Pros and Cons of Second Hand Reptile Enclosures for Blueys

[Scotts1au]

Amidst the hounding of my 6 year old to allow him to have some baby blueys in his room I stumbled across the below pictured enclosure for $30 at a local scrapyard when I took some rubbish to dump today. It is 4ft long. One piece of glass was missing - no thermostat etc but I ran down to the local hardware store and have rewired the thing to accommodate a CHE (with an on/off thermostat) and small spot light. Pick up the glass panel tomorrow morning that I'm getting cut. A bit of poo stuck to it some other stains i.e rust which I'm hoping to remove tomorrow but.. yeh and give it some more ventilation. I'm not concerned about the appearance deficits (as it is strictly functional and will live in my garage).

Any thoughts on reusing a second hand enclosure for blueys? I'm not an expert in any relevant risks ... cant think of any specific risks, but thought it worth the question.

New enclosure 12 March 2014 003.JPG

New enclosure 12 March 2014 004.JPG

[Vengeance]

Looks like a pretty decent find. I would be concerned about whether or not the animal in it prior had any contagious diseases or mites that could lay dormant. I'm no expert on this, so I'm not too certain on the whats and hows with prepping second hand enclosures for use. A liberal spray of diluted F10 or similar product should render the enclosure clean. I can't think of any other potential problems at this time.

Pros:
Cheaper than brand new.
Usually minor repairs are all that are needed to get it functional.

Cons:
Possible disease transfer.
Possible rewiring required.

[Sebastian]

The only thing I could think of is if the animal possibly had crypto and that's why the tank ended up at the dump?
Since crypto is the most notoriously difficult bug to kill and disinfect for, if you plan to use the tank, I would treat it as though it had crypto before coming to you. This website has some steps for disinfecting for crypto http://www.goldengategeckos.com/crypto.htm that I personally would follow. Because it's wood, there's always the chance somethings living in the particles, do I would clean it like it were a bacteria ridden cell lol. Hate to introduce something as incurable and detrimental as crypto into a group of lizards...

It's a really nice find (kinda looks like my enclosure!) but I would be very cautious.

[Scotts1au]

Thanks, hadn't thought of Crypto. I know snake people ( ) would have some concerns about snake specific diseases but I think it is more likely that the owner just lost interest. Will get some bleach onto it. Thanks for the responses.