An introduction and my enclosure build.

[orphan]

I'm new to snake ownership, but one of my best friends is a breeder of balls and burms. Well, we got drunk one night and he talked me into tearing out my fireplace and building a snake enclosure. I'm a better carpenter than I am a photographer so bear with the crappy cell pics.

Here's the corner fireplace that hasn't been used in 10 years devoid of all the trimwork.


All the trim will be saved and reused.




The breeder, Rome-e-rome standing in the future location of the cage.


Wall framed up and the sides and roof installed. That's me inside there and I'm 5'10"

[blackcrystal22]

What type of snake do you plan on putting in that?

Something Arboreal?

[orphan]

There will be a raised floor in the front and a pool area in the corner of the cage. Here's the door to access all the electrical equipment that will hide under the raised floor.


Raised floor installed and some of the sheetrock back in place, it's starting to come together


Here's why we kept the molding.


Openings trimmed out.


Pool area sloped, and scrap pieces of MDF screwed down to create a fake rock pattern around the paremeter of the pool.

[orphan]

There will be a waterfall in the rear corner to keep the water from stagnating and for asthetic reasons. After the basic shapes were roughed out they were covered in fiberglass.


front doors hung.


filler glass installed


Rome-e-rome made the doors. They have the 1/4" glass installed.


Close up of the "rocks".

[orphan]

light setup from the top


all the doors hung


pump for the waterfall installed


where the electrical cord disappears.


foil laid down because I don't want the next round of fiberglass to stick

[orphan]

Green florist's foam cut into random shapes, glued onto the foil, and fiberglassed over. I'm using this piece as a cover for the pump/hose/electrical cord and also for asthetics.


The trim mold was pulled off and excess fiberglass trimmed off. Time for a test fit.


The pool area ended up receiving 3 to 4 layers of 3/4 oz chopped strand fiberglass mat to seal the mdf as well as make it watertight for the pool. The raised floor and fake rock areas got 3 layers of glass, and I painted the walls and roof with 2 coats of resin to seal the wood.

This is the first coat of paint on the inside.

[orphan]

What type of snake do you plan on putting in that?

Something Arboreal?

Right now its going to be a baby albino burmese. Eventually I may put a GTB in there and make a vivarium out of it. I figured if I'm building a custom cage, I might as well make it multi-purpose.

[Mitch21]

That's totally awesome! Good job with all that and good luck with the future snakes!!

[orphan]

I'm off to put the second layer of sealer primer on the inside.

p.s. does anyone know how to make realistic looking tree branches for the interior that will support a good bit of weight. I've googled the heck out of it and can't find an answer. I may end up just figuring it out. I'll post build pics if I do.

[Mitch21]

This would be a very painstaking process, but you could get PVC tubing, and little by little attach ripped apart Styrofoam to the pipe for the texture. Then add paint for color. Then seal. There's some awesome videos on Youtube that deal with making environments with styrofoam, so all you'd have to do is adapt it to a PVC pipe.

Maybe someone else will give ya less laborious work to make branches!