Hi all newly registered to the site even though I have been reading as a guest for a long time.
Well after reading all the way through this and seeing some amazing setups I thought I would post my custom build up even though it doesn't compare to any of the ones that are here, I am very jelous of some of the setups that are here but I can't do anything till I get back to my buddy as he lives in a different country from me at the moment and only just finished building Izzie's enclosure in time before I had to leave the care in the capable hands of my beloved wife who spoils Izzie even more then I did lol.
This was Izzie's original setup when we 1st purchased him / her from petco (don't even mention about the store). It is a Zilla Bearded Dragon Delux enclosure. with a custom background which my wife painted herself using the back of the cardboard lid from the box that it came in.
Oh we also got Izzie a couple of hours before we got married :lol: Best wedding presant I could have ever hoped for. 8)
After having Izzie for about a month I realised that the chances of me being around as Izzie grew out of the Zilla enclosure was almost a definate thing so I started to read up about the sizes for a full grown beardie and got to work trying to design one.
Long story short this is what I ended up building with no more then a old craftsman 10" table saw, 1 battery drill , 1 adjustable T Square, some Star Screws & a small drill bit set.
The only wood I bought was 15mm ply or might be 18mm ply from Lowes which I then sanded down and stained and finally sealed with water based sealer and silicon around the joins on the inside. Also sealed the ramp just to be sure it would be ok.
The Stand was never finished as I ran out of funds still needs to be boxed in but it does the job.
The enclosure is 48" long, 24" tall & 24" Deep, has a full mesh screen top lid and the lexan plexiglass slides up in one piece as I didn't want any joins in the middle I wanted to have as clean a view as possible.
The ramp was built from left over wood that my farther in law had same as the stand was.
This is a picture with the plexiglass in place before I finished building it.
Here is the enclosure almost finished and you can see the difference in size from the original 30"x12"x12" Zilla enclosure.
This is how Izzie's home is now & I can't wait to get back and finish it off.
It has a 150w Zilla Daytime Blue Heat Blub and a Zilla low profile 36" Full Spectrum T5 Tube with addition light I can't remeber off the top of my head what it is called exactly. Also has 1 Flukers digital temp at the basking end and a Zilla digital temp display at the cool end, I no longer use the analog Zilla temp / hygrometer that came with the original enclosure as I found out that it was way off even though I did recalibrate it using the 2 digital temp / hygrometers for accuracy.
Izzie loves the new enclosure but still loves running around the living room everyday, I was a bit worried when I 1st put Izzie in as the enclosure is so much bigger as you can probably see Izzie is still very young if you can spot him / her on the ramp but the change over wasn't stressful as far as I could tell but Izzie loves spending most of the time either on the ramp or hugging the driftwood.
Just some pictures of Izzie in the enclosure.
Look at me dad.
The next 2 pictures were taken about a week ago and Izzie seems to be growing but I am not sure if Izzie is the right size for his / her age or not as they didn't really know much at the so called pet store but Izzie is healthy so that's what matters most.
This is when we 1st got Izzie almost 6 months ago and they said Izzie could be about 3 months old.
Cried with laughter when I 1st noticed Izzie sleeping like this.
My little buddy chilling out in the afternoon in the old enclosure.
Just incase anyone is thinking it... I know Izzie is young and on Shifted playsand but has always been on sand even when we went to petco they were all on playsand, I tried Izzie on the Alfalafa and just stone but didn't seem to like it, Izzie has never had a problem with pooping (can't believe how much is in one lizard) and seems to like digging about and also gets fed the crickets in a Rubbermaid.
If anyone would like to give me some ideas as what and how to decorate my little buddies home better then please feel free to do so.
If anyone would like to know how to build this enclosure let me know and I can post up the photos of it being done with a description.
Sorry if this was a bit long :lol: