Housing Question

[nohotegu]

Hello all!
So I have my little guys cage all ready, but it's a 20 gallon so I've been looking for a bigger one. From my understanding the 20 gallon should do him pretty well for awhile (any guesses as to how long?), but I've found some other cages that look good. I have a question though: If there was deep water in their cage, would they drown? My instinct says that a cage with a recessed built in pond is a bad idea, but maybe you can shed some light on this. I'm looking at this cage: <!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="http://worcester.craigslist.org/pet/784197560.html">http://worcester.craigslist.org/pet/784197560.html</a><!-- m -->

Maybe I could somehow turn the pond into a burrow? And what do you think about the plants? Is 95 percent too MUCH humidity? I wish it wasn't so high, but it seems long/wide enough too.

The other one I was looking at is <!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="http://hartford.craigslist.org/pet/750759132.html">http://hartford.craigslist.org/pet/750759132.html</a><!-- m -->

I'm so excited!

 

[PinkPunisher]

Personally i would go with the larger cage that has the pond and just modify it a little bit. Buy it but don't put it all together as soon as you get home, extend the length of the tank as far as you can (preferably at least a foot so its 6 feet long.) If you did that then you have a cage for your tegus entire life.

Doing that would also help lower the humidity slightly which would be a good thing, 95% is really high and your tegu will more then likely get sores on its body. Another way to lower the humidity is to raise that light that looks like its above the pond that more then likely pumping out a lot of the humidity.

The plants should be fine but i would ask for what there names are first. If there all on the safe list then it will be fine. Just to let you know the plants will more then likely be destroyed the older and bigger the tegu becomes, but they will help with cleaning your cage until then.

The pond. The pond is going to be a problem for a baby tegu so i would suggest just filling it with rocks so its only 2"s deep and as it gets older take out some of the rocks. I wouldn't suggest going with water over 5-6"s for a baby.

(Also to help make sure this person doesn't screw you over ask how its sealed and with what, you wouldn't want to buy it just for it to rot.)

Good luck with your tegu you'll love them!

Spencer

 

[Gx3]

Tegus are large lizards and therefor will not need much vertical height (I'd say anything over 2 feet is unnecessary. You want the cage to be just tall enough to keep the heat and humidity right. 95% humidity is way to high and will cause respiratory as well as other problems. A 20 gallon should (if fed regularly on an appropriate diet) last a couple of months. A 4' x 2' cage would be a decent small cage for the tegus first year, then it will need a larger 6'+ cage.