ideas for custom cage

Cammy, what would you recommend? he is 6 months old 9.5inches long including tail

 

something that could atleast last a year would be perferable

 

They grow really fast. Honestly you are better off just spending 3 or 4 hundred $$'s on materials to build the full cage instead of wasting money. You don't even have to buy it all at once. Just buy a few parts at a time and spread it out over the next 3 or 4 months so it isn't a huge hit to the bank account.

Go big or go home!

I promise it will be the best long term plan: in both financial and labor/effort, you come out ahead of the game.

 

didnt really want to spend much atm because recently i had to get my car fixed and it cost alot of money but how big do yout hink i should do it

 

full grown should be like 5 or 6 long.. 3 or 4 deep and at least 5 high, 6 or 7 preferred

 

......this isnt 4chan no rule 34

 

omg.. that wasnt me... that was my brother, im so sorry, editing it

 

i really REALLY hope you were the only one who saw that, Im going to punch him for that. he put it on my facebook too...

 

Well, I'd probably make it big enough to last him until he's about a foot and a half with tail. I'd say the absolure smallest I would do right now is 4 feet long, 2 feet deep, 4 feet tall. Having said that, I must stress that I completely agree with Enharmonic; the most cost and labor effective thing to do would be to build the adult setup in one go. It may cost a little more initially, but it will still cost a lot less than building a second setup a year later. And believe me, you will need that size upgrade within a year from now if he's growing properly. Honestly, I can't imagine that the 2-3 extra feet of lumber on each side will make a HUGE difference in the cost...Maybe do some pricing of supplies before you decide straight away that you can't afford to build the adult enclosure immediately.

Anyway, not trying to rant, and I'll get to the actual topic at hand.

Since you are trying to build the cheapest setup without sacrificing anything for the lizard's health, I'll try to point out some money saving tips.

First, look for lumber and supplies in the classifieds, including online resources like craigslist and ebay classifieds. Don't limit yourself to conventional lumber, either. Shipping pallets and wood furniture may be possible supplies too if you're willing to take the time to tear them apart to get what you need out of them. Also, a bookshelf laid flat with the shelves taken out could make a great base for your setup.

Don't forget to seal your wood with a waterproof, heat resistant sealant. This is especially important for you because you are building a setup that is going to have a higher humidity in it. Water + Untreated Wood = Rotting Wood. Nobody wants that. =)

Please, please, please make sure you put a solid base at the bottom front of the cage to prevent your CWD from running along the front of the mesh or glass at the front of the cage and developing snout rub. The sides and back should be solid as well. I can't stress this enough. I've seen a water dragon literally have its nose fall off because it was being housed in a cage where it could see out the sides, causing it to pace along the glass until his snout became so scabby that it simply dropped off.

For a relatively cheap and easy to clean water space, you can use a large rubbermaid tub with a HOB/HOT filter attached to it. Make sure it covers 1 to 2 thirds of the bottom and is deep enough for your CWD dragon to fully submerge himself. (Sorry if I'm being redundant!) Something like this would be great with a ramp build up and into it:
http://www.amazon.com/Quart-IRIS®-C...RQ/ref=sr_1_23?ie=UTF8&qid=1312160098&sr=8-23
And the filter doesn't have to be huge or expensive; just something to get the poo and dirt out of the way is a good idea. Classifieds are another good resource here; people often just give these things away or sell them for dirt cheap.

Probably the cheapest way to set up a basking site that will allow him to get up high is to use a sort of shelf-style system. Just build some ramps and shelves along the back wall and voila, basking site. Not the most natural looking system, but it's easy to build, easy to clean, and won't cost you an arm and a leg like a large piece of natural driftwood would. Alternatively, you could make your own driftwood for climbing if you happen to have a place to get a piece that big from (i.e. large tree branches with the twigs cut off and sanded, sterilized of course...which would certainly be a chore with a piece that big, lol).

To "prettify" things a little, you can use some silk plants from a craft store. Just soak them and rinse them out in hot water to get any cheap dyes out. Foliage will also help add a feeling of security for your lizard in addition to being aesthetically pleasing for you.

I'll definitely do a quick computer sketch or two to get some of my ideas across, but for now I'll leave it at that. Stay tuned. =D

 

yeah cammy that would be wonderful , i saw your sketch on the other post and it looked amazing thank you in advance and if it makes a difference i was told my dragon is a female

 

Okay...try not to be overwhelmed. I think it looks more complicated than it needs to be.



