New Bearded Dragon Enclosure

[Rokka]

Ok this is my first shot at posting a full thread....I am new to having dragons as usually I keep snakes, long story short our new beardie was a rescue. I will post pictures of her later.
We needed an enclosure that was functional and looked good, the wife wanted it to be in our family room. The first step was a trip to Habitat for Humanity for cabinet parts. You can find a bunch of stuff here to use or alter, we bought 4 cabinet squares and 3 cabinet doors with glass in them.
The cabinet squares are 17 1/2 inches tall and 30 inches wide x 22 inches deep, perfect for the foundation.

After connecting the 2 cabinet squares together I added a frame to the bottom for strength.

After the 2 sections had a base on them i added the floor to the cage.

Then the sides are added and the lower cage front was added. At this point i was still deciding on how tall the cage would be, the side panels are 2 foot x 4 foot in the following photos.

Jumping ahead in the construction and skipping on taking some photos, we come to the enclosure having plastic pegboard backing and a full wood top.

The doors are put on with the hinges on the top, and the basic building is done.

Now I need to seal the inner sections of the cage and work on the lighting, the 2 lamps pictured on the enclosure are there basically for food for thought. The hardest part that i am having is deciding on the lighting, as a person who usually builds snake cages it is hard for me to install lamps in the actual cage. Looking around the forum i see this is the norm ?

Any comments would be greatly appreciated, thanks for looking

 

[agordon89]

I don't think this is the norm, but I am making the top of my enclosure a screen (like it would be on an aquarium). That way I can use the dome lighting outside of the cage as I have been so far. I know its taking the easyway out but I can not do any wiring and it also protects the beardie from touching the bulbs and getting burnt....its just one idea

 

[Rokka]

Thats usually how I would do it also, it also makes it easier to move the lamps around. Like i said though being new to Dragons I'm just not sure how I am going to do it yet. Cutting a large rectangular opening in the wood top is still easy to do, then like you said put the lamps on the outside. The only issue i see with doing it that way is getting the repti-sun 10 bulb close enough to work properly . looking into a 3 foot fixture atm for the repti-sun bulb.



Thanks for your reply, and thoughts

 

[volvotech]

That is a great looking cage. You definitely knew what you were doing! Coming from snakes, here's what I did with the lighting situation: unscrew the base of a small heat lamp and remove it. You should have an empty "lamp," with the cord/ballast separate. Cut a small hole (3" square) somewhere in the top of the cage, and you can mount the ballast in that hole. I used a piece of wire mesh, attached it to the cage at all 4 corners with bolts and washers, and cut a circle in the middle. I then screwed the ballast together through the mesh, and voila! Let there be light.

 

[Rokka]

Thanks for the reply, and yes I have built my share of cages including some large walk in models for some very spoiled Burmese Pythons. As far as the lighting goes I may replace the whole top on this cage with screen and also mount the repti-sun bulb in the cage. The basking bulb and any other lights or heat fixtures could be put on the screen out of reach, but totally re-locatable as to what is needed ( what ever Miss Piggy likes best for basking ). I didn't name her my wife did because she ate 4 dozen crickets at one sitting, dusted of course...... Going to post a picture of her as soon as i can, she was a rescue and I'm really not sure what morph she is or isn't.

 

[Rokka]

Ok here is the enclosure so far, or i should as it is atm. You all know that all enclosures need tweaking to get them right .

this is the lighting set-up at present, a 36-48 inch repti-sun fixture is going to be installed inside the enclosure front top pointing away from the doors.

Sand and tile are being used atm for her substrate, i do like the tile better and i know its safer. Using a normal house bulb 75watt atm for her basking spot it is staying at 100 degrees. This is gonna change as we get her some more deco and a perch..

So far she seems to be enjoying her new enclosure, moves around cking things out. We have not seem any signs of stress at all, as soon as she was put in the new cage she ate some greens.....lol.

Thanks for your time...

 

[volvotech]

No plans to stain it?

 

[Rokka]

At this time the issue was to get her in an enclosure as fast as i could....She was a rescue and stress was a concern that I had. I have been going 2 ways on the outside finish, straight paint, or to laminate the outside and add some trim on top to hide the lighting fixtures. The interior was sealed and painted a flat white primer, that would be easy to repaint if needed. Yes I know either way I'm going to have to move her to give the enclosure time to air out.



Thank you for your thoughts

 

[kitkat101]

Wow! It looks great! Good job!

 

[eternitylonger]

Looks really good. I like it. As far as far the lighting, simply putting a screen top and then the lights on top of the screen is fine. In most starter kits, they come with a screen metal top. You can even buy a metal screen top to put over a glass terrarium. I just finished 1 of 2 tanks for my Beaux and they will both have mesh tops. Mainly so I can have better airflow and also not run the risk of Beaux touching the light. Also, you wouldn't happen to live in the Lafayette area,would you?

 

[Rokka]

No actually in Sarasota Florida. The cage design started with a full wood top , but i liked the idea of more air flow and the ability to move lamps around. I have added some height to the basking area to get her closer to the bulb, so far so good. She is eating well and as far as I can tell happy in her new home.

Wasn't really high enough so went to this.

 

[eternitylonger]

Very good. Glad to she your girl is happy and healthy. Just asking about Lafayette because we have a Hab for Hum here, also, I didn't know that was a nationwide thing. I love that place. I bought a few things from there that I will build Beaux's new cage out of. But yea, the mesh top is the way to go, IMO.

 

[Rokka]

Thank you for your comments on her enclosure so far. Looking into building a rock wall with a ledge on the other side of her enclosure, ok so i'm hooked.....

 

[Rokka]

OK last update on this thread for now. The lighting is in place and the enclosure is in its final spot ( yeah we know how that goes ).
The first picture is of the to of the enclosure left side, with a 50 watt bulb for lighting and a little extra heat.

The second is of the right side with basking bulb 75 watt, provides a steady 105 on her shelf.

You will notice the other lights are gone, mounted a 36inch repti-sun 10 tube in the front top corner of the enclosure pointing towards the lower back of the enclosure.

So far so good, any other comments or thoughts would be greatly welcomed....

P.s. Still can't figure out why she won't answer the phone, i mean come on its right there ?

 

[BadCon]

Angling the UVB light in such a way will create glare and will shine needlessly in her eyes. If its just a looks thing, then putting it back on the top would probably be better. If anything, attach it to the back of the viv using zipties or some other fastener. That pegboard really opens up a lot of options regarding mounting, and having it there would allow it to shine straight down....keeping it out of her eyes.