Evolution of a Lizard Room XI: Butterfly Cages

An A. distichus futiley searching for possible escape routes.

A cage within a cage

Most butterfly cages are easily collapsable (though not always, as this picture indicates), making them convenient for storage.

We have at least six butterfly cages (seen collapsed and stacked here).

When handling lizards in the lab, it’s important to minimize the chances of a crafty critter escaping. Collapsable “butterfly cages” are a convenient and thrifty way to ensure the security of your lizards during cage maintenance, egg checks, lizard-handling, and feeding. Before removing the egg laying cups to see if any eggs were laid, for example, we generally place the Kritter Keeper housing breeding animals into a butterfly cage to ensure that any animals springing out don’t get very far (this practice, of course, will prove unnecessary once our room is entirely converted to new custom cages). In addition to their many uses in the lizard colony, we also use butterfly cages extensively in the field as temporary housing or to sort animals sampled throughout the course of a day. The cages we use are only around $20 each and they’re well worth the investment for any lizard lab.