DIY Vertical Terrarium Conversions

I'm slowly dealing with the annoyances of my pets. I have three not particularly tame (one actually bites, and the other two flee in terror) male crested geckos. They've been in 20 gallon high aquariums with screen lids for a few years. The downsides of this setup are numerous, but the worst is any time I open the cage if startled they rocket to the top and I have to close the lid to keep them in, and wait for them to calm back down before I can do anything. This means I don't feed or clean as often as I should because it's a pain.

A few months ago I thought why not flip the aquariums on their sides and make the top the front. This was partially caused by picking up some Exo-terra terrariums on clearance and loving the front opening aspect, meaning I can leave a heat lamp on the top but still feed or clean. The Kenyan sand boa is so much easier to deal with when I don't have to take off the lamp, pull at the cage locks, then look for the snake. Same with the leopard gecko. So I had the flipping idea and looked around. Plenty of other people had done it, notably dart frog owners and breeders. They'd silicone a small piece of glass to the bottom edge of the new opening, use an aquarium lid hinge to attach it to another piece of glass that acted as a door. the very top would have a custom screen for air exchange. There were even companies that made kits. Kits were about $25 maybe per set of two pieces of glass hinges and a screen. I had to purchase the frame pieces for the screen, and had a glass shop cut the glass (Awesome experience with Ace Glass.) Turns out I had all the other parts. I had some silicone, took apart two aquarium hoods for the hinges, and had just enough screen left to make these small screens.

I used 6 inch tall glass for the bottom and 13 inch for the top, width depends on your specific tank. Of the three tanks I used one was very slightly smaller. I bought unfinished glass (it's cheaper) so did have to sand the edges at home with a sanding sponge. I also bought a glass cutter so might just cut my own glass next time if I can find 1/8" thick, all the local stores sell 3/32" which is just slightly too thin. And at $5.00 or so a piece for the largest pieces I didn't see much point it buying a large piece just to test how bad I am at cutting glass.

Some links I used as inspiration.

• Making PDF Tank vertical tank 3D Background
• 20 gallon vertical conversion live terrarium
• diy 10 gallon vertical vivarium
• 10 gallon vertical dart frog terrarium construction

Note: this conversion only works for animals that do not require UVB, mostly floor or nocturnal dwellers from very heavy rainforests, if your animal requires UVB the top of your cage needs to be mesh to let the light through.

Back from Break

I took a little break for my birthday and to tidy up the house and yard. All the tomato plants in the yard are out as blight finally took hold. The soaker hoses have been pulled, and I emptied all the water barrels yesterday. I re potted all my African violets and ended up with 10 extra plants. I have to try a third time for cuttings of most of the coleus, but a few have prospered. I re potted plenty of outside plants as well, and figured out what would spend the winter where. I've shuffled a few reptiles around, and started buying more fish for my one fish tank. I'm building up the groups again of the single fish I have left, some are 5 or 6 years old now.

I lied

I did go outside, but didn't bring a camera. That leaves you with more reptile pictures. Here's my bitey crested gecko who recently got downgraded to a 10 gallon tank due to space constraints in the room. On a positive note, I just passed 40,000 words.

NaNoWriMo Word Count:

40026 / 50000
(80.05%)

Spike

I promise I'll go outside this weekend, as soon as I finish my writing.

NaNoWriMo Word Count:

34024 / 50000
(68.05%)

Crested Gecko

She set herself up so nicely. Too bad I didn't have the better flash on hand. The in camera flash sets off pre-flashes which get crested gecko eyes down to slits.

NaNoWriMo Word Count:

32044 / 50000
(64.09%)

Leopard Gecko

This is a randomly selected image chosen by closing my eyes and clicking a few times. (Okay, I randomly selected two pictures before this, and neither were in focus, so this is really number 3.) Meet Spike both my oldest critter, and the first reptile I ever brought home. He's survived all my beginner screw ups quite well.

NaNoWriMo Word Count:

18040 / 50000
(36.08%)

Reptile Room

The critters are just about all organized the way I want.  The corn snake cage now has heat installed, and the other cages are almost all off the floor. There is only one cage on the desk in there, and I'm done enough to start writing in that nice warm room. Of course I still have some goals in the room. The bigger ball python will eventually get a cage like the new corn snake one, and the smaller one will hopefully be re homed soon. She's back to a good weight and health from when I picked her up, so I'm happy to pass her on to a new owner. I have two crested geckos I will likely try to re home, an older male who hates handling and other geckos, and a young female that I ended up with hoping for a male who also isn't in to handling. I'm keeping cages to upgrade the few critters not quite big enough for their adult cages as well.

Finished Corn Snake Cage

The cage. It's mostly based on a plan I found here. I used melamine along with a piece of 1 x 4 and two conveniently sized door from ikea. I have the tracks for sliding doors, but since I don't have the money to go get some glass cut right now the ikea doors were a better alternative, and still give me very large openings to work with. I still have to add a heat lamp, though with the room temps this is less of a concern then one would expect. I had an idea for one already, but discovered it isn't going to work and have to try again. I may just cut a hole in the top, cover it with screen and put an outside lamp on it since I'm no longer planning to stack the cages, and that solution would be basically free. I also need to add a side vent, but the one I had was too large for the space, and had gaps just slightly too large as well. I expect I'm going to make it out of wire instead of using something pre-made.

In the spring I'm also going to have to haul the cage outside and silicone all the joints. The corn snake is dry enough I hope he won't do too much damage to the melamine before i seal the edges. That central piece of 1 x 4 also will be painted to protect it from damage as well. The edges aren't perfectly square, but if I build another I'm borrowing a circular saw. A jigsaw isn't great at cutting straight for long distances.

