The following is how I put together a false background for an enclosure for my crested geckos. The final product will look like this:
Clicking on any of the underlined text below will bring up a picture to help you out!
The supplies that you'll need will be:
Enclosure (I had this laying around, waiting for cresties, but you can experiment with many different enclosures)
Black Silicone
Brown Silicone
Great Stuff Spray Insulation Foam
T-Rex Forest Bed (or other compressed brick "mulch" type of substrate)
The back wall of my enclosure is ~25"x25" and I used
one tube of black silicone, two tubes of brown silicone, two cans of Great Stuff, and 1/3 of a brick of the Forest Bed.
Steps
1. Start by mixing your
Forest Bed. There are instructions on the back, but basically break off a chunk of the brick (depends on how big of an area you're covering) and soak it in water for ~one hour or so. It will expand.
After it expands, you will need to spread it out to dry. This will take most likely longer than 24 hours.
*I spread mine out on a garbage bag and let it dry while I completed all of the following steps.
2. Once the Forest Bed is drying, you can start to apply the
Black Silicone to the back of the enclosure. This will be for aesthetic purposes only, so that the yellow foam doesn't show from the back!
*I used rubber gloves to spread the silicone over the entire back of the enclosure. You can also do the sides if you'd like, or partially on the sides, to follow the contour of the rock wall you'll be creating.
Let Dry.
3. After the black silicone has dried, the
Great Stuff comes next! Be sure to shake the can vigorously! When you apply the Great Stuff, it will not stick immediately to the bottom, and also will not be expanded. Be sure to cover the majority of the back wall (if you didn't figure it out in the silicone stage, it works best if the cage is lying on it's back... especially for this part!) If there are small bits and pieces of the bottom that aren't covered, don't worry, they WILL BE when the foam finishes expanding!
*The foam expanded MUCH MORE than I'd expected, creating a wall tha stuck out alot further than I'd anticipated! After it cures for 24 hours and is hard, you can cut it to mold it if you'd like. I kept it the way it was for a 'natural' look.
Click Here to see what the Great Stuff foam looks like after curing! It's VERY solid once completely dry!
4. Again, after letting the foam completey cure, you can move back to applying silicone. This is a little harder to do with all of the contours of the foam.
A glove will be necessary in order to work the brown silicone into all of the crevices. This should take much more silicone than the smooth back did.
While the brown silicone is still wet, sprinkle the DRIED Forest Bed onto the back wall. Be sure to cover it all thoroughly! Once it is good and covered, go back and forth across the entire back pressing down, so that the bedding will stick to the silicone. Let Dry.
5. Once fully cured, you're done! If there are any spots that need more bedding, simply apply brown silicone again and press on more bedding. You can repeat those steps as many times as necessary to complete the backwall. Once completely dried, I brushed away the loose bedding, and the remaining stuck very well.
Then it's time to add the decorations! I also added fake plants, but may eventually switch to live. And finally, add the new occupants!
Good Luck,
Brent Strande
Thanks
Hybrid Mode
