Tegu / Rhino Iguana enclosure

[james.w]

Here are a couple of pics of the enclosures I am building for my Tegus and Rhino Iguana. I will be building 3 total (only 2 if my tegus are male and female and can be housed together). The dimensions are 8' x 3'6" x 2'4". Let me know what you think.

 

[Mr Critter]

Looks good...

 

[Guest]

Very nice! What is it that you use to coat the inside?

 

[james.w]

It's Drylok. This is my first time ever using it, but it has been highly recommeded by others on this forum. I also used caulk in the edges.

 

[hangtown530]

Looks great...I'll have to break my enclosure in two later on. It's way to tall for a rhino right now but I figure until he's bigger I won't have to worry about it. How old is you rhino now + what size enclosure is he/she being kept in for the time being?

 

[james.w]

My rhino is about 6 months old and is in a 6x2x2.

How big is your rhino and what size is he in? Any pics?

 

[hangtown530]

My rhino is about 6 months old and is in a 6x2x2.

How big is your rhino and what size is he in? Any pics?

5 months and on his way to me from Robert Ehrig...I build a 7Hx6Lx4D because I was going to get a red iguana before I honestly knew anything about rhino's once I study cyclura for a while I was hooked.

I'll post the pics of my enclosure so far right now...I think I'll be putting him in a 90gal for a month or so first.

Anyways I don't feel like resizing all these pics lol so if you want to see the enclosure you can go to www.herpcenter.com under forums-general enclosure same user name...

I'm pretty sure you are also part of that site

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BTW where are your pics?

 

[RobK.]

Here are a couple of pics of the enclosures I am building for my Tegus and Rhino Iguana. I will be building 3 total (only 2 if my tegus are male and female and can be housed together). The dimensions are 8' x 3'6" x 2'4". Let me know what you think.

nice , How long did you have to let it dry before its safe for your reps ?

thanks, RobK.

 

[Draco D Tegu]

James W.....did you find that you used more drylock to cover than you thought you would need?

Just curious if I was putting mine on too thick, but I went through 3 gallons for a double decker enclosure like the one you have pictured above (my ig on the top, my gu on the bottom). I wound up mixing the drylock with latex to make it also go on smoother and that seemed to help.

I'm getting ready to paint my new girl's enclosure and am wondering if I'm the only one that found the drylock to be a pain to work with.

I used the tan drylock and mixed it with mint green paint.

 

[james.w]

Hangtown. Yeah I am on that site and have seen your enclosure, I was the one who recommended you go shorter. He will probaby use the height as a youngster though.

RobK. I still haven't put anything in it, so it has been sitting for a while. I would probably give it at least 2 weeks to air out though.

Draco. I used about 1 1/4 gallons on this enclosure. I thought it was pretty easy to work with.

 

[Draco D Tegu]

Hmm...cool. I did notice all my paints didn't seem to cover as well as I thought they wood....but then again I used OSB instead of plywood. The OSB is a pain to cover.

 

[james.w]

That is probably why. OSB is very absorbent. You could try Kilz primer on the wood first than Drylok, depending on if it is cost effective.

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Here are a couple updated pics of the enclosure.

 

[Toby_H]

James, looking great...

I had a random thought looking at your pics... If you build the top one exactly like the bottom one... if the door on the top enclosure were to slip from your hand, the handle would hit around the center of the window of the lower door... I'm not sure what your exact plan for the top is so it may not matter, but it also seemed like a random detail that would be easy to overlook...

Drylok is thick by nature therefore it does go quick. Using a Primer or Kilz is reasonable option. Latex based Drylok will adhere to a latex based primer fine. Although I would not thin it by mixing it with paint/Kilz. At least not the top coat...

Keep in mind that Drylok is meant to be applied to Concrete, not wood, so the directions on the can are not necessarily the best directions (nor is the coverage applicable). My method is to make the first coat very thin, and each additional coat successively thicker. I never 'blob' the paint on, but in areas that are more critical (lower areas, especially corners) I apply additional coats to make it thicker.

This approach has worked very well for me, although I'm sure there are more than one way to skin this cat

 

[james.w]

James, looking great...

I had a random thought looking at your pics... If you build the top one exactly like the bottom one... if the door on the top enclosure were to slip from your hand, the handle would hit around the center of the window of the lower door... I'm not sure what your exact plan for the top is so it may not matter, but it also seemed like a random detail that would be easy to overlook...

Man, glad you caught that Toby. I probably would have broke at least one piece of glass before I figured that out. I think I want the doors to swing out instead of down anyway, so on the others I will build them that way.

 

[Toby_H]

A little bit of a warning... I made my doors swinging out and used tempered glass... they are quite heavy and it has been a challenge to get strong enough hinges to hold that still look decent. I'm quite happy with the way I have them now but it took a lot of tinkering... I used the "European style" countersunk kitchen cabinet hinges. They were very difficult to get in place just right, but after a lot of tinkering I've very happy with the result.

 

[james.w]

Well... what to do??? I guess I will have to play around with a couple different setups when the time comes.

 

[Toby_H]

If you want the upper cages doors to open down, you could use a hinge (an exterrior door hinge would work) and be sure to place it so that id does not allow the door to open the full 270* it would need to in order to hit the lower door.

It's also not impossible to find the right hinge to hold the weight of an outwardly swinging door, just be sure to conisder the weight it will need to hold when choosing a hinge. It's quite possible, just takes forethought. And I only know this because for me it's hindsight, I messed up on this part my first time

 

[Draco D Tegu]

What about simply making the doors swing up and getting locking swing arms/brackets to hold the doors up while you're in there working?

 

[james.w]

Looks great...I'll have to break my enclosure in two later on. It's way to tall for a rhino right now but I figure until he's bigger I won't have to worry about it. How old is you rhino now + what size enclosure is he/she being kept in for the time being?

Do you mind telling me what you paid for him?

 

[RobK.]

Big cages aren't cheap , i have over 400.00 in mine , with the wood , lights and domes , humidifier . The Plexiglas was 71.00 and the table i build it on was 60.00 . Sure adds up !!! MY Rhino was only 175.00 plus 35.00 shipping .