Building Bud and Cloud's permanent enclosures - Page 3

Mark Taylor · 06-26-13, 12:52 PM

That looks great.

rocknhorse76 · 06-26-13, 02:20 PM

Those look really nice. I'm sure the snakes will be quite comfortable in them.

I use cheap cardboard boxes for my boas as well, since they keep outgrowing hides lol. Once they're pretty much maxed out, they'll get nice plastic hides.

Have you thought about maybe checking out a flooring store to see if they have some kitchen or bathroom remnants that would fit your cages?

bigsnakegirl785 · 06-26-13, 03:08 PM

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Originally Posted by Mark Taylor

That looks great.

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Originally Posted by Terranaut

Yup, thats looking great.

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Originally Posted by sweatshirt

It's coming out really nice

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Originally Posted by Lankyrob

Looks good

Thanks!

Quote:

Originally Posted by rocknhorse76

Those look really nice. I'm sure the snakes will be quite comfortable in them.

I use cheap cardboard boxes for my boas as well, since they keep outgrowing hides lol. Once they're pretty much maxed out, they'll get nice plastic hides.

Have you thought about maybe checking out a flooring store to see if they have some kitchen or bathroom remnants that would fit your cages?

Maybe I should do that with Cloud, as he's still growing. Bud's done growing, and I doubt he'll get any bigger, though.

Yes, and they turned me against it, as with tiling the water would seep up underneath the tiles and act like a sponge. The Plexiglas just stains too quickly and gets scratched pretty easily too - I've worked with it before. Really, it would be cheaper to just sand down any damaged areas in the Poly and apply new coats if anything happens. It would save me hundreds of dollars, rather than buying new big sheets of Plexi every time it gets damaged. Really, everyone I've talked to who works in carpentry, or woodworking general, has wholeheartedly advised the Poly as the best way to seal/treat it.

EDIT: Just realized I could have read it wrong. For the floor, or for building decorations? Sorry, I'm just really slow lately.

rocknhorse76 · 06-26-13, 03:51 PM

I was referring to it being used on the floor and up the sides a bit. If you think you got a thick enough coating of poly on the floor, then I guess you'll be fine though.

**EL Ziggy** · 06-26-13, 04:13 PM

I need a snake interior decorator to help me add some flair to my vivs : ) Anybody in GA? I'm not good at building things at all.

jarich · 06-26-13, 04:53 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by bigsnakegirl785

I could get Plexi, but it's over $200 for each sheet at the size we'd need, and we just don't have the funds for that kind of spending anymore. If there are cheaper ways to cover it (like, less than $200 altogether), I can pay for it, though. If Plexi is the only way to go, then it will be several more months before I could get it, and Cloud's already outgrown his tub. I still need to buy two more fluorescent light fixtures, at least 8 more blocks of EcoEarth, and two more bulbs. I'm going to guess that's going to be well over $100, and I've only got $300 to play with.

FRP would do the job just fine and cost about a tenth of the price. I think a 4x8 sheet is around $20-30.

rocknhorse76 · 06-26-13, 06:42 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by jarich

FRP would do the job just fine and cost about a tenth of the price. I think a 4x8 sheet is around $20-30.

That's a great idea! You could use liquid nails to glue it on and seal the seams with siliconized acrylic caulk (water based).

To clarify for those who don't know what it is....its the textured plastic material that you normally see covering the lower parts of walls in restrooms and sometimes in commercial kitchens. Very thin, lightweight, and durable. Looks nice too.

Terranaut · 06-27-13, 04:42 AM

What about using glass with a wood frame?
Call a glass place and as how much for the size you need. Be sure to tell them a raw cut is fine as your wood mounting it anyway. (As oposed to a beveled ground dull edge) Glass is super cheap and actually best for seeing through as well as cleaning.
Looks real nice so far.

bigsnakegirl785 · 06-27-13, 09:34 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by rocknhorse76

That's a great idea! You could use liquid nails to glue it on and seal the seams with siliconized acrylic caulk (water based).

To clarify for those who don't know what it is....its the textured plastic material that you normally see covering the lower parts of walls in restrooms and sometimes in commercial kitchens. Very thin, lightweight, and durable. Looks nice too.

I'll give this a test run, and if I notice any problems, I'll go and look for some. So far, everything seems to be going well. But, I can definitely get some to put on the shelves, and maybe cover the wooden hides when they get done. Or, could I make the hides out of the plastic?

