Spikes new home

[Frito]

the story starts off sad but ends good for my Beardie Spike

I got a baby iguana about 1-1/2 months ago because i used to have iguana's when i was younger and wanted to get one again. so i built him a massive 5' x 2-1/2' x 6' cage, anyways long story short he got away from me when i was trying to take him out of his cage 4 days ago and while chasing him down through the house i lost track of where he went and have not found him yet. i've put out a heat light/food bait trap for the past 4 days in hopes he would come out and want to warm up but nothing. knowing how fragile baby ig's are i'm sure if hes not dead from being cold and unfed by now he will soon be and have given up on trying to find him after 4 days.

so long story short the loss of my baby ig has now become a good thing for my adult beardie spike because i decided tonight to modify the ig's cage for him and moved him in tonight

here are some photo's of the cage, let me know what you guys think and if i should add or change anything

temps are perfect in the cage for him basking spot (the two rocks) reads 105 with my probe temp monitor and the middle of the cage is 82 and the far end is 78 degress

lighting is a powersun 100w MVB and a 75watt halogen spotlight with a dimmer connected to adjust the temp at the basking spot accordingly, the powersun is a bit on the high side from where he can sit but i'm pretty sure this bulb is outputting a bit on the high side because if he gets close to the bulb he tends to keep the eye facing it closed but at this height (20" approx) he is not keeping the eye shut so that is probably a good thing.

other lights on the other end are more for ambient light the CF bulb in the photo is a reptisun 5.0 but at that height not much UV is reaching the floor of the cage anyways and the other is just a normal incandescent bulb for a bit of heat on the cool and and more light as the whole cage is fly screen except the back and the sides have removable glass over the screen

he's been exploring it tonight until he found the basking spot and was not sure what to do with all this new space

 

[isdrake]

I'm sorry to hear about your iguana, I hope he will turn up.

It's nice to see beardie with a decent sized enclosure. I really think they deserve something like this or even bigger (besides all that height). Good job.

Now you got some space to play around with. At this point it looks empty and you're not using the vertical space. You should add some shelfs and climbable stuff like thick branches and cork bark. They love to climb.

It could also be good to add more shelter/hides. They should be able to hide and adjust their body temperature at the same time. Therefor they should have at least two hides, one at the cold side and one at the warm side. It doesn't have to be the typical cave/log it could be a piece of cork bark, a plant or something else.

 

[Frito]

yeah good call, he freaked out last night when the lights went off because he had no idea where to go to sleep at.

he went running around for a bit and then discovered he could climb the screen all the way to the top shelf of the cage :evil: i had to take him down because i didn't want him to go up there in fear he may fall from the top shelf plus at the the moment lights are mounted to it and the diagonal shelf has been removed so there is no easy way for him to get down.

he does not seem to want to climb the screen sides, i think he was just freaked out and not sure where to hide to go to sleep (he has yet to figure out he can go into that large hide cave) we'll see how he does today i might have to do something to keep him off the lower parts of the screening if he keeps doing it

 

[Frito]

well as luck would have it now that i moved Spike into the ig's old cage he must of got jealous overnight or something because this morning i found him hanging out in my Landry basket!!

he's still a baby so i'm going to modify Spikes old cage when i get home from work today to house him and keep spike in the big cage because he seems to like it so much, hes running around in it and everything

 

[Frito]

well daily update on both of my herp's homes

now that i found my Iguana this morning i put him into Spikes old cage after cleaning it real well, it still needs some furniture and i need to get some tiles or something to put in the bottom but i will do that probably this weekend and Spike is loving his new huge home.

i'm going to keep them in these cages for awhile but once the iguana gets bigger and out grows his current cage i will need to build spike a new one so i can move the iguana back into his former and still future home