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Chapter 2

Planning Your Habitat

The habitat that you create for your iguana should be carefully designed and built to provide your pet with a healthy living environment. If you do not provide a high level of attention to this part of the process, you can’t provide the proper care for your pet that he or she deserves and needs.

One thing that can’t be stressed enough is the need to educate yourself before purchasing your habitat for your iguana. Since this is so important of a decision, you don’t want to make costly mistakes. The fact is that most people purchase a habitat only to determine that they should have purchased something else. The best lesson to learn, then, is to keep learning!

Buying Or Building?

You can build your habitat. There is no doubt that this is a great way to go. Or, you can buy a pre-made habitat for your pet. Take that one step further and you can have someone else make a habitat for you and then buy it from them. In any case, what you have to determine is the correct way to build or buy one.

The largest drawback of purchasing your own, pre-made habitat is cost. They are by far expensive homes to purchase for your pet. Sometimes, they are well designed to provide for most of the iguana’s needs. But, most of the time, they aren’t. In fact, most of what you will find in your local pet store is far too small for your iguana. Sure, it’s a great habitat until they grow to their full adult size!

There are a number of great locations online that can help you to design your own custom made iguana habitat. Purchasing one is not a bad idea, but it will have to be done with a full understanding of what you need that habitat to provide for your pet. Don’t underestimate the size of your iguana!

If you purchase a habitat for your iguana, get a habitat, not a cage. Look at the unit.

• Does it provide for enough room for your full grown iguana?
  
  
• Does it provide for enough room so that your iguana can crawl, climb and move comfortably?
  
  
• Or, if the habitat is small, will it be a permanent or temporary home for him?  You’ll need to replace it if you do purchase smaller units.

Sometimes, people allow their iguana’s to be free roaming. That means that he doesn’t stay in his habitat all of the time. When this is the case, you may want to purchase a smaller habitat. Still, the iguana needs to be able to move around within it and still be able to climb to his basking place.

In most cases, though, a habitat is necessary for full time occupation. For that reason, we recommend that you invest the time now in purchasing a large, comfortable and well designed iguana habitat before you purchase anything else. If you purchase a cage for $100 you’ll have to replace it. Over and over again, you’ll end up paying the same amount if not more and get all the headaches that come with adjusting your pet to their new cage.

In other words, just go the easy route now, spend a little more money now and don’t worry about it!

Another important note to mention is that more than likely, you won’t be able to find a habitat that is large enough for an adult iguana, as we’ve described here. Most that are located in pet stores do not take into consideration the size of a full grow iguana and therefore just don’t provide them in the proper size.

For that reason, we recommend that you build your own habitat or have someone custom build one for you. Don’t worry; it’s a lot less expensive!

A pre-made habitat can cost you thousands of dollars if it is well designed and well set up. What’s more is that you will have limited size and color choices available. But, if you purchase your own raw materials and do the building yourself, you’ll find the process to be much more suitable to both your wallet and your specific needs in size, color, materials and more.

Planning To Build Your Habitat

Now, there are many things you’ll need to think about in the design of your habitat. Here’s a brief look at some of them. What we suggest is that you do further research on the topic of building your own iguana habitat. You’ll want to see examples of the actual habitats you can select from. This is a great way to get some ideas to choose from for your own design.

Location, Location, Location

The first thing that you’ll need to consider before you determine what to build is where you’ll put it. In many cases, you’ll be able to design a habitat that fits well with the location in which you will place it.

If you think you’ll ever move or want to move the habitat, you should consider building a habitat that can be easily moved. That’s not too hard, because many people build habitats in sections that can then be added onto.

For example, you can start with a large aquarium sized unit and then build on top of it, safely to create a larger habitat as you go.

In any case, find the location within your home that is going to be his new home. Determine what you would like the habitat to look like, too. Determine just how much room you can give up to your iguana. The more the better, but don’t let it take over your home, either. At this point, you’ll need to determine the size of the iguana habitat you’ll be building.

Materials

Obviously, the first question you have is what should you make the habitat out of. There are several options available to you in this regard, actually. Here are some possibilities for you to take into consideration.

