My Enclosure plans

[Draco D Tegu]

Ok hopefully this picture comes up. I am drawing up plans for a dual habitat due to space reasons. The room that is going to be my "lizard room" only has about 7....MAYBE 8 feet of open space, the rest have windows, which I'm afraid will not allow me to make use of my space. What I'm building is a 6 to 7 foot long double decker cage, by 7 feet high by 3 to 4 ft deep. The top half will be for the gu, the bottom for my large iguana.

*** The plans I did on the smaller end of length and width, I might be able to increase these sizes, but I am working on emptying the room out so I won't know until everything is moved out*****

I would ideally like my gu to have his lights IN the cage like I have seen others incorporate fixtures, BUT my iguana I don't have any other options than to rest them on top of the enclosure because he loves digging at his lights. Don't want fried iguana thus the 1 foot space between the two cages.


So far I'm planning on using 2X4's in an "L" shape for the frame work. Should I go with 4X4 instead, considering the weight of the substrate and OSB? I'm also going to use OSB for the walls, and coat it really well with pool paint (I read somewhere that it is non toxic and saves the wood with the high humidity tegus require).

Any thoughts?

 

[Guest]

I would guess 2x2s would work ..

 

[Toby_H]

It seems a lot more practical as well as natural to have the ground dwelling Tegu on bottom and the arboreal Iguana on top.

This would also allow you to use smaller lumber such as 2x2Ã?¢ââ??‰â??¢s as the weight of the iguanaÃ?¢ââ??‰â??¢s section will be less. Using smaller lumber lessens the cost of the project as well as the weight of the finished product.

4x4s will be completely unnecessary. My 8Ã?¢ââ??‰â??¢ Tegu enclosure is built out of 2x4Ã?¢ââ??‰â??¢s and it doubles as a stand for a 125 ~265 gallon aquarium.

I have both fluorescent lighting as well as incandescent lighting inside my TeguÃ?¢ââ??‰â??¢s enclosure and he doesnÃ?¢ââ??‰â??¢t bother it at all.

 

[james.w]

I agree with Toby. I would put the tegu on the bottom. 2x2s should work fine, but definitely don't use 4x4s unless you plan on never moving it cause it will weigh a ton.

 

[Draco D Tegu]

Thank you all, I was actually toying with the idea of flipping them, I was more concerned about my border collies who know how to open latches getting to him. The Ig they don't bother because he has them completely buffalloed by acting like a bad butt!

Thank you, I'll flip them and put Gator (changed his name) down on the bottom. I will use the 2X4 timbers, because yes, I'll probably move them as we have plans to sell our house and move to a bigger one in the spring.

LOL thought about incorporating a tortoise table in there somehow too, but I guess he's just gonna be stuck in the living room.