Like I said, you could make it look really nice with some well placed silk plants. Also, I didn't know if you are using a tube UVB bulb or a MVB, so I just did a tube fluorescent since that seems to be the most common choice. Umm, yeah. If you have any questions or want to bounce more ideas around, just ask. =D

 

what wood would i have to use?

 

Cammy,

What program did you use to draw the design? I draw designs like that by hand, but the computer drawing looks awesome.

 

Leon: Sadly, I don't have any experience building my own enclosures, so I know next to nothing about building supplies. I'm going to have to defer to a website I found on the subject:

http://www.reptile-cage-plans.com/articles/reptilecages/cagematerials.html

Basically, no pine or cedar. Melamine is best but is also the most expensive. Plywood is fine, but use a higher grade and thickness for stability, and make sure you seal it. PVC sheets are fine, but they don't hold heat well and are also more expensive. I'm just regurgitating information here, so you'll probably want to give that article a read as well as any others you can find.

Hopefully someone else watching this thread can give you a better answer, but for now all I can say is, as always, research and plan. =)

Jess: It's some old program from 1997, lol. Corel Paint 7 or something like that. I'm sure there's snazzier versions of it now but it works great for me for all kinds of things. Anyway, you could use pretty much any photoshop-esque program to do quick sketches like this. Even paint or a word document could do it. Nothing beats drawing by hand though. That's where most of my ideas go--on paper. =)

 

Use cheap plywood, and then cover the entire inside with some kind of sealant, and then apply a medium/thick layer of tile grout. Grout can be painted and shaped to look natural and it holds heat amazingly. And if you apply another layer of sealant on the grout, you can mold it over styrofoam that you would glue to the walls and the grout can be molded into a water-feature that will help with humidity, appearance, and filtration. The water feature would empty into something simple like a Rubbermaid tote or the likeness of, for easy removal and maintenance. Then use 2x4s to support the outside walls of the enclosure.

That would pretty much be the absolute most dirt cheap way of doing it that you could attempt without being just outright ridiculous. It wont look the best, but you get what you pay for, and it-simply put-works just as well as anything fancier.

There are even cheaper enclosures, but none that could maintain the required humidity without some kind of automated misting system, cause lets be real.. most people have day jobs and cant sit around misting 5 or 6 times a day. But if you did want to build something even cheaper, I could recommend some ideas involving PVC pipe and plastic coated mesh, but again, its really probably not worth it cause of the humidity requirements of the particular animal.

 

thank you again cammy, and enharmonic could you give me an exact list of every item i would need so i could look it up in the home depot site? please

 

Leon - I started a rough website with a how-to section... it's not quite done yet but you can get the basic idea... Here's the link to my how-to on a rock wall/structure for a leo but it can be changed to be a custom background... http://www.stickypawsgeckos.com/CustomBackground.php
www.blackjungleterrariumsupply.com/ is a website I used a lot when I was making custom enclosures for friends... they have a TON of info on there, best plant info I've found on the web... Good luck!

 

Hahaha Well Thanks any way lol you guys are too funny

 

You'll have to measure out what you want on your own, but the raw materials are as follows:

5 or 6 sheets of plywood (go a little big on these, you might need the "waste" to add a 5 or 6 inch strip along the front-top an bottom-for hiding lights and containing substrait and to use as ramps.. if you use as ramps, you MUST put something over the wood to prevent splinters... that something would be grout).

3 or 4 longer 2x4s (get only 3 or 4 long ones and then just make multiple cuts.. 2 of them are for bracing the outside to strengthen the plywood, and the 3rd/4th is to cut up and make a door out of.. the door piece could also be a 1x4 or 1x2 or whatever you want, as long as its strong).

A box of screws.. don't use nails, just don't.

Wood sealer.. maybe one large can or two?

Tile Grout.. like 20 or 30 lbs of it.. maybe more if you do a lot of sculpting.

Anything after that is extra and not technically part of the design (such as water features, pumps, etc.)

those are the materials, the actual building is just trial and error. I can give tips, but really once you start building its just as simple as sink or swim.

 

I'll always remember you though...

-plays Titanic soundtrack-