• Glass:  Glass is a good choice because it provides for keeping the heat and humidity within the habitat. The problem is that it can break, it’s also quite heavy and can cost you a good amount. In most cases, individuals will only use this as part of their actual habitat.
  
  
• Plywood/Woods:  Plywood is good because it is inexpensive and its light weight to move later. But, it doesn’t look that great. Other woods such as oak are good choices too, but they are going to cost you more.
  
  
• Plexiglas:  This is another option that’s okay. Its light weight and it is affordable. In most cases, it works well for keeping the heat and humidity in the habitat. The problem is that it doesn’t provide for ventilation and it will be scratched up easily.

These are only three of your choices. You can also consider hardware cloth or InterNet mesh if you like both with benefits. In most cases, though, you’ll want to combine the options that you have. For most, the goal will be to see their pet in his habitat, so you want something that provides a view.

Take into consideration how you will keep the heat and humidity needed in the habitat. It also requires some way to vent it. That’s hard to do, but with the combination of these materials, you can accomplish it and do so in a great way!

When planning on the materials to use for your iguana habitat, you’ll want to pay attention to the actual needs you have in as far as free roaming goes. Think about these things. First, if you want your pet to have some ability to be free roaming, you’ll need to provide for that. Second, even if you do want it to roam, you still need to design an effective set up that will keep it from escaping.

Even if free roaming is okay, you still need to have a way to keep him within the actual habitat in case you need him to be. A removable door is a good option here.

Venting Your Habitat

Once you’ve selected the materials for your habitat, the next thing you’ll need to pay attention to is that of venting it. Ventilation is important for any living animal, as you can imagine. If you place it in the right location, you are sure to keep your heat and humidity in, and allow for good air circulation at the same time.

When venting your habitat, don’t place large vents at the top of your habitat because this will allow for too much heat to escape. You also don’t want to have large areas of venting because this causes drafts which also make it harder to maintain the right heat within the habitat. Even still, you need to maintain the humidity and heat without having to have your home at these extreme temperatures.
Venting locations can be placed in a number of locations. In fact, you should place several in specific areas for optimal ventilation for your iguana.

First, place a small one near the top. You don’t want to allow a lot of heat to escape, but some venting in this area is important nevertheless. Next, you’ll want another one located under the main basking area within the habitat. Remember, this is going to be the location in which your iguana can rest and just bask in the heat.

For the largest ventilation area, head towards the bottom. You really want to keep it near the bottom to allow minimal heat loss but to provide a good amount of ventilation at this point. The reason for this positioning is simple.

Heat rises. Depending on where exactly your place your heating source, you’ll want the air to be pulled upward as it naturally will. Then, it can go out towards the first vent which is located under your basking point, or go up and out the top. Without the top vent there, you’ll have a pocket of heated air that can become stagnate.

Getting your ventilation is the next step. One of the best ways to do this is to use a vent that is made for venting. Use heating vent covers, for example. This way, you can adjust the amount of ventilation that you want. You can put in more vents then you need and then adjust them later. When you buy these, insure that the edges are kept rounded as not to harm the iguana.

You can also vent your habitat with other, simpler means. For example, you can drill holes the size of no more than ¾ of an inch in diameter through the areas that you will position. Or, cut out an area and attach hardware cloth over the top of it.

You can make your vents any way that you want to. The goal is to provide you with the most flexibility when it comes to venting the habitat. Remember, putting more into the design and construction is fine as long as you have a way to close or open them as needed.

One final note, make sure that however you install the vents to do so in such a way as a climbing iguana won’t be able to actually open or close the vent.

Safety Is Essential

With everything that you do with your habitat, it is extremely important for you to think about safety. Not only do you need to this about this in the way of your iguana but also with your home. Heating elements can cause extreme problems for potential fires if constructed the wrong way. Or, you may even find that too much humidity in your home can cause mold growth.
Another consideration is to monitor where you will position the heating sources and light bulbs. Since iguanas can jump large areas, you don’t want them to jump on or at these sources as they can be hurt or even cause a fire.

