Once you've decided what kind of reptile or amphibian you want to get the next most important step in the journey that is animal ownership is deciding what kind of enclosure and how big it needs to be. It's a decision with no simple solution as it depends on a lot of variables such as the species you've chosen, what its age and current size is, what kind of space you have to dedicate in your home, what kind of budget you have available, whether or not you have any building skills, etc. In this post I'll talk about some of pros and cons to the different options, and of course I'll talk about my personal approach and experiences.
The BasicsThe first thing you need to determine is the basic requirements that the enclosure needs to fulfill based on the species it will house. 1. What kind of temperature gradient (range) does your animal need? 2. What level of humidity does it need to maintain? 3. How important is airflow for the species? 4. Does the enclosure need to accommodate a large amount of substrate for nesting, burrowing, etc? 5. Does the enclosure need any special lighting like full-spectrum UVB or heat lamps? 6. Does the enclosure need to be more terrestrial, arboreal, aquatic, or perhaps split evenly between two or more of those? 7. What size does the enclosure need to be for your new scaly friend to be comfortable and content? Is the animal a sub-adult or older and ready for an adult sized cage, or is it a hatchling/juvenile still growing and able to be housed in something smaller for the moment? 8. Are you housing a single animal, a couple of animals, or multiple animals? 9. Are you creating a naturalistic enclosure or more simplistic? Answering these questions will help you figure out what type of enclosure is going to work best for you, what kind of materials it should be constructed of, what kind of substrate to use, what kind cage furniture and decor is needed, and how big the enclosure should be. If you need an enclosure that holds high humidity a wooden or melamine cage may not be the best choice without a fair amount of modification, and you certainly wouldn't want a screen cage. If your enclosure needs higher airflow, maybe for a chameleon for example, an enclosure made of a solid material such as PVC or other plastics may not be ideal. If you need UVB lighting most rack systems would not accommodate that unless you custom build them to do so. Knowing if the animal is more terrestrial or arboreal or aquatic in nature will help you determine if you need a tall cage or if a shorter and wider cage might be more appropriate. And deciding ahead of time whether you want to make your animal's enclosure naturalistic or more simplistic will ensure that you don't waste money on an enclosure that can't do what you want it to do having to purchase another enclosure after the fact. Remember that you are creating a home and habitat for your animal where it will spend the majority of its time, and the more enriching the enclosure the more confident and comfortable the animal is likely to be. Confident and comfortable animals are often better adjusted and easier to socialize.
Above, I have a variety of small and medium tubs set up on shelves which have reptile heat cable plugged into a dimmer switch for adjusting. The tanks below house adult tarantulas and are sitting on top of a currently uninhabited 40 gallon breeder tank with a custom top. These tubs are being used to rear hatchling and juvenile snakes until they are ready to go into larger tubs on a rack system or in to custom built more traditional type enclosures. While this isn't a true rack system it is similar in concept and suits my needs for these animals. I actually prefer this to traditional racks as it allows for lighting so I can observe my animals without disturbing them, and since the majority of species here are at least partially diurnal I feel that having a light cycle is important. In fact I feel that a day/night light cycle is important for the well being of all animals that are not completely subterranean in nature.
Here you see two baby ackies aka spiny tailed monitors being reared in a 40 gallon breeder tank. For this tank I built a custom top which enlosed the lights and had a hatch in the front for accessing the animals. I put about 5 inches of bioactive substrate in the tank as well as live plants including the grass you see in the background. The bugs in the tank completely broke down the waste of these lizards and the plants broke down the waste of the bugs as well as the lizards. The bugs also provided the opportunity for natural foraging behavior. Live plants in an enlcosed tank are a great way to ensure that your humidity stays high. The plants draw the moisture from the soil and release it into the air. While ackies do come primarily from desert habitats they spend a lot of time in burrows and under rocks where the humidity is much higher. Maintaining a high level of humidity will ensure that your babies don't lose any toes or the tips of their tails due to bad sheds. This is true for a lot of desert species.
Enclosure Types
The 5 basic enclosure types are Screen/wire, wood, melamine, plastic, and glass. Any one of these can be purchased commercially, built by you at home, or custom ordered from one of many small cage manufacturing businesses depending on your budget, diy skill level, and personal taste and needs.
