Watercolor Paint in an enclosure

[alxanders]

I'm trying to make some LED mushrooms to use in my enclosure. Part of having a red colored mushrooms (something to illuminate the tank at night) is using watercolor paint. So would that be safe for my snake?

[jmcrook]

I wouldn't do it. Watercolor will never be totally permanent unless it's on an absorbent surface, which aside from substrate and climbing branches, should not be in a snakes enclosure. If it gets wet it will run and get into things including possibly your snake. Why don't you use red LEDs?


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[alxanders]

See the plan is to use aquarium silicone and color it along with red LEDs.
Perhaps I should do a test run (without the snake) and see how well it does without running.

[cayley]

The watercolour is going to be mixed into the silicone if I'm correct, before the silicone even sets. If you're really nervous about running you should be able to use acrylic instead, simply water down the acrylic and it will have the same drippy texture. I don't believe that the colour would run. I would be more afraid of the pigments themselves, you need to be careful about which you use as some are toxic. Also if you've never wired lighting before and that everything is safe and the snake can't touch it. DIY lighting sounds spooky to me IMHO but I don't know your background (although I DO know about paint ).

EDIT: I have my snake's hide painted with (non-toxic) acrylic super duper bright hot pink and I've had no issues. The latex also sets itself and doesn't require further sealing so imho it's a good idea for animal stuff.

[alxanders]

Thank you for your help! I think I should try some acrylic paint. Any suggestions on brands you've used that are non toxic?

[Paty]

I'm about to give table top epoxy a try for sealing things. My understanding is that it's pretty durable and could probably go over anything and seal it so that it's safe. I'm gonna try to "paint" it on my foam background and the huts I've made.