My ghetto set ups....

[herpluva]

How do you get a set up to work well and not look like an eye sore. Any suggestions?
Also my juvenile veiled male is constantly on the move in his reptarium. Is this normal or is he needing a bigger reptarium?
Here are some pics of my ghetto set ups.lol
This is Tarzan my 4month old male veiled chams set up... It is a reptarium on top of a night stand that I had a hole cut in the top of the wood to drain his cage and it drips in that blue bucket. I have the reptarium sitting on a purple lid to a rubbermaid container that has a hole cut in it too. This keeps the wood from getting wet. I have a humidifier propped up on a stool close to his cage to keep humidity going at all times with air flow. He hangs out in front of it the most. It is hard as he## getting his humidity to keep. I clipped a towel on the side to spray and keep wet because that helps the humidity also. It works but it sure is ugly.

This is T-Rex my panthers set up.. not quite as bad looking same functions as the other one but on a different stand. His humidity holds at about 82% without a humidifier. I think it may be because his cage is so high?? I have a small fan that blows in the bottom of his cage and keeps his temps perfect but still this is a ugly set up too...

Any ideas on how to get the same effect without the ghetto fabulous look
Is this the best way?

 

[royden]

ha!
Well I have a theory about keeping animals like this - their setup should only reflect, or enhance the beauty of the animal itself. Reptiles are kind of living ornaments; they look pretty just sitting their in your room. It's because of this theory that I don't keep my praying mantis's in mantis nets or critter cages. I keep them in wrought iron plant terrariums.

I've had a lot of success keeping my cage recessed into the closet. It allows me to hide all the 'behind the scenes' stuff that can make your cage look 'ghetto'. What you need is big cabinet or shelving unit, at least a dresser with cabinets below, so you can hide all the drainage and stuff.

If you're ina major city look up 'reptile' or 'lizard' on craigslsit and you'll find all sorts of junk for cheap that can help you de-ghettify your setup.

Also look into http://www.tapplastics.com/ . They have a great supply of things you never know you needed. They might have a store near you. I bought a 50" square sheet of clear plastic off of them to shield two of the four sides of my cage. So they remain clear but they block water that's sprayed and hold it there to keep the humidity up, or they drain the moisture down to the tray below.

I'll post pics of my setup sometime but I may already have some in my gallery that give you an idea.

Also, someone may correct me on this but I don't belive you have to keep the humidity constant, it's ok if there's a fluctation between hours. My veiled get's sprayed twice a day where his humidity shoots up as high as 90% and then drops down to the 40's or 30's inbetween. Are you using a thermometer/hyrdometer? Even the digital cheap ones will show you the highs and lows for the day. A humidifier, plus spraying, plus the towel there? seems like overkill, unless you live in the desert. But even then..

Hope that helps you.

 

[herpluva]

Ha Ha, I know it is over kill but that is the only way to keep his cage with 40% humidity. It stays up for an hour when I spray but then it drops down to like 35-40 and that is with all this crap.
Thanks for the tips. I like the idea of a dresser or I may hit home depot and build something sorta like a dresser to hide all this behind. I like the idea of plastic on one side.
Thanks...

 

[royden]

Also some people here that use humidifiers usually hide them away some where and then run a pvc pipe into the cage.

 

[ChameleonsTree]

Solutions have a way of evolving because we all go to homedepot and spot new things that will work.

 

[lonomac]

I'd suggest building your own stands. I went through Hell trying to find something decent also for my two cages, I ended up building a decent wood stand 48x24x2, exactly enough for 2 24x48 cages. The bottom holds the buckets and the misting pump, Ill be building doors to hide them this weekend so you wont even know they're there. It really made a difference. I also put the basking lights in the back as opposed to the front then ran the cords along the top so they weren't visible

 

[herpluva]

Can you post some pictures please!! Thanks guys.

 

[dj special k]

Hey, I was curious at how you get the water at the bottom of your cage to drain? I have a 2 foot by 2 foot flat surface at the bottom and I want to drill as least amount of holes as i can. I can drill holes at a few evenly spaced areas of the bottom, but that kind of makes it difficult because i would have to find or create a container a little wider than 2'x2'. How did you get it to drain in one spot on the bottom? Is your floor not flat like mine?

 

[herpluva]

Oops, Duh- SORRY,,,

 

[lonomac]

Hey, I was curious at how you get the water at the bottom of your cage to drain? I have a 2 foot by 2 foot flat surface at the bottom and I want to drill as least amount of holes as i can. I can drill holes at a few evenly spaced areas of the bottom, but that kind of makes it difficult because i would have to find or create a container a little wider than 2'x2'. How did you get it to drain in one spot on the bottom? Is your floor not flat like mine?

Ill post some pics later, im at work now so....

But basically I bought a 2 1/2 inch drill bit, drilled a 2 1/2 inch hole through the PVC bottom in the center of the cage and through the table top. I also bought a cheap $2 screen drain filter at Home Depot to put in the hole to catch leaves etc. When the water goes through the hole, I have a funnel like you would use for putting oil in your car. Its hanging under the table with two little chains. The water then just runs into the funnel, then to a 5 gal bucket. Before doing all of this, you should seal the edges with caulking as there will be a little standing water that will seep out if you don't.

 

[bg77]

I found metal frame w/wood shelving from Lowe's that was 24in deep 48 in long for $80.00 I beleive. I was able to make 2 of these tables to fit 4 24x24x48 cages with a shelve in the middle for my drip bucket and other stuff. Very easy to set it up. Much easier than building.

 

[herpluva]

Post a picture if you can. I am open for all ideas!

 

[dj special k]

Thanks a whole lot. Good luck with your cage. i'm in the process of renovating my cage...