DIY naturalistic laybox/moist hide
I've been telling myself to make a naturalistic laybox for my hopeful upcoming season of breeding crested geckos. I procrasticnated a long time on it and took even longer to finish it. It wasn't hard to do, but I just decided to take FOREVER to complete it. I just made the final touches on it today now all I have to do is let it cure from all the chemical smells for around a week, add some peat moss/vermiculite mix, and put it in the Exo-Terra and it will be good to go!
Without further ado, here is the step by step processes on how I did it. Enjoy!
Purchase a plastic food container of your choice.
Hot glue on pieces of styrofoam to give it structure and rock-like shapes.
I used a Dremel tool to cut away even more texture in order to give it a realistic look, but you can use anything to chip away at it, even your fingers. I also used the dremel tool to cut out holes to glue in magnets in order to keep the lid on (pictures later).
Next I filled in all the gaps with a cheap joint compound (like you would use to fill in holes in drywall). I waited for it to dry and then added on 3 coats of grout. Every coat I made thicker. I had colored stuff laying around, but you can use any type of grout.
I decided to use spray paint on this project because it was cheaper and easier than trying to paint multiple coats. I only used one coat and then touched up spots that needed it after it dried. I also had some Krylon "Make it Stone" spray paint lying around that I sprayed a quick coat on just to give it some more "life."
When the paint was done drying I put on 3 coats of Minwax Polycrylic water based sealer. I have used this product on multiple different DIY "fake rock" projects and have been very pleased with the outcome. The only down fall is it makes it look a little bit shiny when done. I haven't found anything that is satin finished that also acts as a sealant.
I then hot glued the magnets into the holes.
Here is the finished product, I really like the way it turned out!
On top of it being a laybox the gecko has a little space to hide under that I believe will be used often.
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