This past summer I built an 8’ long, 3’ deep and 3.5’ tall Tegu enclosure that doubles as a stand for a 6’ long, 18” deep, 21” tall 125 gal aquarium. The enclosure/stand is built to allow the aquarium to be upgraded to an 8’ x 2’ x 2’ 240 gal (one of these days…)
The left side of the enclosure has a 30” x 12” @ 6” deep filtered water ‘dish’. I use an aquarium heater to keep the water around 85~88*F. This helps a lot with humidity and I rarely but occasionally catch my Tegu soaking in it. He drinks from this ‘dish’ fairly often, though I also mist him and commonly saturate his mulch.
Speaking of mulch, There is 9~12" of Cypress Mulch spread across the entire enclosure.
The 5’ x 9” shelf on the back wall has a 4’ fixture for a florescent UVB bulb, though it was not in at the time of that picture. This bulb sits 12” above the substrate putting it even closer to my Tegu (when basking)
I use 100W incandescent ‘day light’ bulbs to create heat shining on the wooden flat to the right. The heat and UVB overlap but not entirely. This allows the Tegu to bask in heat, UVB, or both…
I also feed on this area where it is very easy to keep mulch away from the food dish. The shelf can easily be removed and cleaned.
He has hollowed out the area beneath the board to be used as a hide. This works fine but I need to get him a “cool hide” on the other side of the enclosure.
I went with swinging instead of sliding doors. This was to increase ease of access to the enclosure. They are framed with hardwood around ¼” tempered glass. I still need to stain the block under the doors in the center, but here’s an add-on since the pics above.
The enclosure is a 2x4 reinforced frame. It is built very solid as it holds a large aquarium. Without the aquarium a 2x2 frame would be plenty.
It is shelled with ½" Plywood. The exterior has been carefully sanded and stained. It took a lot of work but I am very impressed with the finished product (I’m not very good / experienced with staining).
The interior is ‘painted’ with Drylok. It was tinted “forest green” for the back & sides walls and tinted brown for the shelves & water ‘dish’.
I was amazed at how fast an 8’ enclosure filled up when making areas for such a large lizard.
My second floor outdoor balcony has also been “Tegu proofed” and is used as an outdoor enclosure on warm days.
He has a 4’ x 2’ x 2’ enclosure with mulch on the balcony whose door is always open. This gives him somewhere to burrow to escape the sun or to sleep through the night. This was his ‘grow out’ enclosure I used for his first 16~18 months.
He doesn’t like the Formica as much as a wood floor, but it keeps his waste from falling on my neighbors below.
I’ll post pics of my 49.5”, 12 pound, 27 month old Tegu in a day or two when he wakes up (I hate winter!)
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