There are many ways to get a house for your reptile, from buying a pre-built enclosure complete with heating and lighting, to making one yourself from scratch.

Wooden boxes, fish tanks, moulded plastic units
A wooden enclosure will retain heat more effectively than an all glass enclosure. But glass enclosures are easy to clean - you just take them outside and hose them out.

Front-opening vs top-opening
The main difference between these two types of enclosures comes down to the management of the animal. Top-opening enclosures make it harder for an animal to escape when you open the doors. If the front of the enclosure opens there's very little to stop your pet from making a break for freedom when you go to change the water bowl. For a slow-moving animal like a python or blue tongue this isn't much of an issue. Smaller and more agile species such as geckos, small skinks and venomous snakes might be better off in a top-opening enclosure.

Front-opening enclosures might also be slightly easier to clean out.

Sliding glass doors vs hinged doors
Glass sliding doors are very simple to construct, but the tracks will fill up with rubbish in no time. This debris can be easily vacuumed of swept out. Hinged doors are more complicated to make, but cleaning them can be a lot easier. After a while you might need to make some adjustments to the hinges to ensure that door shuts securely.

Give us some feedback

If you have feedback or a comment on the content of this page, please share your thoughts with us. Your feedback won't be published publicly, but if you give us some good info we'll incorporate it into the article above.
Note: You will not get a response to any feedback you leave here. If you have a question, use our contact page.
Please do not ask us to send you a form to get a licence to keep reptiles! You need to contact the relevant fauna authority.