Lola's cage build

dshuld

Chameleon Enthusiast
:DI adopted Lola on June 28th from @curtm1985 with some help from @jannb (thank you both of you) and this has been a longer process then I originally planned on it being. Weekend weather held me up for the first couple of weeks and some spar urethane issues held me up for another week of this process. I'm hoping to have her setup and back in her home this coming weekend if everything goes well. I moved her out of her home this past Sunday to work on the cage portion after finally getting the base and stand set in place and planted that morning.

I didn't take many pictures for most of this process so I apologize for that. The stand is made of 2x4 and I have the height at 31.75". I made it the same way I've made my diy fish tank stands for years so it is more then capable of supporting the weight it is carrying. It is a design I think I found on "king of diy" way back when with a support piece between the upper and lower plates screwed to the backer that the top and bottom plates are screwed to. That way rather then the screws carrying the load the wood structure does all of the carrying.

The plant box is 1x12 boards and 23/32 plywood cut to fit the outside dimensions of the 30x18x30 exo terra she came with. Though I probably went way overboard on this step, it is sealed with three layers of epoxy paint, three layers of spar urethane inside and out and two layers of liquid flex seal inside. I drilled the hole for the 1/2" bulkhead being used for the drain before putting the epoxy paint and urethane on and then sealed every thing. Once those coats were on I sealed the bulkhead in with silicone and followed that up with the two coats of liquid flex seal. The outside of the box was then painted flat black.

This brings me to something that is still semi controversial, naturalistic hydration. I've had several pm's with @JacksJill bouncing ideas off her wonderful brain on how I wanted to do my entry point into all of my cages as I go along setting them all up this way. I don't recall if I brought up the low profile strainer to her but that is what I decided to go with. I went with 1.5" low profile strainers that will be mounted towards the top center of the enclosures. I plan on using ocean mist maker foggers in the long run but haven't gotten them in yet so for now it will be temporarily plumbed 1" at the cool mist humidifier side going into the 1.5" that will run up and into the enclosure since I do have a spare cool mist humidifier atm.

This past Sunday I took apart her exo terra and cut plastex panels to mount inside of the enclosure and then reassembled it. I cut the hole for the low profile strainer and siliconed the seams on the back wall and lower sides. Though I have read that krylon quit making fusion, Lowes still carries it in several colors so I grabbed some blue for the white walls/ black strainer.

I still have a lot of work to try and get through this week but I'm hopeful lol. I still have to put leaf litter in the box, assemble the fogger plumbing after sitting the cage on the plant box, run my rope/ vines, adjust the pothos that is on the bottom for ground cover once the cage is on top, get the lighting set up on the timers and probably some other miscellaneous stuff I'm forgetting about atm. I will be grabbing some willow branches from probably hobby lobby to add in with everything else. I may try some of the parks around but of the parks around me are mostly pine trees so not hopeful there lol. Here are some pics of the progress so far though I don't have one with the blue paint sprayed in though.
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I find my cage builds take longer than I expect them to take. I should just add an extra week to a month for (insert cursing here) events.
I like the look of your low profile strainer for this. It shouldn't restrict the flow at all. I may use it in the future. I would line it with screen to keep the bugs from escaping to drown in your humidifier.
Lola's a lucky girl.
I hope you post the finished project once she moves in.
 
Can’t wait to see the final product! And your hibiscus definitely look a lot better than mines right now lol. Love the Pothos filling in the bottom area too. Such a pretty, hardy plant.

Thanks! I was also looking at ferns to fill in the lower area but didn't see any that struck my fancy the day I was home depot grabbing the plant. I have a smaller pothos she came with yet to put in there too, unless I find a fern I like lol. But, it'll likely just be the pothos down there.
 
I find my cage builds take longer than I expect them to take. I should just add an extra week to a month for (insert cursing here) events.
I like the look of your low profile strainer for this. It shouldn't restrict the flow at all. I may use it in the future. I would line it with screen to keep the bugs from escaping to drown in your humidifier.
Lola's a lucky girl.
I hope you post the finished project once she moves in.

Thanks, I will. I'm going to try stainless mesh sink strainers first. If I can't get that to work I'll try stuffing screen through with a dowel rod and hope it stays put lol. I haven't looked around very hard for the right size strainer yet but something like this.
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I stuff in the aluminum screening and apply some gorilla glue in the drain covers I use in my drainage collection setups.
 
They are hibiscus rosa sinensis. The one flower open when I bought them was similar to this one. I'm hoping they both have the "fancier" flowers but i'm happy with the typical hibiscus flower too. The challenge will be if my lights are up to the task for them lol.
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Oh nice... i cant wait to do larger plants. Still have a juvenile so hes only in 20x20 36... im saving up for a house.. but im in NY... crazy expensive but id love an extra bedroom for my office and chameleon room... and have a free range attached to his enclosure.. possibilities are exciting lol
 
Oh nice... i cant wait to do larger plants. Still have a juvenile so hes only in 20x20 36... im saving up for a house.. but im in NY... crazy expensive but id love an extra bedroom for my office and chameleon room... and have a free range attached to his enclosure.. possibilities are exciting lol

Lol, that they are. It's almost as fun putting them together as it is watching them do their thing after you're done. I remember when I put blue's cage together having a cart full of plants with more hanging off the sides of the cart thinking that should be enough. I ended up with a second trip for more plants lol. Her cage is my first attempt at inside hibiscus though so it's gonna be interesting for me on that part.
 
Lol, that they are. It's almost as fun putting them together as it is watching them do their thing after you're done. I remember when I put blue's cage together having a cart full of plants with more hanging off the sides of the cart thinking that should be enough. I ended up with a second trip for more plants lol. Her cage is my first attempt at inside hibiscus though so it's gonna be interesting for me on that part.

OH! well good luck hopefully it grows well. Maybe some window sunlight will help it also?
 
OH! well good luck hopefully it grows well. Maybe some window sunlight will help it also?

Thanks, I've got three different light combinations to try as I go along with it. I've been playing with different combinations lately so I'm sure one variation will work out it's just a matter of which one now that I've got the hibiscus. Worst that'll happen is having to pull them and putting the scheffs I've been growing out in there.
 
Nice enclosure. I was just wondering the other day, how Lola was doing? My veileds love the hibiscus especially my females.
 
@JacksJill I ended up doing the aluminum screen. I'm going to leave it unglued though. I used a piece of 1 1/4 pipe to shove the screen in and give it a rough shape. Then cut the excess off and used a flat head to tuck it into the sides between the grates and the 1 1/2 opning to hold it in place. I did order 1 1/2 bulkheads but opted to not use them to save space behind the cage. I went with a threaded/ slip 90° elbow from the plumbing section instead.

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Nice enclosure. I was just wondering the other day, how Lola was doing? My veileds love the hibiscus especially my females.

She's doing well and has been very patient with me on doing her build the way I wanted lol. She still is a bit hesitant with me getting her out but didn't take long to warm up to my wife :(. On the plus side she doesn't try to rip my fingers off anymore when I do :ROFLMAO:.
 
I may have to change this layout as I weave around the hibiscus but with the hibiscus filling most of the cage I think this will work. I haven't gotten as far a long today as I wanted due to later then usual Amazon deliveries and taking my grandma to get her birthday present this morning :D. Since it's after their bedtime I wont be able to get it put on top tonight so thoughts on changes are welcome of course.

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