Screen Enclosures Screen enclosures are typically used for animals where airflow is crucial and vertical space is required such as chameleons and a few other small arboreal lizards. The screen accommodates both of these needs as it is easy for many reptiles to climb and obviously does not restrict airflow. You can however choose to block some airflow by blocking one or more sides though in my experience this is usually not worth the cost or effort. Standard sizes for these types of enclosures are as follows length x depth x height: 12"x12"x18", 18"x18"x24, 18"x18"x36", and 24"x24"x48". They are typically sold broken down flat in a box and require assembly at home which is great as it means the shipping cost is minimized. The two most commonly commercially available types are made of aluminum framing and screen or a frame made of abs plastic tubing and a nylon mesh box that fits over the frame.
Neither of these enclosures are recommended for large animals or those with long nails. Chameleon owners are the primary target audience for this cage type. Lizards with longer nails such as iguanas or monitor lizards have a higher risk of a nail nail getting caught in the small holes and torn off causing injury to your beloved pet. Chameleons are also more sensitive to airflow than many other species and good flow is crucial to their health. These enclosures can however be used for other small arboreal lizards. The downsides I've noted regarding screen enclosures are that they are extremely difficult to maintain temperatures and humidity in, they usually offer very little if any room for any substantial amount of substrate, they are not incredibly secure or sturdy, and because they are screen if your animal decides to defecate or urinate on the sides (they will) the waste can then run down the outside on to whatever the cage is sitting on or around.
Wire Enclosures
Wire enclosures are typically custom built ones that are reserved for large animals or animals being housed outdoors in an area where the climate is suitable for them. When building a wire enclosure you can build your frame out of metal, wood, or in some cases even PVC pipes. They allow for your animal to be kept securely outdoors in a large space where the animal can bask and behave much more naturally and take advantage of the natural lighting. Before building an outdoor wire enclosure you need to make sure that it is in an area that is safe and of proper climate for your animal. You'll want to make absolutely certain the enclosure is secure and take extra precautions when entering the enclosure to minimize the chance for escape. Do not underestimate the strength and perseverance of a large reptile if it wants out. I would also suggest using vinyl or PVC coated wire to reduce the risk of injuries from rubbing their face on or cutting toes on the wire; this type of wire lasts longer as well since it's protected against rusting. Outdoor enclosures need to have areas that are exposed to the sun, but just as importantly they need areas that are covered and shaded. If you live in an are where the winter temperatures commonly drop below 60 you'll want to add a box or lighting for some sort of supplemental heat at those times. If you are in an area where the humidity is lower or the heat is higher than ideal you may need to consider adding misters or it may not be a suitable option at all. Below is a video showing an example of a wire cage. I highly recommend checking out the rest of Camp Kenan's videos as well. Wood Enclosures
While there are a handful of businesses out there that offer made-to-order wooden cages the large majority are custom built by the owner, that's you, and they have a great many benefits when built properly. You don't necessarily need a ton of experience in woodworking to build a wooden reptile cage. All you really need to be able to do is build a box; an enclosure afterall is just a modified box. One of the major benefits of doing this is that you can build the enclosure to fit whatever space you have available within your home, and you can build it much larger than many of the commercially available enclosures if you happen to have a large species of reptile. What you can do with a wood enclosure if you have the patience to learn how is nearly unlimited. However, wood enclosures do require some special considerations; they are heavy and cumbersome, they need to be sealed and protected against moisture, and as I stated some assembly is required. In most major cities you can find someone who will build an enclosure for you for the right price, but I highly recommend that even if you plan to hire someone to do so you do your own research on materials and methods. This is because you want to make sure they are using materials that are safe for your animals. Not all sealants remain non-toxic if exposed to the heat some reptile enclosures will require. Stay away from OSB and particle board These are leftover pieces of wood put together with glue and pressure; they are primarily used in cheap furniture and construction framing where they are covered by other materials. There are literally hundreds, if not thousands, of videos on the web showing step-by-step how to build a reptile enclosure out of wood. One of the best channels on YouTube in my opinion is Serpadesign. He has numerous terrarium builds and a couple of really good videos depicting his building of a plywood enclosure covering what you need to do to brace and seal it properly. If you're completely new to wood working I also recommend checking out Woodworking for Mere Mortals by Steve Ramsey. In his videos he will show you the basics of putting wood together and how to build a box. If you take his weekend woodworker course at www.theweekendworker.com you'll build some fun stuff and gain all of the fundamental skills needed to build your own enclosure.
