Custom Eight Cage System

[frankpayne32]

I have been working tirelessly on this project. My reptile room is so cramped and cluttered, it's making it difficult to take care of my collection properly. So I hope to be done by Friday.

The top four cages are pretty much done at this point.



Here you can see how the screen doors are held in place.



Here you can see how the dividers stick out past the doors about an 1 1/2" so they can be removed without opening the cages. You can also see that the doors are made from aluminum window frame. I also made a sort of frame out of the same material to enclose and mount the doors to.





And the whole system.



I will construct the dividers for the bottom four cages tonight. I'm pretty happy with it so far. It looks good from afar but if you look too closely you can see how off square everything is Oh well.

Thanks again for checking it out.

 

[Saldarya]

Really interesting way of doing things and gives some great, further ideas. What species are you planning on keeping in here? Forgive me if you have already mentioned.

Thanks for the thorough pic tutorial.

 

[frankpayne32]

Really interesting way of doing things and gives some great, further ideas. What species are you planning on keeping in here? Forgive me if you have already mentioned.

Thanks for the thorough pic tutorial.

Thanks! I have a pretty diverse collection. For chameleons I have ambilobe panthers which I am phasing out, Kinyongia matschiei, and Furcifer campani. I am also currently keeping arboreal alligator lizards (abronia graminea), blue dwarf geckos (lygodactylus williamsi), and mountain horned lizards (Acanthosaura capra). I have a few other odds and ends but that is it for this system (for now).

I'm glad it's giving ideas to people. It's also for me too. Whenever I do a build I like to keep a detailed log for me to go back and look on later. Here are a few of my other big builds.

 

[Saldarya]

All looks great, except the Rams blanket!!!

I may catch up with you later about how you did some of those vivs!

 

[frankpayne32]

All looks great, except the Rams blanket!!!

I may catch up with you later about how you did some of those vivs!

Haha that's actually for the high school that I teach at not the pro team.

Any time.

 

[Ferrah88]

You have just provided me with what I would call awesome (my husband would call them horrible) ideas It looks like there are plenty of great ways to have nice looking furniture and more reptiles than I thought possible

 

[whitruss]

you are my hero!
amazing work!

 

[frankpayne32]

You have just provided me with what I would call awesome (my husband would call them horrible) ideas It looks like there are plenty of great ways to have nice looking furniture and more reptiles than I thought possible

you are my hero!
amazing work!

Thanks! This is what a crazy person does with their spare time. Build more and more elaborate reptile cages.

 

[frankpayne32]

Got the dividers and guides in place for the bottom four cages. I also siliconed around any gaps including around the rims of the tubs as at least one of these cages will be housing dwarf geckos.

 

[Ferrah88]

Thanks! This is what a crazy person does with their spare time. Build more and more elaborate reptile cages.

DEDICATED, not crazy I'd be interested in seeing your future work too! Will you be painting this work as well, or will it stay the light brown wood colour it is now?

 

[frankpayne32]

DEDICATED, not crazy I'd be interested in seeing your future work too! Will you be painting this work as well, or will it stay the light brown wood colour it is now?

Maybe the pictures don't show it very well but I did paint this system, all white.

 

[frankpayne32]

Installed a hinged coroplast piece to block the drainage/lighting are between the two rows of cages.



Tonight will hopefully mark the end of the construction with the installation of the bottom screen doors. Then it's on to the fun part of planting and hardscaping.

 

[frankpayne32]

The system is pretty much done. Just a few odds and ends to wrap up then the plants and animals can be moved in

Installed the doors for the bottom four cages.


Each tub received a 1" layer of hydroton expanded clay pellets for drainage.


Then a layer of landscape fabric to seperate the drainage layer from the soil layer.


Then my own mixture of organic soil including a variety of ingredients similar to the ABG (Atlanta Botanical Gardens) mixture which is the standard for vivarium soil.


A few odds and ends to wrap up tonight then the animals go in tomorrow

 

[frankpayne32]

Done!

Finally finished!



So glad to have my "lizard room" back.







The one thing I haven't shown so far was the add on baby cage which I mounted on the side of the system I built. I didn't build this cage, I purchased it from PM Herps. These are the best small cages I've seen yet for raising small lizards. It's not drilled for misting/drainage yet but it will be eventually. Right now it houses two baby panthers that I hatched and one male Lygodactlys williamsi.

 

[frankpayne32]

Pictures of the residents

Male Kinyongia matschiei


Male Abronia graminea


Baby Acanthosaura capra




Female Furcifer campani


Male Furcifer campani


That's it for now. I will post more pics as I tweek things. Thanks for everyone that has been following!

 

[Chaka]

Wow man round of applause, looks really nice! Then end result turned out great. I also like your coffee table lol. What's being housed in there?

 

[streetmike84]

Absolutely brilliant wish I had a reptile room mine are just dotted around are flat

 

[frankpayne32]

Wow man round of applause, looks really nice! Then end result turned out great. I also like your coffee table lol. What's being housed in there?

Thanks! It's not perfect but I'm happy with it. Believe it or not, a 21 year old blue tongue skink! He was my first pet, I got him 19 years ago and he was already two. I used to breed a lot of blue tongues but I got out of it. I could never get rid of him though.

Absolutely brilliant wish I had a reptile room mine are just dotted around are flat

Thanks! That's how mine was for a LONG time.

 

[kdc5019]

Sweet man! You will love working with the campani!

 

[BriAlme]

Wow! Great job. Very clean and professional looking.
It's amazing the lengths we'll go to accommodate our hobby.
I hope to do something similar one day.