Enclosure Start to Finish PICS

[ericzerka24]

Cage I put together for my brother's Uromastyx. Enjoy!

Here is all the pieces made individually










Here is all the pieces put together. The tile helps to trap heat


Here is all the pieces grouted into place






And The Finished Product!

[PghBall]

Cage I put together for my brother's Uromastyx. Enjoy!

Here is all the pieces made individually










Here is all the pieces put together. The tile helps to trap heat


Here is all the pieces grouted into place






And The Finished Product!

I like it, very innovative!

[llovelace]

Cool

[RideRed12]

Could you possible do a quick DYI for this?

[ericzerka24]

Materials:
1.) Sheet of Styrofoam
2.) Liquid Nails
3.) Non-sanded Grout
4.) Acrylic Paint (what ever color you want the grout to be)
5.) Modge Podge
6.) Knife
7.) Spray Bottle
8.) Fine Grain Sand
9.) Paint Stir Stick
10.) Paint Brush
11.) Sponge

Basically what you are going to do is take the styrofoam and cut a piece that fits for your background. Then you make ledges that you want throught the enclosure. I did it in a couple different pieces so that I could get it in and out more easily when I was working on it. Use the paint stir stick to carve out the styrofoam into the shape that you would like. Once you have all the pieces where you want them it is time to put in the piece of tile.

At this point you should have everything ready to be grouted. Take your non-sanded grout and mix it with water and whatever color acrylic paint that you want. Use the paint brush to layer on coats of grout. Once all the pieces have a couple layers, put it all together inside the enclosure and use the liquid nails to attach all the pieces.
**The reason that you have to grout it before you glue it together is because you wont be able to get to some of the sides. You don't want to see bare styrofoam.

After it is all glued into place, put another layer of grout over all the glued pieces so that everything is hidden. You can also get creative and add lighter and darker colors throughout the rock making it more realistic.

Once everything is grouted, it is time to seal it. I used modge podge which can be bought at any hobby lobby type of store. It is a non-toxic sealant that is used for gluing puzzles together. (I believe it came in a white bottle and had a pink label.) Fill up your spay bottle with water and a little modge podge. Spray light coats over the grout and use the sponge to dab it around. Squeeze the sponge over the rock and keep dabbing it up. (It will have a bubble look to it at first but disappears quickly.)

Now it is time to add sand. Take the spray bottle and put a thin layer of modge podge over the entire structure and sprinkle sand over it. I did it in layers and sprinkled very little bits at a time just enough to give it some texture. If you have a spot where you accidently put too much, just blow some of it off.

Hope that helps

[ericzerka24]

You can also do something similar to this with snake enclosures. There is no need for the grout though because snakes don't have claws and won't destroy the styrofoam. In a snake enclosure, all you need to do is put it all together the way you want it with liquid nails and then seal it with a laytex paint of any color.
Here is an example of my Boa cage:

These pics are with flash










These pics are without flash

[adurbin]

That is really cool!!

[steveboos]

I'm liking that ALOT!!! Great job!!

[m00kfu]

Can't believe I missed this thread before, nice work! Big fan of naturalistic looking enclosures.

[Brie]

The Styrofoam would act as an insulator as well, right? I would love to do something like this for my bp display tank.