Mind you all the pieces of this cage have been hanging around in different rooms of my house for months. I finally cut the back Tuesday and that led to finishing it. The walls, top and bottom had been together for months sitting in my reptile room taking up space.

And here is the slightly annoyed inhabitant. I need to add more decor and such as this was just what was in his old cage. The footprint is 49 x 24 giving the corns snake about 8 sq ft of space, almost doubling the 4 1/2 sq ft he had previously. Since he's about 5 feet long now, I felt awful keeping him in a 3 foot wide by 18 inch tank. The next snake to be upgraded is my older ball python who is in the same size cage, and is approaching the same length.

Crested Gecko

This is my no-name crested gecko. He just hit 7 years in my house. Too bad he still isn't a fan of being handled, and cleaning his cage sometimes gets you bitten. You'd think with being only a few inches long he wouldn't be so pugnacious. At least he's cute.

Daily Photo - Cleaning

This guy is lucky he's pretty. I did some much needed cage cleaning today and only got him out of his cage attached to my finger. He's been moody for a few years now, but most of the time he lets go. Good thing he can't break the skin. I was more worried about him tearing his teeth or hurting his jaw on my finger. And yes, I missed two days. I may or may not make them up. With the snow on the ground I haven't been taking too many photos. There may or ma not be some new stuff up tomorrow.

Daily Photo - Crested Gecko

My 7 year old male. I have no idea why I never named the crested geckos, but I haven't. This one may end up co-habitating with my adult female just to get her to stop laying unfertilized eggs. They do nothing but make moon eyes at each other anyway. I won't go out of my way to save the eggs, but I would like to stop finding them in her cage for no purpose. She's also bigger than him now so I don't expect much bullying. Waiting two years for one of the babies to grow up isn't really fair to her, though they are much prettier then my old male. I promise I'll get up tomorrow morning and brave the freezing cold for some good snow pics. Mom even gave me her snowshoes to use as mine are sitting in North Dakota.

Kenyan Sand Boas Rock

I really do feel these guys don't get enough credit as an excellent pet snake. Yes, they are largely invisible, but you really can't beat the temperament. Last week I went to feed him, and for the first time in the year I've owned him he tried to bite me. I took this a little hard, but he has tiny teeth, and I barely felt anything. This week when I went to feed I noticed he had shed stuck on his head. Whenever a snake has any stuck shed on their head there is a high likelihood of there also being retained eye caps. They can't see well through these caps and normally docile snakes begin striking out of fear.

I just spent ten minutes massaging water onto his head until the stuck shed peeled off. This snake which is the thickness of my thumb, and maybe 12" long didn't even flinch. It sat perfectly content to let me repeatedly pet its head with wet fingers. It did have eye caps and a piece of shed barely 1/2" long on the top of its head. I do handle this snake, but not that often, maybe once a week on average. It is a delightful snake, perfectly calm when removed from the cage, and small enough to handle with one hand. And that seems to be mostly just its own temperament.

It won't get too large, its heat can be provided by lamp or heat pad and it has an excellent temperament. They even come in a few different colors. I think some more people should give these guys a chance and give the ball pythons a break.

Daily Photo - Peaceable Kingdom

I declared Juicy out of quarantine 2 days ago. That meant I could move her tank upstairs to the nice warm rooms rather than the cooler living room. However I don't quite have a specific spot yet, so she's hanging out on my bedroom floor. I think my dog's might be getting too used to the other critters. Juicy is also in need of another bath as she shed for the second time in as many months on Monday, and I didn't catch it early enough to shift her onto coco fiber like I wanted, so she has some stuck shed again.

Daily Photo - Crested Gecko Diet

There are a few commercial diets available for crested geckos. The one I prefer is by Repashy. I'm not convinced that a complete diet really can come from a powder you mix with water, but all my crested geckos do like it, and I consider it higher quality that just mixing fruit baby food with supplements. My four all lap it up in between cricket feedings. I'm always impressed by the tongue that comes out of their mouths. Crested geckos have a round pad on the ends of their tongues that helps them lap up fruits and nectar.

Daily Photo - Mutual Fascination

Apparently Abby just figured out there is a snake in that cage in my bedroom. The corn snake seemed equally interested.

Daily Photo - Corn Snake in Blue

Daily Photo - Leopard Gecko

Spike likes his new cage a little too much. I almost never see him.

Daily Photo - Cave Again

My other creation with expanding foam. Last post is here. I had the same grout problem and am now layering it with paint. I'll be coating that in polycrylic, then spreading sand on the parts that are supposed to be rock to provide some grip and cut the awful shine. I've found the idea of using epoxy resin to coat instead of the polycrylic, but it has an awful shine as well. I think I just need to be more liberal with my sand application.

Daily Photo - Fake Tree 2

It looks better than the yellow torpedo I started with. It needs a few more spots covered with paint and a bunch more layers of polycrylic. At least it vaguely says tree now rather than whatever it was before. I already have tons of improvements I could do on another attempt. Step one only use Styrofoam, no expanding foam. The grout slides off the expanding foam, and paint does a bit as well, making it harder to cover.

Crested Gecko Babies

No more reptile shows for me... I went to the Massachusetts Reptile Expo this morning. These guys were $25 each, and are quite tiny. The top one is likely to be a harley with maybe some pinstriping and the bottom one was labeled red flame / harley. They should be gorgeous when full grown. By that point I'll also know if I ended up with males or not. The cheap price includes the fact they are un-sexable at this size.