DIY Re-purposed up-cycled enclosures

[Ruth]

I love to re-use items and make unexpected things from them. I really don't like the look of the vivariums that are mainly available and was wondering if any of you have created beautiful but practical vivariums and terrariums using unexpected or unusual things. I have been looking at old haberdashery cabinets and museum display cabinets thinking they would make very attractive homes, they're basically wooden framed tanks with sliding or opening doors.

I would love some help in the practicality of using such items or making your own vivarium. It is very important to me that it can be able to be cleaned and be clean. I don't like the idea of wood that might get damp or end up housing a mite infestation. I'm a little over the top on this so it's very important to me.

Terrariums are also of interest to me as I would love to make some for the house though not necessarily for housing any animals. I know some of you have experience of self contained systems so any pointers would be lovely.

[-MARWOLAETH-]

You can water proof wooden vivs with pond paint,Polycarbonate sheets ect

There are no native snake mites so only way they'd show up is if you in bought an infested snake or bag of bedding.

Here's some great books on Terrariums

Natural Terrariums (Complete Herp Care Series): Amazon.co.uk: Philip Purser: Books (http://www.amazon.co.uk/Natural-Terrariums-Complete-Herp-Series/dp/0793828910/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1361701196&sr=8-1)

The Art of Keeping Snakes Herpetocultural Library: Amazon.co.uk: Philippe De Vosjoli: Books (http://www.amazon.co.uk/Art-Keeping-Snakes-Herpetocultural-Library/dp/1882770633/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1361701371&sr=1-1)


Garters and pretty much all herps sold in captivity do make excellent subjects for Naturalistic Vivs.They have so many advantages over sterile set-ups (not only for the animal but for you as well )

[Ruth]

You can water proof wooden vivs with pond paint,Polycarbonate sheets ect

There are no native snake mites so only way they'd show up is if you in
bought an infested snake or bag of bedding.

Here's some great books on Terrariums

Natural Terrariums (Complete Herp Care Series): Amazon.co.uk: Philip Purser: Books (http://www.amazon.co.uk/Natural-Terrariums-Complete-Herp-Series/dp/0793828910/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1361701196&sr=8-1)

The Art of Keeping Snakes Herpetocultural Library: Amazon.co.uk: Philippe De Vosjoli: Books (http://www.amazon.co.uk/Art-Keeping-Snakes-Herpetocultural-Library/dp/1882770633/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1361701371&sr=1-1)


Garters and pretty much all herps sold in captivity do make excellent subjects for Naturalistic Vivs.They have so many advantages over sterile set-ups (not only for the animal but for you as well )

Thanks I will have a look. The reason I'm a bit ocd about it is that I did end up getting an infested snake and although I managed to control the situation it bugs me, excuse the pun. Hubby also had several friends that kept snakes and they all smelled and he is amazed that ours don't. I tell him it was because the chaps were neglectful and there is no need for them to smell. I would love a natural set up I'm just unsure about adding animals into the mix.

[Kantar]

I can do magical things with cardboard!

8250

[-MARWOLAETH-]

I would love a natural set up I'm just unsure about adding animals into the mix.
The only problem i can think of with animals in naturalistic vivs is that they seem to enjoy destroying the plants Lol
But as Garters are small snakes there's less of a problem so theres a wide variety of plants that'd work well.

Have a look through these Planted Vivariums - Reptile Forums (http://www.reptileforums.co.uk/forums/planted-vivariums/)

Hope it helps :D

[aSnakeLovinBabe]

Here's a link to one of my blogs where I detailed the process of turning an old display case for dog cookies into a cage for my female spilotes pullatus. She love the enclosure! I may actually be moving her into a new enclosure, and using this one for my pair of cuban knight anoles that are coming my way in a few weeks. They produced 8 babies last season, and they will use every inch of the space.

As an added bonus there are also some field herping pics of thamnophis and nerodia in the same blog!
iHerp : Member Blog : A DIY Cage, Field Herping 6-17, A Tiny-eyed Snake, A Babe in a Swimsuit, and Lots of Blood. (http://iherp.com/Public/Blog/Detail.aspx?uid=113005)

I too, love to repurpose items. I am really getting into visually appealing setups, so this kind of stuff is right up my alley. In our future house, I will go all out, right down to sculpting out fake rock formations built into the enclosures. I like a mixture of visually appealing, and natural, but also stuff that is a cinch to break down and clean. I will consider doing self-sustaining vivs in the future with biologically active soil, for some dart frogs, or something similar. Snakes do love to ruin live plants, because in captivity, they are constantly crawling on them because they are in a confined space. Whereas in the wild, plants get much more of a break between being crawled/stepped on (and the ones that don't, die, and that is why we have things like deer trails)

The nice thing about the cage I did here was that it already came with fluorescent lighting built right into it. Best of all, it was free from my old job. Can't beat free!

[aSnakeLovinBabe]

Oh also, here's another. I know you aren't looking to repurpose old, broken tanks, but the actual work we did to this tank was pretty awesome, and the cage is still in use! It currently houses my largest carpet python. There is a heat panel underneath the left side (the cage now sits in my hard floor snakeroom). I now am reading the comments of this old blog and have no idea why the one guy thought there was no ventilation. The entire front of the cage is open. lol!

I will eventually end up giving this thing away. But for now, it's serving it's purpose.

iHerp : Member Blog : Built a SWEET new cage! (http://iherp.com/Public/Blog/Detail.aspx?uid=30414)

[-MARWOLAETH-]

Have you seen this thread,Shannon? Naturalistic Snake Enclosures With Fake Walls - A How To Guide (Pic Heavy) - Reptile Forums (http://www.reptileforums.co.uk/forums/snakes/878380-naturalistic-snake-enclosures-fake-walls.html)
His set-ups are so good I bought my marcianuss adult cage early just so I could try and make one like his LoL

[aSnakeLovinBabe]

sure have!! That is basically exactly what I will be doing, except I probably won't glue any moss stuff down. That would be difficult to clean. But I love the idea of adding live clumps of grass! This makes me want to do this to that cookie-case cage, like, RIGHT now!!!

[-MARWOLAETH-]

Here's what I came up with
http://www.thamnophis.com/forum/enclosures/11993-marcianus-viv-project.html

Ive decided it will be a Savannah/edge of forest viv with Bermuda grass and Juniper Trees on the dryer end and Ivy and Creeping Jenny around the water dish.

[aSnakeLovinBabe]

it looks great!!! I think I may have to go buy some materials to do something.

[Selkielass]

Haberdashery display?
That could look seriously cool, but heat and moisture would likely damage the piece- don't convert anything you'd feed bad about ruining.
Take a look back thru the enclosures section of the reptile report for links to some amazing projects. Entertainment centers, china cabinets and computer cases have all been waterproofed an turned into awesome enclosures.

[Ruth]

Thanks all for your ideas and in put it all looks very exciting. I'm not going to look through it all now as I'll get too excited and wont sleep lol so I will have a good look tomorrow.

[Ruth]

I keep looking and seeing some amazing naturalistic enclosures. I'm thinking of maybe getting a small enclosure to test my ability of keeping the plants alive before doing a big one in the hope of housing any snakes in it. I have seen this lovely haberdashery cabinet though.

8262I do a lot of sewing so would be a very appropriate enclosure and wow would it look stunning all planted up. It has a wooden top and sliding doors to the back.

[ChareiHeals]

This thread gave me an idea, so I started doing some looking on our local classifieds and found a display cabinet for sale. About 6 foot long by 2 foot wide, top bottom front and back were glass, the frame was oak, with one side having sliding doors. I was thinking I could seal the glass and then have a proverbial snake utopia, but my idea got shot down real quick when I suggested it to my husband and he says "that seems like overkill" LOL. Suffice it to say, I thought I'd pass along the idea, in case you guys want to do a little overkilling of your own. :)

[Selkielass]

An old orchid case could make an extremely cool terrarium, and the y are often metal, teak and other rot resistant materials.

Watch for grooves and pinch points on display case doors- either can badly injure a snake.
Grooved sliding doors also can become fouled with substrate. Easy to faculty out if dry but wet materials and poor can stick like cement.

[vukic]

ChareiHeals

Na go for it... Who cares if its a little over kill... Ha ha

[Steveo]

This thread gave me an idea, so I started doing some looking on our local classifieds and found a display cabinet for sale. About 6 foot long by 2 foot wide, top bottom front and back were glass, the frame was oak, with one side having sliding doors. I was thinking I could seal the glass and then have a proverbial snake utopia, but my idea got shot down real quick when I suggested it to my husband and he says "that seems like overkill" LOL. Suffice it to say, I thought I'd pass along the idea, in case you guys want to do a little overkilling of your own. :)

One of my wishes when I get a house is to take an old china hutch or something similar and turn it into a viv for a green tree python. I think it would make a great display piece.