Melamine
Melamine is actually particle board with a melamine veneer that gives it a hard surface, makes it moisture resistant, and it is also very heavy. Particle board is, as mentioned previously, made up of wood particles, that are glued and pressed together. It's generally cheap and to be honest, you get what you pay for with it. Cages made of melamine will last a good while, though not as long as a properly built wood enclosure, as long as they aren't exposed to large amounts of moisture, but they are more difficult to seal than regular wood because most sealants don't want to adhere to the melamine. There is also some concern that the melamine coating and glue may still release toxic fumes on a nearly undetectable, to you, level when constantly exposed to the heat from your animal's heat source. While it may be undetectable to you, you should ask yourself if it's an acceptable risk for your animal who is surrounded by and enclosed in a box of it day in and day out. Personally, I no longer use these cages as I was never happy with their longevity or the potential risk of toxicity. Particle board is also not very durable. It's fairly easy to break and chip even with the melamine coating, and as I stated before it's extremely heavy. a sheet of melamine is easily 3-4 times the weight of a like size sheet of ply wood. Plywood is also glued together thin sheets of wood, but it doesn't use anywhere near the amount of glue and can be sealed with water-based non-toxic products to make it water proof and safe for your animals. Plastics
Plastics happen to be personal favorite out of all of the enclosure types. Plastic cages come in a variety of forms including generic tubs you can get at your local red or blue big box store that fit into a custom built or prefabricated commercially available rack system, more professional looking tubs designed specifically for reptiles and steel rack systems made for those same tubs, injection molded one piece construction enclosures like vision or showcase cages, those made by any one of many small businesses constructed in nearly the same method as a wood enclosure, or even small plastic critter keepers you can find at almost any pet store. Plastic offers versatility above all else. It is also extremely light weight and in most cases very durable and easy to maintain. It is impermeable to moisture, and in many cases can be easily modified to your specific needs. The one thing it is not is cheap. With most things in life you get what you pay for and plastic reptile enclosures are no different. An enclosure from any of the many reputable manufacturers will last you for a very long time if not your lifetime and more as long as you don't do something silly like set a heat lamp where it doesn't go.
There are 4 types of plastic commonly used for reptile enclosures that I am aware of. First is high density polyethelene (HDPE) the popular Vision brand cages are made of this. HDPE is very durable and can be injection molded into very strong enclosures with walls that are only 1/8" thick. This is the same stuff that most of your plastic cutting boards are made of as it is considered by the FDA to be food safe. Second is Polyvinyl chloride (PVC). PVC is what your plumbing pipes are made of; it is also very durable and happens to be the most popular choice amongst DIY'ers as it is fairly readily available in most areas. The sheet form most people use to build their own cages is known as "expanded pvc". It can als be injection molded like most plastics, but it is fairly affordable in 5/8" sheets that are easily worked with in a traditional building fashion. Basically you can build with it in nearly the same way as wood. If you want to get fancy you can also use a plastic welder or bend the sheets using heat, but my knowledge doesn't go quite that in depth so have fun with that and try not to burn your house down. PVC has a higher melting point than hdpe and so it's favored by more manufacturers now for reptile enclosures since they are often exposed to heat lamps and such. Third is Acrylonitril Butadiene Styrene or ABS. This is what Legos are made of and while there are still a few people using it for reptile enclosures it doesn't seem to be as popular as it was at one point. My guess would be that it's because it has a fairly low melting point, although it's not a true melting point. When it gets to that point it actually turns into a glass like polymer. The fourth most commonly used plastic in reptile enclosures is Poly(methyl methacrylate) aka Acrylic. Acrylic is known for it's clarity and is a suitable lightweight alternative to glass. I would not recommend acrylic for anything with sharp nails even if they are small as it will become scratched and lose it's clarity very quickly. However for use as doors on snake cages or in the case of small cages for neonate snakes and geckos it usually perfectly suitable. While it is much clearer than the other plastics mentioned it is also much more brittle. If you drop a piece of 1/8" thick acrylic it will almost certainly not survive in one piece. Thicker pieces and different varieties of acrylic may be stronger and more shatter resistant, but I can tell you from experience that Critter Keeper you bought at the pet store is not sturdy. They can make excellent display cages for the right specimens. Large acrylic fish tanks are often used for reptiles with some modification and there are numerous invertebrate cages made out of acrylic but as a whole I'd say that acrylic is a specialty material and has limited uses when it comes to keeping reptiles.
