The Savannah Monitor, Varanus exanthematicus

Housing – Adult Enclosure

We’ve covered the minimum enclosure size requirements in “The Basics” subsection. So whether you need a 6 x 3 footprint as a minimum or an 8 x 4 footprint as a minimum for an adult enclosure will depend on whether you have, say, a growth stunted female or a healthy adult male.

One glaring limitation we’re dealing with when building an enclosure is the width of human doorways. One way around that is to separate the enclosure into base and top. The base obviously needs to be one to two feet tall to hold the substrate, and the top needs to be high enough to accomodate lights inside the enclosure. If you were building an 8 x 4 x 4, for example, you could separate the build into an 8 x 4 x 2 base and an 8 x 4 x 2 top, which could both be turned sideways and walked through a house doorframe.

The Base

One very functional (albeit hideously ugly) way to begin is to use a horse trough found at a farm/feed store as the base of the enclosure to hold the 24 inches of substrate. The rest of the enclosure is then built around the trough or placed on top. Here is an example of the beginning stages of such an enclosure build 1:

Another good method is to actually build the base out of the same materials as the top part of the enclosure, and line or finish it with material suitable to stand up to the moisture present in soil (as well as those tough monitor claws). Wood, by itself, will rot quickly.

A good material to look into is FRP (fiberglass reinforced paneling), frequently used in bathrooms and found in white textured sheets in the plywood aisle of your local home improvement store. After building the base out of 2x4s and quarter-inch, half-inch or three-quarter-inch plywood, Liquid Nails or another such contractor grade adhesive will adhere the pieces of FRP to the pieces of plywood. The edges and seams would then be caulked with aquarium sealant, found in the caulk section of your local home improvement store. An FRP lined plywood base constructed in this way will also stand up to your monitor digging at the corners of the enclosure. An example: 2

Another method is to simply adequately seal the wood with spar urethane or yacht varnish, both found at your home improvement store. Due to the chemicals and fumes present, the enclosure would need to off-gas for at least a week or two as to prevent harm to the monitor.

In the past, Minwax water-based PolyCrylic has been used, but it’s been found that water-based urethanes do not hold up to moisture and urates the way a traditional urethane does. To compensate for the fumes, the enclosure should be left alone for roughly 2-3 weeks, to allow the sealant to off-gas. If the enclosure is painted, it should be painted before sealing.

GE Silicone II caulk is an option for smaller monitors, to seal the corners and seams. It is a waterproof silicone caulk, that comes in clear. It can usually be found in the paint/caulk section of your local home improvement store. It’s been found that larger monitors to be able to rip the caulk with their claws, and have taken to using commercial aquarium sealant as our next trial.

The Top Portion

The wood used to construct the top “box” can be a grade of your choosing, depending on your desired look. Melamine, used in snake enclosures, will be torn up quickly by the animal’s claws, and the moisture will cause the particle board to expand and break. Melamine is not recommended under any circumstances.

Birch is sold in many big box home improvement stores, and though it’s sold as hardwood it’s the highest grade of the “soft woods”. 3/4″ birch plys can make a great enclosure. If you are looking for something more visually appealing, some of the hard woods such as oak or whitewood are usually found in stock.

An example of a tasteful “wooden box” enclosure 3 :

Viewing

Everyone would like some way to view inside the enclosure. As we’ve said, ventilation is the enemy of humidity, so large portions of screen are out of the question. There are a few ways to accomplish a viewing window and access to the inside of the enclosure.

Sliding glass/acrylic doors on the front can be used, or you can try building a drop down glass/acrylic door on hinges. There are several types of plastics that can be used, but although Lexan is resilient and used for applications requiring a shatterproof material, it scratches quite easily. Regular acrylic scratches far less easily and is more suited for sliding doors.

Tempered glass, though more pricey, is another preferred material. Tempered glass is the kind of glass that shatters into a million tiny pieces when broken, rather than annealed or sheet glass, which breaks into large glass shards that can be dangerous to all involved. Both acrylic and glass can be custom cut by any local glass shop or car windshield replacement shops.

If you choose sliding doors, you can use a glass track like this one and have quarter inch glass or acrylic cut to size. If your viewing area will be large enough that glass doors sliding on a glass track will be too heavy, you may consider bringing the measurements of your opening to your glass shop, and having them construct pieces of glass that will go on a rolling track system, which you should be able to buy from them along with your glass.

For larger enclosures, another option is to build a human house window into the top portion of the enclosure. An example 4: