I think I found a Homemade viv Design I like.

I got bored lol...





What do you think? Duel Log hides or log hide with a fake pine branch?

also I was thinking as for where the heat goes do you think having a Hide over top of it would work fine or should I have the hide off to the side of the heat?

Sorry I tried to get the picture to flip right side up but for some reasen its not working.

Just some better pics of the hides.





Here is Seth in his new hides..

Allalaskan said:

What do you think? Duel Log hides or log hide with a fake pine branch?

also I was thinking as for where the heat goes do you think having a Hide over top of it would work fine or should I have the hide off to the side of the heat?

Click to expand...

Duel hide with a fake pine branch?
The heat depends on what source you are using. If it is a heat pad, put the hide over it. You need a cool side hide which is why I would use two hides and still use the fake pine/branch stuff. Those shelving seem cramped to me but idk Remember to make sure your heat is right

Believe it or not but the shelves have the same exact floor space as the 29 gallong fish tank he is in now, both are 30 inches wide and 1 foot deep. Only diffrence is the fish tank is 19 inches tall where with the shelves they are 13-15 depending on the shelf, they arnt all spaced the same.

O and I Think the heat will be ok, I will be testing the unit before any animals go into it

problubly not tomorrow but the day after I will hopefully be starting the front, I have finally decided ( I think) how to do the front. After that I have to order or buy the fallowing..

-Heat Rope
-Thermostat
-PlexiGlass
-Calking or silicone
-aluminum tape
-Lights

and I believe that is it, I already have the linoleum to put in the bottom, the timer for the lights. ALso I found at my local walmart for $10 each they have Florescent lights that actually connect to one another, so I can hook up one then run it strait to the other. That way I only have 1 plug that will plug into the timer and all the lights share the same power source. There can be up to 8 inline how ever I will only have 5.

I am getting more and more excited about this Its finally starting to come together, slowly but surely.

Also I read on an aquarium site that this stuff http://www.homedepot.com/h_d1/N-5yc1vZ1xl6/R-100026175/h_d2/ProductDisplay?langId=-1&storeId=10051&catalogId=10053 Is suppose to be aquarium safe, so I think this will be the stuff I use. Supposably its the same thing as the name brand aquarium silicone but not as expensive. And Home Depot should have it

How is everything coming along?

Kind of at a stand still for the moment, Money has been tight so I haven't been able to get the stuff I need. Im hoping to get the plexi glass tomorrow, but im not sure If I will or not, I need to sit down and make sure all the bills are payed and have plenty of gas money before I spend any more on this. How ever tomorrow regardless I plan on atleast getting the wood strips for the front cut tomorrow night and possibly get the grooves cut for the plexi glass, but im kinda wanting to wait till I have the plexi to make sure the grooves are not to big or small.

Im thinking about using the LED rope though for lighting, I really like how kittens turned out and I am thinking about going that route instead of 5 different lights.

Well, I got the boards ripped, and some of them cut to length. I put on a few coats of paint to seal up the wood and have them drying now. I also took a couple of plastic apple juice containers and put them on there side then cut out the bottom side and cut a door into the side to give me 2 more hides. I took and just put a coat of Krylon Fusion Olive drab paint on them so they will be a dark green color. They will be able to use the cut side door or the where the you use to poor the juice out at the mouth as the second door. How ever I ever they will be allowed to dry for weeks before they are ever put to use so I shouldnt have any problem with the paint putting off any fumes I believe. Im going to do a bit more research to be sure before they are ever used with any snakes.

And of course the small screws I use to have I cant find .....soooo im hoping I can find them or thats one more thing I will have to buy lol.

I will post pics tomarrow some time later in the day.

Alright, well I put the book shelf unit on hold for now. After doing alot of hard thinking I really want to build a bigger viv for Seth, I know the one he is in now is big enough but really would like to give him a bigger one.

So I took an old Entertainment center and ripped out the divider and shelves up top to open up a nice big area that im going to split in two units, an upper and lower then the small spot on the right side on the bottom will be used as another viv for a smaller corn.

Atm this is what I have.

This was right after I pulled out the shelves and divider ( separated the tv from the dvd players ect.)



Then I made up a support for the top because it was sagging a bit. I then cut 4 pieces one for each corner. I will cut out a slot in each for the new shelf to sit and it also gives me the basic shape up front for the doors to fit into, kinda hard to explain but this is what I have now.







It is really dirty in the pictures but it will of course be cleaned out real good before its finally all put together, also Every piece of wood added to this will be painted black to match and seal it.

Inside it is a half an inch under 4ft wide, the living space will be 14 inches deep from front to back and the total space up and down atm is 25.5 inches. Of course it will be cut down to roughly (hard to say till its done) 1foot in height on each chamber. I plan on having 2 hinged doors on the front with a wood frame with plexi glass in the door way. The back will be covered in Pegboard for ventilation.The bottom will most likely have screen on the OUTSIDE pard of the pegboard incase I end up putting a baby in so it cannot escape. Also The compartment ont he bottom left side with the door is where I plan on keeping the Thermostat and dimmer switches and all the electronical gear (as in power strips ect) so its not out in plain view.

The plan is to also build a pedestal that will sit the whole unit up about 2 feet off the ground to put them more at eye level and to keep it off the ground since the floors can get a little bit cold at night (Hard wood floors dont exactly stay toasty warm, especially when its -40f outside and you open a the front or back door) just for the safety of the snakes.

As you can see I have already started to cut some of the wood for this. The 4 corners will have about 3/4 of an inch cut out for the shelf to ride on but will be cut back a little bit on the front to put a piece of 1x2 running across the face so when the doors are closed the 2 chambers will be totally sealed off.

Atm the only things I NEED are 1 more heat pad (Have the one big one under Seths 29 gallon already I plan on using ) and I have a small one for the bottom unit already also. I need to pickup some pegboard for the back and the plexi glass up front. Also I Still plan on picking up a thermostat how ever because the smaller pad may run differently I may end up using the Dimmer switch on it depending on how it all runs when its said and done. I already have the Linoleum for the entire project (same stuff as the stuff used on my guinea pig cages if you seen that in the chit chat forum) but I still need calking.

After thinking long and hard about it I figured this was the wiser route to go for now. After this I still do plan on building the book shelf rack but that will be used mostly for babies or lizards.

Any way I know I have changed my plans and every thing like 3 or 4 times now but this is the one im sticking with lol, if you have any suggestions let me know.

Very good idea.
I don't know what requirements they have but western(maybe eastern)hognoses and African house snakes stay at a small size,maybe under 36 inches.You could have one of those in the smaller compartment depending on the size.

Ok here are some pictures of what I got done today and some ideas im throwing around.










Here is a picture with a can of spray paint to give you an idea how bit or small this is.










This may be a little bit of a problum.... This is at the bottem of the bottem top 2 chambers. The floor bowes down leaving a bit of a gap, so im going to have to figure out some way to fix this.









Here I was moving some piece of wood around trying to get an idea on how I want to do the front door or doors. Im not sure yet if I want to go with one big door or 2 smaller doors, one for each chamber.

This would be kinda what it would be like with just one big door. The piece running down the middle was to keep the top piece from falling.







here is what it may look like sorta if I go with 2 doors...



Im not totally sure yet how im going to do the doors still trying to decide, but atleast I made some progress today . And keep in mine every thing will be painted black, the red sure isnt staying haha.

O and btw, the bottem shelf, the stick in there was me trying to get the bottem half of the top to to level out the floor, which didnt work haha. but I have an idea on how to fix it.

Allalaskan said:

Jessicat,
Ya That was something that I was thinking of also. I dont want any gaps what so ever. I was actually thinkin about going around all the edges with some kind of sylicone or calking to seal any gaps or cracks. It will have the air vents so air shouldnt be a problum but that way any baby snakes cant get out.

I really want to build a big one like I showed above (my design), but I think I may just cut it in half so its 3 large chambers and 2 possibly 3 smaller chambers for younger snakes or smaller animals. My wife doesnt seem to keen on having such a big viv in the house and the amount of money (even though over a long period of time) it will cost to build it haha. So I am thinking it will be half the size of the one I showed, that will still give me enough space for 3 adult snakes and 2-3 smaller animals. I coul always build another one down the road if my addiction needs to grow lol.

Click to expand...

Good Idea...I put contact paper first on my wooden cage sides, top and bottom then I lined silicone on all the seals.....it's practically sealed tight and water can't get through to the wood.

I decided to make a short video just a quick over view. Something I can put together later I guess as a step by step as I did this project.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o5VwyvvbOF8

didnt get much done today, but I wanted to at least get the linoleum cut out. Its not glued in yet but gives you an idea.



Still quite a bit to do, but its moving along slowly. I was planning on working on the door some today but im not feeling to good so thats going to be put off for another day.

It looks good so far.

Well I didnt really DO any thing, but We were going to throw out this old coffee table and realized hey, if I shorten it up depth wise it would make a great stand for my viv!
After I thin it up some to be more the depth of the viv I plan on sanding the whole thing down and painting it black to match the vivarium. I will leave the rounded edges up front and the part I cut off that will be flat I will just put to the back up against the wall.









Man, I am really going to have to sweep out and squeegee out the garage before I paint lol, there is a lot of dust in there. Any way as you can see it just about is perfect left to right in its width but needs to be shortened up in its depth to match up the way I want. I plan on screwing the viv to the stand so its all one unit. I think I will leave a few inches out to the front for stability though, just to be on the safe side. Also I may have it screwed to the wall on the top just to make sure it doesnt fall forward if it seems a bit unstable when its done.

Well I picked the rest of the stuff i need to finish the viv today!!! I will be taking pictures and posting them later as it goes along. It will not be done (atleast to put the snakes in) because the paint will have to cure but I May have it atleast finished and put together by tonight possibly.