Green Iguana Society Message Board

Enclosure HELP

Posted by Ron on 8/16/2012, 8:47 pm

I recently adopted a 7 year old female iguana in a cold weather city. She came with mites and was obvioisly poorly treated. She has trouble climbing and isn't very active. She likes to sleep and eat. I bought her The Giant Lizard Cage from bigappleherp.com (see link below)
http://www.bigappleherp.com/Giant-Lizard-Cage
I also purchased multiple lighting components, exoterra monsoon, a temperature/humidity regulator and two waterfalls w/ 2 diggers. Needless to say I'm trying to her her healthy and comfortable for the remainder of her life. But I'm stumped with this cage. I installed a shelf going across the back call of the cage that holds her food and water dish and she sits in between the two basking all day and night. I bought 2 six foot by 4 inch wide pieces of wood wrapped in green outdoor carpet,leaning on an angle and she refused to climb them. I don't know what to do to make her comfortable and to give her space to roam and hide. Any suggestions?? Please click the link and tell me what I should do with all the space in the cage. I was thinking of covering all the walls with bamboo to help keep the humidity in. I even built an intricate shelf/hammock system out of Pvc and netting but I haven't installed them yet as I'm affraid she wont use that either

Thanks for any feedback

Re: Enclosure HELP

Posted by Sarah on 9/11/2012, 11:50 am, in reply to "Enclosure HELP"
129.79.22.211

As far as the disinterest in climbing, I might add that perhaps a wider surface will make her more confident until she gets healthier. After my girl had her tail amputated, she wouldn't climb anything that wasn't wider than her legs could stretch. I got a pine board (at least 10" wide) and wrapped it with nylon rope. She wouldn't climb a tree, but she would climb on that (and me, of course). Also, put it at a really low angle for starters. Let her ease into full lizard mode. It's important to get that iguana brain back into going up, period.

Re: Enclosure HELP

Posted by Sarah on 9/11/2012, 9:42 am, in reply to "Enclosure HELP"
129.79.22.211

Also, old towels work just as well as cage or outdoor carpet, and your ig will prefer it.

Re: Enclosure HELP

Posted by Sarah on 9/11/2012, 9:40 am, in reply to "Enclosure HELP"
129.79.22.211

Clear shower curtains secure well with zip ties to that wire mesh (on sides and back, maybe bottom of front, but leave the top and most of the front open for airflow. I'd put it on the inside so it wipes clean easily. Also, this will prevent your ig from climbing the wire and hurting herself with rubbing. I like to buy rainforest posters and mount them to the back of the plastic, so your ig gets some lovely scenery to look at, rather than wire bars (I suggest Cafepress.com)

Re: Enclosure HELP

Posted by Brian on 8/17/2012, 3:11 pm, in reply to "Enclosure HELP"
76.27.252.112

Ron,

For 350 dollars you can easily build a really really nice cage yourself. You need like a drill, hammer and a saw helps like a circular saw or tabletop saw... You can even buy 1 of those and be ahead of that $350 mark.

Many of us here suggest a plywood cage. I personally do.. unless its some sort of summer cage but thats different. Open air cages not only dont hold in heat but humidity becomes a problem as well, especially during the winters it might be cold but the air is still far too dry for their humidity requirements.

I would make a simple box. Just get yourself some 4x8 sheets of plywood.. 3/7ths to 1/2.. The 1/4th inch stuff just bends and bows and looks like a shotty job.

Basically 1 sheet bottom and top... 2 sheets for the back. For the front construct some sort of door. You can look for shower glass doors and use those or something similar. If you have a digsaw you can cut on the ceiling of the cage some holes for the lighting. Recessed lighting units look a little better to me and you can find some cheap ones at home depot lowes. They require a little electrical knowledge as you have to wire them yourself, if your comfortable with that I'd go that way.

Many people use the long closet sized wire rack shelves for cages.. Find some interesting looking pieces cut from trees etc. If you use tree branches/trunks I'd de-bark it and clean it up well. Cutting notches or wrapping rope around it helps for the iggy to climb.

Re: Enclosure HELP

Posted by Brian on 8/17/2012, 3:14 pm, in reply to "Re: Enclosure HELP"
76.27.252.112

oh and I missread the part where you say your ig was misstreated. If your iguana has MBD, renal issues etc I'd build a taller cage with ramps on it.. they get around just fine. Iguana's are going to stay as high they can anyways.

Re: Enclosure HELP

Posted by SusanD on 8/17/2012, 10:30 am, in reply to "Enclosure HELP"
72.84.138.136

please be sure you have a bulb marked specifically UVB. With an open cage Mercury Vapor Bulbs do well as they provide a good amount of heat. They cost a bit more then tubes but last longer and put out a great deal more UVB. Trouble climbing could be caused by poor bone strength from lack of UVB.

Re: Enclosure HELP

Posted by Kurt P on 8/17/2012, 8:45 am, in reply to "Enclosure HELP"
63.232.31.178

First, if you haven't been there yet, here is a link to the main page of this site with lots of menus for the care and feeding of your new ig:

http://www.greenigsociety.org/

Now some thoughts-
1- Igs *HATE* any change and her getting an entirely new life is a huge one. Give her time to get used to her new house, smells, sound...people etc....

2- She may have spent all her life in a tank and can't/doesn't want to climb? Or maybe she has MBD and can't.

3- You could partially wrap whatever is against the wall with plastic to help with the humidity.
If you can, place the cage against/near a window so she can see out- they like to watch outside.

Hope some of that helps, and let us know how it's going.

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