Charlie's new home project

[chascarpenter1]

Here are some pics of a curio cabinet that I repurposed into a terrarium for my veiled, Charlie. This has been an extensive and exhausting project, but to highlight some of the features, the enclosure started out as a curio cabinet from Craig's list.

1. Sand and repaint. The inside was painted with low and no VOC paint.
2. Carve foam for faux rock background and affix pots for plants.
3. Drill out drainage and install watering and drainage tubing and pipe
4. Run wiring for lights ( exo terra dome and repzilla fluorescent)
3. Use GE II silicone to seal the inside
4. Use great stuff to make floor and coat cricket cup.
5. Carve floor and cricket cave
6. Cement floor, backing, and cricket cup
7. Water seal all cement
8. Paint faux rock, a time consuming process, and seal again
9. Install and seal all pieces
10. Test run, fix, test, fix.....

A lot of work was put into this and, like always, I learned a lot, made mistakes, but hopefully after the entire project has had ample time to cure and air out, I will be able to add plants and move Charlie to his new home.

 

[DavidBuchan]

Very impressive Mr. Carpenter ...........I love seeing all the professional looking terrariums people on this forum manage to make.....it sort of makes me feel inadequate......but also not, 'cos my wardrarium still works fine......
Looking forward to seeing it planted

 

[chascarpenter1]

I'm new at this chameleon thing, this forum and other people's project were instrumental. I made a lot of mistakes along the way, and may try another in the future.

 

[DavidBuchan]

I'm new at this chameleon thing, this forum and other people's project were instrumental. I made a lot of mistakes along the way, and may try another in the future.

Yh, I guess you could say I made mistakes.....but I didn't learn from them....
My list goes like
1. Pull door off
2. put lights in
3. push pin mesh round the big hole
4. add branches and stuff......VOILA - https://www.chameleonforums.com/mem...ms-couple-wardrarium-pics-picture16815-a.html

And then I did another one the same but smaller. https://www.chameleonforums.com/mem...ms-couple-wardrarium-pics-picture16814-a.html

I may have to do another in the future if I ever move out of my Dads house 'cos these will collapse if I try to move them lol

 

[chascarpenter1]

Does anyone have any advise to offer about, how long should I wait before moving Charlie into his new home?

 

[squeekz1992]

If you just finished it, I would wait 1-2 weeks to be on the super safe side. It allows time for the fumes of paints/sealants to dissipate

 

[squeekz1992]

Its beautiful btw!! Come make me one

 

[crocky]

Looking good. One thing I noticed is it looks like you have glass or plexi shield over your UVB light (noticed the suction cups for your mister, so I assume it is suctioned to the shield) If so you will want to take that off as the glass or plexi blocks UV rays.

 

[dom1959]

quite impressive!

 

[chascarpenter1]

The light is a repzilla and came like that, so I assumed that is good to go. Anyone else have any input?

 

[crocky]

My arcadia came like that too but Todd from light your reptiles, was very kind to remind me to take it off

Also just a thought, with your basking light inside I would make sure there is some type of guard over it for safety. A member here recently had her chams tongue get burnt by it sticking to the light bulb when he was trying to get a bug. He ended up losing almost his entire tongue from the burn.

I do love the enclosure though you did good work

 

[chascarpenter1]

The basking light is actually outside the enclosure. I wanted to have it all enclosed, but I couldn't think of a way have it in the enclosure without potential problems.

 

[chascarpenter1]

Charlie chasing some z's.

 

[chascarpenter1]

Charlie's first shed in his big boy home. Unfortunately, he hates the camera, but he is starting to get some big boy colors.

Est. 9-10 mo old