Howdy all,

First time post so here goes the "noob" questions

I am in the process of building a cage for my (new to me) Anole the cage is basically 18"w 20"d and 40"H (not including the lighting canopy) cage is wood construction, with Polystyrene foam background, which will be done over with a few coats of cement/concrete to simulate some stone. Big cage, but I intend to find a couple of girl friends for my new buddy

The cage will be closed except for a screen 'window' on one side approx 24x20" and a screen door on the front of the enclosure. the spot where the cage will be placed maintains about 68 degrees all year long, but does not receive any direct sunlight.

So my questions, given an estimated distance of about 14" from the bottom (lens of the light) to the proposed basking area (through Aluminum mesh screen) Will this lamp provide adequate heat and UVB/A for mister Lizard? Should I be looking at going with the 160 watt model? other suggestions?

If heat build up should be a possible problem, building in adequate venting to let heat roll out of the top of the unit would be no problem. The cage design also allows for areas where the Anoles will be able to remove them selves from direct light contact, and seek out some shadier/protected spots.

All thoughts are greatly welcomed, hopefully some ones practical experiences will provide some insight for me.

Dan

I'm not sure about it heat wise, but I do know that if you are going to put screen between the light and the cage it has to have holes that are atleast 1/4 inch square or it will block alot of the UVB.

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Thanks, the screen size was something that I had completely forgotten about, I'll have to cancel my plans of using some of the bug screen that I found in the garage, from some long forgotten project that never materialized

I might go with a 150 Watt personally, but that's mainly because that's what I use for my turtles and I think it would do the job. It will definitely fill your UV needs...with the proper screen, as Lacey pointed out. It should fill your heat needs too. A 100 might, but I'm really not sure.

The main thing I would be concerned with is all that screen. In an enclosure that size, it may be difficult to keep the humidity up if the front, top, and part of the side are screen. I'd suggest using plexiglass for the front, or at least part of it. Otherwise just try the screen and if humidity becomes an issue you could cover part of it with plexiglass then or use plastic wrap or something. Also, for the screen portions other than the top it would still be ok to use that bug screen.

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The humidity was also something else I was trying to work out. I just may forgo the screened windows, and opt for glass instead. Good food for thought, thanks!

Glass also blocks UVB light. I'm not sure if you were just saying you wanted to replace the non-lit screens with the glass, but in case you were thinking of putting your UVB light on the outside of one of these windows, it's not a good idea. It'll basically just render your expensive light useless. You may want to opt to keep screen just in the areas you are going to shine UVB in.

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Yes, I was just referring to the non-lit screen (ie door and side panel) I will go ahead with screen between the light, and the rest of the enclosure, and I am planning on having the light mounted inside of the top of the canopy.

Just make sure and either have it completely out of reach or enclose it in a cage of some sort.
Don't want to fry the little guys!

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Merlin,
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If possible I would personally recommend mounting the light outside and above the enclosure. Mercury vapors get pretty hot. If you mount it on the inside, be sure to put a lot of space between the bulb and the mesh around it so the anoles don't get burned, as Merlin mentioned. The trick though is that you'll need screen that's wide enough for the UVB rays to get through, but small enough for the anoles to not get stuck in or go through.

If you can manage to get past the obstacles though, then there would be no reason you can' put the light inside the cage.

__________________
+5 bonus points to whoever finds me a job!

"Eagles may soar, but weasels don't get sucked into jet engines." - John Benfield

Thanks for the input, I just brought home a canister filter from work off of one of our backhoes, that has a very nice perforated metal surround, that should work quite nicely as a barrier between the critters and the lamp once I get the canister apart, and the screen cleaned up.

I will, and am definetly keeping track of light to screen to critter space ratio though as well. The last thing I want to do is have a screen that gets so hot as to burn the poor dude.

I would think more about the lights hung from the outside of the cat, but unfortunately, we also share this house, with five ferrets who get free roam for a few hours a day, a cat and a dog who also have free roam. Dog's not a problem, but the cat seems to have some bizarre obsession with taking up residence on anything new