Even a small cage such as a critter keeper can be set up as naturalistic and be aesthetically pleasing if you put a little thought and effort into it. This large Critter Keeper is set up with a false bottom made out of flourescent light diffuser grate to minimize the amount of substrate and overall weight in the cage. I used superglue to stack the light diffuser in levels and then wrapped the false bottom in weed stop fabric to stop the substrate from falling through. The substrate is a mix of Zoo Med desert sand and powdered clay (it only takes a tiny amount of clay) which was then wet down and left to dry. Once it dried the surface was hard like the packed desert ground. I dusted the top with loose sand and arranged my pieces of slate stone and cholla wood. The fake plants I picked up at the hobby store stuck them in a piece of foam as an anchor and covered with substrate and slate to weigh it down. The other branch is a piece of manzanita wood which is suited well for dry environments, but I do recommend clipping and sharp points off and filing them down with a bit of sand paper. I made two of these for my juvenile California lyre snakes and they are doing very well in them. They are heated from the bottom with a low wattage plant warming mat on a dimmer switch.
Glass
Glass tanks have been used to house reptiles for decades, and I'm sure they will continue to house reptiles for many more decades, but are they really the best option? Honestly, no they're usually not. What they usually are is the cheap easy solution to an impulse buy. That's not to say that a glass tank can't be made to be suitable for your reptile because in many cases they absolutely can be. Of course there are many glass tanks now designed and marketed for reptiles so let me stop here and say that yes there is a difference between glass tanks designed for reptiles and glass tanks designed for fish being used for reptiles. Unfortunately I don't think that difference is large enough yet. So I digress.
First we'll address the problem with using fish tanks for reptiles. Well they're fish tanks for starters. They were not designed with the needs of reptiles or their owners in mind. If you have small reptiles or amphibians that you never handle and have set up in a bioactive self cleaning tank then you might be okay with a fish tank once you build a custom top that's escape proof and that holds the humidity in and that lets you place whatever heat lamps you need and that let's you access the tank for feeding. I know the sentence structure there wasn't so good, but I think I made my point. Fish tanks are also very heavy as they are made of thick glass to hold up to the pressure of gallons and gallons of water so they are a pain in the you know what to relocate if ever needed and because they're glass you always run the risk of an accidental crack which has the potential to be dangerous as well as unsightly. But the biggest problem with fish tanks I've had is the opening. When keeping reptiles you really want to be able to access them from the front for multiple reasons. To begin with most of their predators come from above and if you have to do that to interact with them it can be a real source of stress every single time. Also, if the only access is at the top that means that you have move the heat and UVB lights whenever you want to interact with your animals; not only is this a pain it can also be a fire hazard. I've seen numerous people move a heat lamp to open the top of a tank and forget to replace it only to return to find the rim of the tank melting under the light or whatever they moved it to is potentially on fire. Aside from all of that having a big gaping hole at the top of your enclosure makes it extremely difficult to maintain humidity and temperatures within; it is much easier to do so when the lights are enclosed within the enclosure or at least in a compartment above that restricts heat and moisture loss. Yes you can build a custom top for a tank that accomplishes this but by the time you're done with that you may as well have just built an enclosure. The one time when a fish tank does shine over other enclosure types for a reptile is when the reptile is aquatic or semi-aquatic such as many turtles, a few lizards, and a few snakes. However, many of these will out grow any fish tank that the average person would feel comfortable having so maybe these folks should consider a turtle pond or a custom built enclosure using a plastic water trough for the water feature. Now lets take a look at glass reptile tanks. They are an improvement for sure. Typically they use thinner glass since they're not made for being completely filled with water so they're a little lighter, the dimensions are usually slightly better for reptiles having a more substantial footprint and less height, and some of them now come with front opening doors. However there are still some problems. They all still have screen tops and none of the manufactures have thought to make light hoods yet that completely cover the tops thus allowing heat and humidity to continue to escape faster than is ideal. The other issue I have with many of the glass reptile tanks that have front opening doors is that they don't have enough space for substrate between the bottom of the tank and the door. Many "reptile tanks" have sliding lids that, in my opinion, cause their own issues. I actually find the sliding screen lids less convenient because it poses the problem of which way to position the tank. If, like most people you're putting the tank against the wall you have no choice but to position it so that the lid slides out toward you when opening. This means that if your animal decides to shoot out of the top when you open it you have the extra distance of the lid to reach to stop it. If your lights are rested on the screen then you have to either leave the screen hanging off the side or find somewhere to move them to when accessing the enclosure. Personally I don't really think that sliding lids solved any problems; they just created new ones. All of this being said I currently have a few of both of these types of cages though I use them more for displays at my educational shows than full-time enclosures. Overall I'd say I do not recommend glass tanks for reptiles, but I understand if that's what you have access to at the time. In short, I believe that glass tanks can be made to work for many small to medium species but any lizard over 24 inches will probably need something bigger than you'll want made out of glass and any snake over 5 ft will likely be better off in a custom built wood or plastic enclosure. This is of course not including custom glass enclosures which are totally doable though still very heavy, and you'll definitely want do plenty of research on the assembly of these as well.