I was testing the humidity and temperatures for a little over 24 hours before putting him in the enclosure, first without bedding and hides, and then with them. I have the thermostat set at 80-85F with the probe at the bottom of the enclosure, and I'll be putting a shelf below the RHP so he can get the higher temperature basking spot. The humidity was 70-75% when I first put the bedding in, and now two days later it's down to 60-65%, and staying steady. This is a good level of humidity, but, despite this, he's been spending all of his time in his water dish. He hasn't left it since I put him in his enclosure. I checked for mites, but he came out clean. The water's clear, and I didn't find any crawling on him. Is he maybe just taking advantage of the fact that he now has a big enough dish to soak in?

bigsnakegirl785 · 06-27-13, 10:24 AM

Ok, so I just thought that maybe my hygrometer is going bad. When I opened the door to change out the water in the smaller bowl, the humidity felt a lot higher than just 60%. So, I put the new hygrometer in it, and it's reading 80%. So, the enclosure is holding humidity really well, and I'm letting it air out a bit to dry out the bedding, and bring down the humidity a little. Could the battery be affecting the read-out? I've had the hygrometer almost 2 years, but I haven't changed out the battery before. If not, I'll get another one.

jarich · 06-27-13, 10:36 AM

They do require calibration from time to time. If you look up salt calibration for hygrometers there are some simple, cheap ways to do it yourself. If its a model you can calibrate that is. The cheaper ones often cant be recalibrated and just have to be replaced.

bigsnakegirl785 · 06-27-13, 10:44 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by jarich

They do require calibration from time to time. If you look up salt calibration for hygrometers there are some simple, cheap ways to do it yourself. If its a model you can calibrate that is. The cheaper ones often cant be recalibrated and just have to be replaced.

Idk if it can be, it's a cheap $15 Exo Terra hygrometer. Well, it's $15 on Amazon, but it says the original price is $35. It doesn't have any options to re-calibrate, but I could try anyway. The next one I get I'll look for one I can calibrate, if not.

jarich · 06-27-13, 11:10 AM

Well $15 for a hygrometer that lasted you two years is a pretty decent deal.

Calibration is not the easiest thing ever, but Id always advise a higher quality unit if you can afford it.

bigsnakegirl785 · 06-27-13, 06:52 PM

So, the lights have been very...fun...to work with. We wired the fluorescent light up to the switch, and put a plug at the end of the wire. We plugged it in, and it immediately tripped the breaker. And, as an added bonus, since we had it hooked up to my power strip, it's now broken. Since 4 of the outlets on the power strip were "power-saving surge-protectors," only they broke. Of the other 2, I can only use 1, because the last one is blocked by a strip of metal for whatever reason. We brought an extension cord up from the basement and plugged it up, and it tripped the breaker again. We flipped it back on, and the fluorescent light turned on, this time without shorting out. So, we wired up the other one. When that was done, we plugged it in. It never turned on, but it tripped the breaker. We figured, hey, we've got one working. We were wrong. It turned on for about 5 seconds, and flipped the breaker again. The light doesn't work on the extension cord anymore, but a lamp we tested it with does. So, we may have blown the light, too. Which means we'll have to have an electrician look at everything.

bigsnakegirl785 · 06-28-13, 01:49 PM

I set up Bud's cage, and put him in it. We'll be putting branches in Bud's cage first, because Cloud seems to only want to stay in his water bowl. He hasn't left if of his own will yet. I'm confused as to why, because his temps stay 80-85F on his hot end, on the ground, and I've brought his humidity down to 70% from 85% (the highest reading I read before I aired it out). I tried adding more hides, and tunnels like I did in Bud's, thinking maybe he felt exposed, but he still hasn't left his dish. It's not mites, because his water is clear and there aren't any crawling on him. He's spent the last 2 days in it, and he's only left it when I had to take him out to clean it out because he had "peed" in it.

A few of the hides turned out to be a little tall, like this one, so I cut them down after this photo shoot. I put him in, and he explored all over the enclosure, and when he was satisfied he went into one of his hides. I'll let him settle into his new home, and try - again - to get him to take this rat. I'm going to try once every 2 weeks to feed him this same rat, but I'll kill it before it gets too big for him to eat, and offer it a few times to him as f/t. When I first introduced it to him, he showed a bit of interest in it, but when the rat came close, he turned away. This was with it being scented with mouse bedding.

Right when I put him in.