In any case when you are using electrical wiring, you should consider having a professional help you. Even with the carpentry work that has to be done it can be quite helpful and safe to call on a professional to provide that help to you. Without their help, you have the potential of causing a real problem and harming yourself or your home.

Seeing Your Pet

If you construct your habitat of nothing but wood, you won’t be able to see your iguana enjoying his home. Being able to see your pet is just as important as him being able to see out.

For most, creating a front wall of Plexiglas is the way to go. Others like to cover part of the front of their habitat with hardware cloth. That will allow for excellent viewing. You can also consider using tempered glass but try to avoid using standard glass. If it falls and breaks, it is going to shatter into millions of pieces, casing harm to you and to your iguana in the process.

Now, iguanas will also need a place to retreat to that isn’t so visible to everyone that walks by. For most, the easiest way to do this is to design walking areas or boxes within the habitat that create a partially hidden area.

This is important because it will allow for a bit of a place for your iguana to go and hide but not so much so that you can’t find him.

Provide A Way To Clean Up

When reality strikes, you’ll realize that you have to be able to actually clean your iguana habitat too. This can be tricky, if you didn’t think about it when designing your habitat in the first place. For most, it is also important to take your iguana out of the habitat every now and then. These things must be thought about when creating a habitat for your iguana.

So, how do you do that?  The best way to create an easy way for you to clean and get in and out of your iguana habitat is to build in a door. A door on the side or even on the front of your habitat is the perfect way to get in and out safely. Even a sliding door will work if there is enough room for it. Remember, with the size of your iguana’s habitat, building a door into one side of it shouldn’t be that hard to actually do.

What’ Else?

Does it sound like there is a lot to plan on when it comes to your iguana habitat?  There is, but remember that this is a one time thing. Once you have your iguana habitat built, if you’ve built one large enough, you won’t have to worry about doing it again.

There are other things you’ll want to think about too. Design your habitat with other things too.

• Basking area:  A place where the heat level is higher so that your iguana can come to this location, lay down and relax.
  
  
• Heating units:  We’ll discuss this in the next chapters more in detail.
  
  
• Lighting units:  This too will be discussed fuller in later chapters.
  
  
• Climbing areas:  Your iguana will need several ways to climb around in the habitat. Depending on his size, you’ll need to provide for this.
  
  
• Feeding Area: There needs to be an area that can be easy for him to get to. Don’t place it on the floor of the habitat. It also shouldn’t be right by the heat source as this won’t be comfortable for him.
  
  
• Water area:  You’ll need two places for water. One needs to be placed at the basking area of your habitat and the other should be placed near the food.
  
  
• Bath area:  Your iguana also needs an area where he can soak in water.
  
  
• Shaded area:  For hiding and for sleeping should be located someplace.

You need to maintain the right control of the heating elements within your iguana’s habitat in order to provide for a location for him to move from one hotter area to a cooler one (Within temperature limits provided, of course!)

Getting Yourself Started

All of this does seem overwhelming but it really doesn’t have to be. Take the time now to sit down with a piece of paper and a pencil and get to work. Draw out the plans for your iguana’s habitat. Take into considerations any budget concerns you have. Take the time necessary to map out a plan for success.

We’ve helped to make it easy by providing you with much of what you need to build a good habitat. Now, make it your own.

You’ll want to design with these elements in mind, but remember that it can be anything that you want it to be. Stain the wood to of the habitat to match the wood within the room of your home that the habitat will be located. Or, add decorative plants within the habitat that will add character and beauty to the area. Just make sure that your iguana doesn’t munch on them!

There are many different examples of iguana habitats available online. Take some time to look at the various types that have been designed by others. You don’t have to use their specific set up but that will give you some ideas of what you could do or how you can accomplish various things that you’re after.

Now that you have a good start on the construction of the habitat of the iguana, we’ll get started on how to properly care for him. With your design, you’ll need to take into consideration the heating, lighting and the humidity needed for your iguana. So, make sure you read through those chapters before starting to build.

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