Cage insulation, aka velcro snake blanket

[Coluber42]

Now that it's getting cold out and the living room is getting cold too, my new enclosure has been having a harder time keeping the temps where they should be, especially in the corners and edges. It actually has been mostly OK, but better insulation helps keep the temperatures more even without those cold corners, and requires less wattage to do it. So I made insulating covers for the top, back, and sides with a short curtain over the front that should at least trap some of the warm air that escapes through the sliding doors up top.



The top cover is canvas on top and fleece underneath, encasing a piece of 1/4" foam. The side panels are canvas on both sides with two layers of fleece in between, and are held in place with velcro. The back is also canvas, fleece, and foam and held on with velcro. For the velcro panels, I used adhesive velcro on the sides of the cage and sew-on velcro on the insulation panels.

Underneath the side panels are the ventilation holes, which have sliding styrene panels over them in order to cover and uncover them as needed to increase or reduce ventilation/humidity:



The insulation panels can be partially "peeled" away to expose these, or they can be removed entirely.

The entire enclosure is also sitting on top of a piece of foam, which I think should insulate the bottom of it a little better. So far, it seems to be working very well - the RHP is running noticeably less, at least.

One change I might possibly make is that I might make a full-length curtain for the front instead of the little short one, that we can just roll up when we don't need it. That might also be good for when we have guests staying in the living room and there's more commotion and lights on late at night than usual. And we could close it during the day, when the thermostat in the house is set to its lowest. But I might be too lazy, since I don't think it's strictly necessary.

[paulh]

Cool project!

[piedlover79]

Fancy!!

[jmcrook]

That looks awesome! Might have to rip you off and outfit my cages with something like that come cold season.

[Sallos]

That looks awesome! Might have to rip you off and outfit my cages with something like that come cold season.

Same!

[Snake gurl]

I used cork on three sides of my tank. Comes in 12x12 squares for making DIY cork boards. It improved my temps nicely and cost less then $10. And the dark cork gives it a more natural look inside the tank.

[Coluber42]

I bet the cork looks nice, I'd love to see pictures!
In this case, the fabric was all stuff I had left over from other projects - the canvas from a bunch of seat cushions I made awhile ago. The fleece I got at the discount fabric store for cheap for doing stuff like this with. The foam was from awhile ago when I accidentally ordered the wrong kind for something else. Since I sew for work, I have a cutting table and industrial sewing machines that make stuff like this really easy and quick.
As you can see, I'm not really going for a natural looking enclosure - I designed the rest of it around having good enrichment opportunities, being easy to clean and change around, to maximize the available space, and to make the most efficient use of the heating equipment. It doesn't look like an indoor garden, but it looks OK in the living room.