Rearrange flexarium to make flapneck more comfortable?

Echoezra

Established Member
Okay so can you guys give me your opinions on this - I'm considering turning my flexarium sideways. It's a 100 gallon, so right now it's upright with 4 ft height, 30 inches wide, and 16 or 18 inches deep. Its on a long dresser, the depth is perfect for the dresser. I'm wondering about turning it lengthwise so it would be 4 ft long and 30 inches high. It's on a waist high dresser so even though he'd be losing over a foot in height, he will still be at least eye level with us when basking, but we're usually not standing in that room anyway, its a bedroom so in bed we're lower than cage bottom.
The main concern is my young cat has been very curious and jumping up on side of dresser. I'm sure this must disturb the little dude. If the cage were lengthwise, it would take up the majority of the dresser, leaving much less room for cat perching. If I fill the remaining space right, he won't be able to get up there.
My other concern is the fact that my plants aren't tall enough even with stands, so in order to hang out in the basking or UVB areas he's feeling pretty exposed. He likes the cover of the plants, and hangs out there as mug as possible, which is actually at about the level of where the tip basking area would be if the cage were sideways.
He never ventured down any lower than the plant stands, even though there were access vines and more plants and cover down there.
So basically he appreciates and uses the height he has, but prefers the plant cover.
When he is up at the top, he is kind of hiding in the corner so much that he's not really able to pay attention to the food climbing near him, but is he in the corner for height, or just cause it's more hidden in the otherwise bare top area?
Cause when he's in the plants he's really drinking and boogeying around and stretching and exploring, seems to really enjoy himself at plant level. So my figuring is, if plant level was the highest point in the cage, I think he'd be happier.
So my question is - Do you think that losing that foot and a half in height that he now has would be that bad considering he'd still have almost double the length of over five feet off the ground?
I've been draping a towel over the top front edge to try and give him privacy at the top but it's not secured there and is in the way of the zipper so it falls off when i néed to access the cage and scares him even more. :(
I know the easiest answer would be find taller plants for top of cage. I had trouble finding appropriate plants that were the right height, I bought stands but they still only bring the plants I have up about 3/4 the height if the cage. I mean I know i could probably buy some fake plants for the top, but I didn't really want fake ones. I don't want to confuse the guy, lol, but really I just wanted it all real. I will if the height is the most important thing, and that would make him comfortable, of course.
I moved the plants around a little last night and he seemed to like it better, did some more exploring, tried out a bromeliad that was too low to reach before.
(plus I'd be able to reach the lightswitch on top! Which I get foot cramps doing now from having to be so tiptoed. lol) I also figured maybe with the extra room on the cage top I could get multiple drippers going too.
 
Building new one

I may take you up on that in the future, not necessarily to go that much bigger since space is an issue in my house, that dresser was pretty much the only good location, as a lot of the walls are slanted so you can only go tall in certain spots. But, mainly because I would love to have something with a real door raher than a zipper!! Lol.
 
i hear you! i was so relieved the day i stopped using zippers haha. for a flapnecked im sure a 36" tall would be fine. if someone could clearify this that would be great because id like to know too
 
Back
Top Bottom