Community Input Please

[Lizardess]

Hi Everybody,

I would like everyone to chime in with their thoughts, and their fully explained reasons for those thoughts. I would like to have a very large enclosure set up with a ramp and an easily accessed in/out door way with one of those vinyl strips style curtains, and a ramp. Inside this enclosure, there would be a nice deep mulch and organic soil substrate that they could burrow into. The enclosure would be very humid, but they would have open access to come and go in and out at will. There are no other pets roaming about, and everything accessible to them would be tegu-proof.

There would also be multiple basking stations set up for them to lay on. My tegus are both pretty good size, and love wandering around. Working from home affords me the opportunity to supervise, and allow them out often, and they seem to love it. My almost yearling female seeks both my husband and I out to snuggle with us, and my five year old male will come out and wander around, walking close by us, but not seeking us out unless there's food in it for him (I am working with him as I can to encourage him to warm up to us). I know there's a lot of people that are not fans of free-ranging tegus, but I want to be able to both enjoy my babies immensely, and give them a great environment that isn't as cramped as a lot of the enclosures I have seen. Many such enclosures seem to infer, based upon their dimensions, that the inhabitant only spends a limited portion of their time in it (ie: sleeping/some basking).

I'm considering devoting a bedroom to them eventually, and making a sitting area where I can enjoy them and the scenery while doing work on the laptop. I had this nutty idea to set up a shallow pond, with a waterfall, and a stream on a filtration system, and around it, do a deep layer of mulch. It's not going to be cheap, but this is my thing that makes me happy that I spend way too much on. We all have hobbies right? Heh.

 

[Walter1]

Not judging!!! May I clarify a point? I think of free-roam as loose in a house not baby proofed, as it were. What you're suggesting is effectively a giant ideal cage. I think it's great if a person has a room to spare as you might. Just BE SURE to protect from accidental fire!!!!!! That aside, lucky you, husband, and argies.

 

[Lizardess]

Of course Walter, I welcome feedback and am always open to constructive criticism. I won't be able to do the dedicated room for a while, but was thinking about a custom built 10' wide x 6' tall (2' deep mulch/soil layer) x 20' long cage with support posts to allow them in and out at will access, plus regular baths.