Would you change anything in my enclosure plan?

[spike1119]

Hey guys,

Thanks for all the great advice so far. I'm going to be building my first enclosure and wanted to see what the experts thought first. Any revisions are very welcome.

1 bearded dragon his body is about 4" and tip to tail about 8 to 9"

My Plan:

A 4x2x2 enclosure made from cabinet grade plywood.

Inside faced with Formica. I know i could just use melamine but I'm not a huge fan of it and using Formica gives me endless choices of color. Another point here is that I can build this and put him right in. If I use stain or paint it has to cure and I'm not very sure about fumes from the heat bothering him. Your insights here would be very useful.

Tile floor grouted with sand grout.

two side vents sizes per crossfire.

two back vents 3"x 16" each

36" shop light fixture for a reptisun 10.0 bulb

spotlight fixture like the crossfire using a 100 watt normal household bulb (i'm really looking for suggestions on the bulbs you use for this)

sliding front doors made of plexi which i may upgrade to glass. the crossfire suggest .22" which is fairly expensive. I'm pretty sure the .093" should be thick enough what do you think. Also I plan on cutting grooves in a piece of wood to act as the slides using tape on the edge of the plexi to let it slide better. Any problems with crickets getting out between the space of the overlapping glass.

Temperature readings taken with a PE1 tempgun.


I think that's all for know. It's a lot to learn and you feel like it has to be learned yesterday, less I make a dreadful mistake (for him that is).

Thanks again for your help.

Neil

 

[suzuki4life]

material is fine. Make sure you air out the enclosure well before adding a lizard. You shouldn't need a 100w bulb. Spend the extra and go with glass right away. Buy glass track and save yourself some headaches.