What is YOUR preference on door openings for a cage -- swing open or siding glass type?

I have also seen that many suggest keeping young dragons in a smaller cage/tank before the jump to a full 5x2x3 cage. Is there any relevance to this idea?

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~ Mark

I'm no expert but the cage the students made for my Bearded Dragons last year have framed glass doors that swing out, so I can get inside to clean. My cage is 2' deep x 4' long x 2' high. I used peel and stick tile on the floor to make clean up easy. The enclosure is all wood with the exception of the doors and a screen area on the top for the heating and basking equipment. Hope this helps.

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Colleen

Although sliding doors would look nice, the swing door makes the whole tank accessible and easier to clean as Colleen said

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MARSHA

:D I'm smiling because I have no idea whats going on!

I will have to agree with marsha on this one!!

Swing open also gives more opportunity for photos. Sliding doors have always been a bit of a pain for me. There was always substrate getting stuck in the track. Even one I built 4 inches above the substrate. It still got tracked in there.

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Mike
"Never worry about numbers. Help one person at a time, and always start with the person nearest you." - Mother Teresa

Hello,

I too say swing doors.

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Sliding doors.

They would make it easier to clean to me. Make the top track about 3 or 4 inches deep so you can push the glass up and pop it out. The thing I found with swing doors is strain. But then again mine swing down, would like to make sliders. but oh well.

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True! It's a pain to clean and access the back with sliding doors and sometimes taking a picture can be quite challenging but I still prefer sliding because 95% of the time I need to do something else than that.

With sliding doors you can easily access each side without exposing the other. This is good for your animal safety (your Bearded Dragon won't fall or get stuck on the other side) and less prone to accidents (the doors don't slide on their own and a swing door can be open if something heavy applies enough force to it, like a basking log falling on the door).

Sliding doors are also more energy efficient because you only open what you need and they also allow you to safelly place a grid if you need to cool down an enclosure.
Last but not least, they will fit any place and swing doors won't.

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Wish list: Blue Tongue Skinks and Uruplatus =)

Hello,

Ricardo made a good point I didn't mention. While I prefer swinging doors, they should have latch locks, or some sort of locking mechanism so they don't open accidentally.

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Mine have a simple hook and eye that keep them closes and they swing out, meeting in the middle.

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Colleen