BLUE TONGUE SKINKS

as i have moved from 2.5 acres to a normal surburbn back yard,and the other halfs been on my case about electricity bills,time to experiment with a few outdoors

making the most use of sun exposed areas these pics will likely be blotchy land mullet s enclosure,longgggggg but skinny,with kids and a smallish back yard i have to make use of a small area

this cage is going to be different to the norm,as tin walls will make it to shady ,luckily i have some safety glass our neighbours gave us when they moved out so that will be front wall but only 30 cm will stick up out of ground with wire makinh up the rest

anyways been weeding it out and have to go pick up some supplies but will post progress pics if any one is interested

size is roughly 30 foot long by 80 cm wide,pity driveway isnt closer to house,got a bit of room in backyard to experiment with more arid species,so watch this space,lace monitors will hog a bit of space to but misses will be happy if i drop electrity bill which saves my ears from the constant blah blah blah ,lol,but ive been meaning to do it anyhow so now ive got a good excuse

this is my outdoor sand monitor enclosure,which protects them from the rain and helps keep humidity low,also warms up in the sun through plastic roofing,i think my arid adapted animals would do ok out in something like this,if u look close u can see female sandus head popping out of burrow

ive got this big sun exposed area to play with to ,just have to get crackin to save my poor ears,lol

2 of the sandys have been outside in melb for close to 10 years now,though they do have heat added to,i turn it off once it gets to 25 out

in this sort of arangement so sides cant cast a shadow and they cant access wire

Nice use of that little space there! It's almost like it was meant to be a bluey enclosure.

Gosh Richard.. you make me jealous.. I wish I could house my skinks outside 365 days out of the year...

apart from blotchies,easterns and a couple of egernia skinks,the others will be extremely experimental,trying to keep humidity low for stumpies and westerns in a cool humid climate ,im feeling quietly confident though,but have to be careful regardless

That looks like its going to be a nice set up! Can't wait to see the finished results!!

Looks great. Do you leave them out year round? How cold does it get where you are if you do?

just blotchies and easterns outdoors year round,we get long cold winters but can get hot summers to,pretty much 6 months of winter,from memory its 7 months worth of temps averaging less that 22 degrees celcius during the day

blotchies and easterns occur locally here,stumpies i think closest wild ones are around 2 hours inland where its dryer but can actually get cooler

long skinny cage cancelled,missus has informed me that she wants to park car in there which will block sun,plus when funds allow i want to make that area covered,carport

so back yard blitz time,might have to move closeline for bit of extra room

Richard.C wrote:long skinny cage cancelled,missus has informed me that she wants to park car in there which will block sun,plus when funds allow i want to make that area covered,carport

so back yard blitz time,might have to move closeline for bit of extra room

Time to man up son, show her who wears the pants!

I like to remind my wife every now and then about one particular calendar year when three of my reptile keeping mates were given ultimatums, "it's me or the reptiles", from their respective spouses and guess what, they all chose their reptile collections.

I'd never give my wife the flick, but it's fun to play the mind games. I find you just have to wrangle your chosen option into a win-win situation.

That will stir up the ladies on this forum.

lol rory,im not game to stir the hornets nest,deep down i wanted section in back yard,misses suggested driveway so went along with it waiting for the want to park car in there comment,thankfully it came before i started building,maybe she played me to weed that section to,lol

im going to make some portable cages for in drive way for now,but will start on backyard caging first

Hard to go past poly troughs for outdoor caging , if being portable is what you are after.

i was going to quiz u on those rory,do i drill out base for drainage and what size are your ones

i have to knock up a reasonable sizes cage for a pr of bells phased lacies so that will pinch a bit of my space,i like the idea of making smaller groups for blotchies ect,as most of my males for instance never want to mate,usually just a hand full of dominant ones

i used to use an exoterra mesh cage for baby blotheds easterns and waterdragons to stay out for first winter and grow big enough to put back in with adults,didnt last long in the weather plus grass grew though base real bad,lol

step one,work out what your going to do,lol

This one is 500litres. I buy them from irrigation/produce stores. Cost about 2 hungy. Then wire them up.


Or a second hand fibre glass fish pond. This one is 2000litres.



And old galvanized water tanks cut in half are the cheapest to build. Often you can get them for free.

All poly, plastic outdoor caging definitely needs holes drilled for drainage. But I have found with prolonged wet weather the substrate inside the enclosure( even though covered) will act as a sponge and will draw moisture from whatever the enclosure is built on top of. I like to provide my skinks with a dry option if they choose, the moisture ingress makes it hard at times.

As I currently live in a rural area, I mouse wire everything, I can't trust the local endemic birds or reptiles not to poach my skinks.

Cheers

fishpond one i like that size,water tanks are great to,my first outdoor cage was one of those,they look great inside rory

as long as it holds them in and offers right options its a good cage,i have a couple of big dopey labradors to consider to as they can both jump quite well and its dangerous when they do yard bolts,lol
portables for driveway where dogs cant get though,fort knox in backyard