Monitor enclosure discussion thread

[Gregg M]

Originally Posted by crocdoc

Up until today I was Facebook 'friends' with a guy who owns juveniles of the following species: American alligator, reticulated python, African rock python, scrub python, green anaconda, crocodile monitor, water monitor, blue-tail monitor, Nile monitor, ornate monitor and a few others (I've forgotten which other species he has). He lives in a state which is cold enough that he wouldn't be able to house any of them outdoors when (or if) they reach adult size. I don't know how the alligator or snakes are kept, but the photographs I've seen of his monitors show that they're in glass aquaria with newspaper or astroturf for substrate, with screen tops and apparently no access to proper basking spots. Judging by the post dates on his photographs, none of his animals has grown significantly in the year or so since he started posting photographs of them.

His big thing is all about how tame they are and how he's able to tame them by spending so much time with them. Other people can't tame them as well as he can.

He wants to get a saltwater crocodile one day. I suggested to him that perhaps he should wait until at least some of his animals have grown, to see how he can cope with housing them, before getting any more. I also mentioned that, in my opinion, big crocodiles like Niles and saltwater crocodiles shouldn't be owned by private individuals because they invariably need to be rehomed and then end up moving around so much they end up dead before long. He told me I was negative and I shouldn't get in the way of him and his dreams, so I suggested he de-friend me because I wasn't about to change my attitude towards animal abuse.

He de-friended me, which is good because now I don't have to tell him what I REALLY think.

Dave, Stop BSing! You know you love the kid and told him you would get him a nice tame saltie. LOL.

By the way, it was a pleasure hanging out with you dude. Hope you had a good time while you were in NY. Too bad you caught us in the middle of moving the reptile room. It is really coming together now. Got all the varanids moved into the new room and all the snakes are now in the old room.

Oh, I just grabbed us a nice adult pair of pilbara.

[jarich]

Dave, you were in NY?! Im so out of the loop. Sorry I missed a rare chance to meet you in person. For some reason I thought Gregg had moved out to the west coast too. Not sure where my mind is sometimes...

[crocdoc]

Originally Posted by Gregg M

Dave, Stop BSing! You know you love the kid and told him you would get him a nice tame saltie.

Oh, I wish it were a kid - his unrealistic collector mentality would be more understandable. Many teens go through a stage of wanting to own a lot of really big reptiles, but this is an adult in his 40s!

It was great to meet you and John in person, Gregg. Tell John the new big SIMS made it in one piece and I look forward to trying it out in spring. It was interesting fitting it into my luggage. I almost got a chance to see John twice, for he was in LA when I was there on my way back to Australia. We had a six hour stopover and were hanging around with Vincent Fricano when John rang him.

Yes, Jarich, I was in NYC for a few days in April, as part of a 'round North America' trip. Had I realised you were in Brooklyn I would have looked you up, as I was staying in Park Slope.

[BarelyBreathing]

Where else did you go?

[crocdoc]

Originally Posted by BarelyBreathing

Where else did you go?

California (too cold for reptiles, so my friends took me looking for salamanders instead), Florida (almost top to bottom: I spent a week visiting the Everglades daily, then went north to St Augustine/Jacksonville, west to Gainesville and then up through Tallahassee, south through Tampa and then back across Alligator Alley to Miami), NYC, Montreal and Quebec, Winnipeg (visited the Manitoba snake dens, twice), Calgary and then back to Oz via LA (visited Prehistoric Pets while waiting for the next flight).

[BarelyBreathing]

Sounds like a fun time. Next time consider coming to Denver.

[DiscoPat]

I am going to building an 8x4x4 or an 8x5x4 enclosure for my monitor in a few months (as soon as I move out of my apartment) I was wondering about how much should I save for wood, substrate and other things that are required.

[infernalis]

Save up a few hundred dollars.

Good plywood is $30 a sheet, and you will need 5 sheets (uninsulated enclosure) or 8 sheets for an insulated box.

[mo9e64]

Whatever you are going to line the inside of your cage should be a consideration as well,such as epoxy paint or FRP.Us Canadians envy how cheap you can build enclosures for my cage ran in the thousands of dollars Canadian.

[infernalis]

Mine probably would have Moe, The sheet aluminum was scrap, and the big lumber I already had.

I priced out the 2x6, and the ones I have were like $20 a board, and I used plenty...

Heck I even found 3 cans of that grey sealer in my basement (came with the house)

Can't forget.. That safety glass shower door is probably over $100 to buy, and I got mine from a hotel demolition for free.

[DiscoPat]

thank you, That doesn't seem too bad, I will be working at a mill over the summer so I should easily be able to save up a a couple thousand or so.

[infernalis]

Then by all means make that cage 12 feet long, it will only require 2 additional sheets of plywood cut into halves.

[DiscoPat]

I may need a climate controlled garage for that size but if I find a place with one if that and the extra dirt is all it will take then it would most definitely be worth it.

[infernalis]

Originally Posted by DiscoPat

I may need a climate controlled garage for that size but if I find a place with one if that and the extra dirt is all it will take then it would most definitely be worth it.

Insulate the cage, then the garage climate becomes a lot less important.

I insulated mine, and last winter we had a power failure that lasted 3 1/2 hours, the inside of the cage never dropped below 80 degrees.

[DiscoPat]

That is quite impressive for it to hold temperature that well.

What do you use to have the safety glass shower door lock into place?