Here is a juvenile bearded dragon in a 48"x18"x12" low ExoTerra tank. This type of glass enclosure is fine for rearing young bearded dragons as it doesn't matter if the cage dries out. Bearded dragons actually do poorly if exposed to high levels of humidity for prolonged periods.
Size Matters
Enclosure size definitely matters, and undoubtedly you'll hear about minimum enclosure sizes from a multitude of sources when researching your new animal. What a lot of people seem to forget is that minimum means the absolute smallest amount of something required, and that is not what most of us really want for our animals. My own personal definition of what is a minimum enclosure size is an enclosure that allows the animal to move freely and comfortably in all or at least most directions. An ideal enclosure is one that allows for the animal to behave as naturally as possible while feeling confident and secure in their surroundings. While it can be rather difficult to quantify these qualities we must try to give some type of guidelines thus I have the following set that I personally try to stick to:
Lizards 1. For lizards who are primarily terrestrial at least 2-3 times the length of the lizard, at least the same length in depth, and height depends on how much the species will use vertical spaces. 2. For lizards who are primarily arboreal at least 2-3 times the length of the lizard in height, 2 times in length, and equivalent in depth to the length of the lizard. Keep in mind that for the height of the cage I'm counting from the top of the substrate to the top of the cage. If your enclosure is 24 inches high but you have 4 inches of substrate your actual usable height is 20 inches. 3. For lizards that are largely aquatic you'll also need to take into consideration a fair amount of water and how you'll keep it fresh and clean. You can follow the same guidelines as the terrestrial lizards, but add a water reservoir large enough to swim to the overall length and height. 4. For most juvenile lizards you'll need to account for a rapid rate of growth and give a good bit more than the minimum at their current size once they are established in good health and feeding well. Smaller enclosures may be more desirable for neonates or animals that are sick or not feeding well though even small enclosure such as a 10 or 20 gallon tank generally more than meets these requirements for a neonate. Snakes *Note that neonate and juvenile snakes can be housed in smaller enclosures as they have not matured and therefore have less body mass for their length. The following guidelines are my recommendations for adult animals. And once again these are absolute minimums. *Note also that minimums can vary somewhat depending on the exact species of snake based on how active they typically are, the build of the animal, and their particular habits. This is part of the reason you'll see so many conflicting opinions on the matter, and why I say that a minimum size is one that allows the animal to move freely and comfortably. For example, it would be unreasonable to expect a 4ft vine snake, a 4ft bull snake, and a 4ft ball or blood python to have the same enclosure size. Hence the following are guidelines only. 1. For terrestrial snakes I would generally recommend something at least 3/4 the length of the snake by approximately 1/2 the length of the snake and deep enough for however much substrate you need. So for a 4 ft king snake you'd want something around 3ft long and 20-24 inches wide with a height suitable for whatever substrate you've chosen. For more active or larger bodied snakes you'll probably want to go a little larger, and for less active or smaller bodied snakes you might go a little smaller. 2. For arboreal snakes you can stick to the same footprint as above, but you'll want at least enough height for the animal to get elevated and perch completely off the ground. The bigger the snake the higher the perch should be. Look at the at the natural habits of the species and determine if they are a canopy dweller, a lower tree branch dweller, or if they stick mostly to rockfaces or small trees and bushes to decide on an appropriate height. 3. Largely aquatic species such as nerodia species and anacondas need enough water to submerge, preferably to swim, in as well as typically needing a fair amount of land space. The dimensions are similar to the terrestrial dimensions mentioned above in addition to the water space. Many of these are heavy bodied and the enclosure size should be adjested accordingly. To be continued....
Seeing as this post has gotten to be a lot longer than I originally intended I'm going to leave off here. Next week I'll continue the subject and discuss going beyond the minimums and whether an enclosure can be too large or not. I'll also talk about simplistic vs naturalistic enclosure types and options between the two.
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