys have great ideas, and put a ton of thought into your designs. Awesome group of people here.


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## james.w (Sep 25, 2011)

Heat pads are a bad idea. You can't stop hibernation, but with a heat pad will make it dangerous as the heat will keep their metabolism up.


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## Lance (Oct 10, 2011)

james.w said:


> Heat pads are a bad idea. You can't stop hibernation, but with a heat pad will make it dangerous as the heat will keep their metabolism up.



Our two (Male and Female 3 years old) have never hibernated according to the original owner. They have slowed down a little now as the temp in there dig box has lowered by 5 degrees, but they are still active and the heat pad only increased the dig box area by 5 degrees, just to keep it around 76 F. Even before I put the heat pad under their dig box. Do you think they have to hibernate? 

Your thoughts are welcome. My preference is to not have them hibernate as they are an attraction in our store, and the winter is the busy season for customers. They dont seem to mind a bit.


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## Rhetoric (Oct 10, 2011)

If they feel they need to then they will. I don't think you can stop them if they're going down anyway. Rangos going through his 3rd fall/winter and he hasn't gone down for any of them. Guru is a year old and didn't go down last year. They hybrid went down his last 2 years but this year he is still going strong.


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## james.w (Oct 10, 2011)

Like said, if they are gonna go down, they are gonna go down. They don't have to, but I don't know of a safe way to keep them up if they go down.


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## Sirhc401 (Oct 17, 2011)

Nice enclosure. For those who have built custom enclosures I am also looking to build a better enclosure. I had a simple question, what would be better to use for access? Sliding glass doors or glass hinged doors?


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## Strange_Evil (Oct 17, 2011)

Sirhc401 said:


> Nice enclosure. For those who have built custom enclosures I am also looking to build a better enclosure. I had a simple question, what would be better to use for access? Sliding glass doors or glass hinged doors?



Honestly i like sliding glass better when it comes to looks, but i always get dirt stuck in the tracks and i have a pretty big lip blocking it and still get dirt in the tracks and it gets jammed up. 

Hinged is what i am going to do with my second cage. Also just another tip, use glass, the plexiglass stuff scratches way to easily!


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## Rhetoric (Oct 17, 2011)

I like hinged, I have one enclosure with hinges and one with sliding doors. The sliding one is sometimes a little harder to open because dirt gets stuck into the grooves. I don't have a metal track, whoever built it that enclosure carved the grooves into the wood. I know there is not escaping with the sliding enclosure, the glass is way too heavy for my tegu to open on his own.


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## james.w (Oct 17, 2011)

I have both as well, and I like hinged better.


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## Sirhc401 (Oct 17, 2011)

Does anyone have pictures of their hinged door enclosures? I would like some pictures to see for examples so I can get a better look at how I should go about making it


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## james.w (Oct 17, 2011)




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## Sirhc401 (Oct 17, 2011)

Nice. So the downward hinged door works best?


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## james.w (Oct 17, 2011)

I think it does, it would work best if it went all the way down so it isn't in the way but oh well. Opening to the side doors tend to sag because of the weight unless you use heavy duty hinges. Opening up, you have to put a latch of some sort so the door doesn't fall on you.


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## Sirhc401 (Oct 17, 2011)

How expensive is it to build A custom enclosure. I was thinking if it costs a lot I might as well buy one


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## james.w (Oct 17, 2011)

it can be done for as cheap as about $150 if you really need it to be. The best deal I have seen on a new cage that would house an adult tegu was $500 plus shipping.


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## Sirhc401 (Oct 17, 2011)

That is about what I am looking at plus some for buying. I'm actually trying to build not just a tegu enclosure but an entire stacking enclosure unit for my reptiles that when all put together will be 5x2x6 with 5 enclosures total, the top one split in half. I have a sketch I'll post in a moment...


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## james.w (Oct 17, 2011)

How big are you planning on doing your tegus cage?


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## Sirhc401 (Oct 17, 2011)

I plan on making his cage 5 feet long 2 feet wide. I know it is kinda small but by the time he gets bigger we want to take him out all the time so he does not have to be in it a lot. Not to mention we have limited room and we have to make something we can transport because my girlfriend will be taking all the reptiles when I leave for the air force. AnywaY, here is my sketches..


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## james.w (Oct 17, 2011)

That is WAY too small for an adult tegu. I would definitely try to figure out a way to make a larger cage.


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## Sirhc401 (Oct 17, 2011)

Like I said. It is too small. But I am limited on space unless I built one under the bed which I have no idea how I could do that. I've seen it done but I don't know the first thing about building things. I would love to make his enclosure twice as big as that or more but we would not have a place to put it. And we need it to be transportable 

If there is a better option I would like to hear it. Im limited so it is hard to what I want with what I have


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## james.w (Oct 17, 2011)

If you knew you wouldn't have the space for a tegu, why did you get one?

It wouldn't be that hard to build a cage under your bed.


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## Sirhc401 (Oct 17, 2011)

When I got him I was under the impresion he would be fine in a 4 foot cage. But for now he is still small and obviously I know now I need to go bigger. I have a queen size bed so having him under the bed would be ideal. My house has space but my girlfriends does not. And we don't want him in the cage all the time. And we originally had an entire room to put our reptiles in so we did have plenty of space. But then that room became occupied out of our control after we already had Odin. I know you must be thinking it was irresponsible of me to get a tegu if I had no space to put him. Had I known we would eventually be denied the space we had I would not have got him. But now I am happy I have him and am willing to do what I can to accommodate him

So I hope you don't judge that I am that foolish.


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## james.w (Oct 18, 2011)

I do understand things come up and plans change. This is the problem with your plan to have him out freeroaming a lot when he is bigger. What happens when you or your girl don't have time to let him out? Are you going to rehome him or leave him in an enclosure he can barely turn around in?


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## Sirhc401 (Oct 18, 2011)

Oh no. Definately not. If we find that we can't take him out as much as we want to we will make him a bigger cage for sure. I get where you are coming from on that. But I care about Odin too much to let him be in a tiny cage all day long. The unit we want to build right now is not even what we plan to have him in permanently. Just temporary, it will be fine for size until he gets older.


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## james.w (Oct 18, 2011)

As long as you understand they grow incredibly fast. My tegu is about 15 months old and around 44-45" long.


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## Sirhc401 (Oct 18, 2011)

Oh I know. Odin is growing really fast


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## Lance (Oct 23, 2011)

We try to incorporate a hinged door or glass arrangement whenever we need access. The sliding glass door looks great, but like previously said, the track gets full of stuff and makes it difficult to slide. I always use Plexiglass for my glass door panels, lighter weight, you do have the scratch potential, but we are just careful, and you can always polish out the scratches. I use the rotating brass latches, like a sash window uses for latching my doors, they work great and look attractive. They are available at HomeDepot or Lowes.

If you have your doors lift up, incorporate door stops for the panels to rest on instead of slamming into the wall or something else.

My kids haven't even slowed a bit yet, but they are travelling back and forth alot between their basking spot and the dig box each day.
Not sure what that means. Their temperment hasn't changed.


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## Sirhc401 (Oct 24, 2011)

That is quite helpful. Thank you Lance


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## Sirhc401 (Oct 24, 2011)

I'll have to post some pictures for everyone if and when I get my project started, I'm running by my step dad to see if he can help since he works construction and I know little to nothing. So I'm crossing my fingers he will help


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