I am thinking of purchasing a chinese water dragon, but im not sure on how to house it. I was thinking of making a tank out of plexiglass, but apparently this can get expensive. I also thought about reptariums, because of teh low price for a lot of space. However, these wont keep in humidity. I was thinking that if i wrapped the entire thing in fabric, exept for one side, would this keep in humidity? Any one have plans for a cheap but large cage suitable for a water dragon? Thanks a bunch
I know what you mean about plexiglass getting expensive! We tried to build a cage but after adding everything up it got to be too much. One suggestion for you though is to ask the places that sale plexiglass if they have any scrap pieces they will sell you. I'm not sure where you are located but I know Home Depot & Lowes will do it for you & that can cut back on costs. For my dragons we used a 75 gallon glass tank & then just made our own screened lid at my husbands work. The top is made from metal fire place screening & sheet metal. It looks just like the screens you can buy at pet stores but for way less. You might want to check out heating & cooling companies & see if they would make you one. Good luck making your cage. Stormie oh and the main thing with water dragon tanks is they like lots of room to climb so make sure the cage is TALL
I wouldn't advise keeping a water dragon in a see through box, either made of plexiglass or glass. They can get very stressed when they can see the outside but not get to it. One of the biggest problems in them nose rubbing and jumping into the glass. My enclosure is made of the top, bottom and three sides made with laminated wood and the other side is a hinged door with mesh. The door came from an aviary supplier and my husband built the rest - which saved a lot of money. He made a 5ft x 2ft x 3 1/2ft for about 45 pounds. The most expensive things are the electricals unfortunately.
when i had a water dragon, poor guy met my cat, i made an enclosure for him out of an old dresser i had. i just gutted it and painted the inside with non-toxic coating (forget the real name of it sorry) to keep it from molding and keep humidity in. then i made two doors for the front. one was on the bottom which had plexy, and one on the top which had screening. the frams to hold the plexy and the screening in were just wood made into picture frame like boxes then screwed and stapled to the back. the top i jig sawed out to fit in my lights. it was really simple and cheap. the dresser was 5ft long about 2ft deep and 3 & a bit wide. i just tiped it up on it's side so it was 5 ft high and so on. also i encorperated a water system made from some old pumps i had from previous fish tanks. there was a simple shut off valve so you could turn off the waterfall and direct the water straight into a bucket for water changes. wish i had a picture cause it was pretty cool. the only thing i would change is the dimentions...bigger is better!
