My first cage build.

[NorCalAnthony]

Hello Everyone,

Well I've been wanting to get back in to chams ever since I got out of the military and have finally talked my wife in to letting me get one lol. I haven't bought one yet (been waiting until the cage is finished) but I plan on getting a young ambilobe panther in the next week or two depending on how our money situation goes. Anywho I've got some free time while I recover from a work injury and have been working on my first cage build in my spare time over the last week or so. I think I finally have enough done on it to show you guys my progress and how it's looking and hopefully get some input as this is my first time building one of these and want to make sure I'm doing everything right.

I should start off by saying that I have a bad habit of over-building things to an almost bomb proof level so this cage is definitely built way tougher than it needed to be. I also wanted the cage to look more like a piece of furniture than some of the flimsy DIY cages you see around. It's made of 1"x2" red oak and is about 2'W x 1'D x 2'T and has two doors that open in the front and another across the bottom to allow for cleaning and the removal of the drip tray.



I went with a dark cherry wood stain and then laid three coats of polyurethane sealer to make sure the wood would be thoroughly protected from all the moisture of the mist and drip system.



I used charcoal aluminum screen and have it held in place with the corner braces and 1/4' staples but also used some exterior door/window caulking to seal the screen to the wood and to also cover up some of the fraying edges from the window screen.



All of the metal parts (brackets, braces, staples, etc) were covered up with exterior spray paint since I heard the zinc in them can be poisonous to our chams.

 

[MATT2504]

Love d.i.y cages, I'm designing my own at the moment

 

[NorCalAnthony]

Continued...

Here I am working on putting it all together.



And here's what it looks like so far.



Pretty much all I have to do now is attach the bottom and then finish sealing and painting that part but I'm waiting to do that until I finish making my fake rock background which I'm going to start once I finish uploading the pics on here. It's not perfect but for my first cage build (and my first woodworking project for that matter) I'm pretty stoked with how it's turning out.

Please let me know what you think so far and if there's anything that you guys think that I missed. If you guys have any questions about how I did something or what products I used feel free to ask.

 

[NorCalAnthony]

Love d.i.y cages, I'm designing my own at the moment

I know what you mean. I'm really enjoying building this one. Be sure to post some pics of yours once you get going and good luck!

 

[reptilover]

Dude its awsome! It looks beautiful! Seriously though u are aware that's gonna work till he's like 4 months old.
I don't wanna be negative cause it is a gorgeous cage u have built there!

 

[DanSB]

Very nice. I like the stain you chose as well as the design I think it looks really classy and thought out.

Can't wait to see it all finished!

 

[NorCalAnthony]

Dude its awsome! It looks beautiful! Seriously though u are aware that's gonna work till he's like 4 months old.
I don't wanna be negative cause it is a gorgeous cage u have built there!

Yeah I'm hoping for a little longer than that though lol. I was going to go the easy way and just build a big 3'W x 2'D x 4'H cage to start off with but I plan on buying a little guy and was afraid of the problems some chams have when going from their little pet store or breeder cage to a massive enclosure like that so I decided to build this one first. Plus I have a couple of family memers that now want a cham so I might cut them a deal on this cage when it's time to move mine into a bigger one. Thanks for the compliments, I'm pretty happy with the way it's turning out.

Very nice. I like the stain you chose as well as the design I think it looks really classy and thought out.

Can't wait to see it all finished!

Thanks DanSB. I looked at a few cages online and tried to do something similar (but with my own spin on things of course) and then tried to get a stain that would match our furniture.

I'll keep the pics coming as I get more done on it. I started the fake rock background today but didn't get that far and tomorrow I'm going to go to my brother-in-law's hydroponics store (kinda near you in Lodi) and play around with some pumps to figure out which ones will work best for a drip and mist system.

 

[NorCalAnthony]

Got some more done...

So my progress slowed down quite a bit since I started my new job this last week but I was able to mostly finish making my fake rock background today.


First you'll want to cut a piece of styrofoam to whatever size background you want to make. Be sure to test fit it in your cage to make sure that it will actually fit past whatever size opening you're working with before you start in case you have to make any adjustments. Then start cutting out or breaking up pieces and glue them to your background to start making your rock extrusions. Try not to make traditional shapes or a lot of pieces that look too similar to add to the natural look.



I wanted to incorporate a plant area in my rock wall so I bought some cheapy Rubbermaid food containers, cut off the back lip, and bolted them to a piece of 1/4" plywood that I glued to the back of my styrofoam background. I also cut out an outline of the container in the styrofoam so that I could recess it in and try to save on space as much as I could. I then used tub/tile caulking to seal the containers in and coat the bolts to prevent any leaks or corrosion. My original idea was to make the planters out of the styrofoam but I'm using 1/2" sheets and the background wound up being a little over 6" thick and my cage is a little less than 12" so that idea got scratched lol.



After I had the containers in there I finished building up the rock layers and extruding chunks. Once they're all on there and the glue is dry you can start picking at the edges to get rid of all the harsh corners/edges. Next you can start picking at the flat areas to give it some more texture. If you've ever seen styrofoam break apart you'll know what I mean by "texture" lol. Be warned though, this part is MESSY. I just cleared out a section of my garage to work in and kept a shop vac on standby for when I was done so I didn't track the "snow" all over the place lol.



Once I had everything all roughed up I took the shop vac to the background and made sure there wasn't any snow anywhere on it or in the work area where it might get blown onto my project. Then I squirted tub/tile caulking (water proof and paintable) around the upper section and used my fingers (in a latex glove) to smear the caulking over every nook and cranny including the edges where the styrofoam and plywood meet to make sure there weren't any gaps in protection. Once I finished that section I moved a little ways down, finished that section, and then moved on to the next one that way I wasn't leaning over any wet caulk and getting it on my clothes. Doing this will thoroughly seal the styrofoam from any water/moisture and also make it to where you can paint it (if you don't the spray paint will dissolve the styrofoam).



Next up I used a cheaper black paint/primer to make sure I had a good base layer before switching to the expensive stone textured paint. Using the black for the base layer also gives you the option of doing a thinner layer over the low spots to add a little depth.

 

[NorCalAnthony]

...

Once the black base layer had a chance to dry I started using the gray stone textured paint on the whole front trying to spray lighter over the low spots to keep the contrast. Once the gray stone paint was on there I used a little of the brown textured paint to add a little more earthy look to it, just be sure to hold it further away so that it lightly mists the back ground. Here's how it turned out:



And here's a shot from the top so you can see the planter boxes and edges a little better. And yes I did drill three drain holes in each planter to allow the excess water to escape. The way the containers are bolted on with the slanted sides flush against the background it forces the water to settle towards the front where I drilled the holes so the water should drip from there without trickling down the wall.



Here's all the materials I used in case anyone is thinking about doing this themselves. I didn't picture the styrofoam but I bought a 1/2" x 4' x 8' sheet from Lowes for I think $6 since Michaels wanted $8 for a 1/2" x 2' x 2'...


Tomorrow, once everything has had plenty of time to dry, I will put on a couple of coats of the multi-surface sealant to make sure the whole background is sealed and protected. It's 100% acrylic and 100% water proof and since it's made for exterior decks, concrete, etc it should hold up great for this application.

This was my first time doing anything like this but I'm really happy with how it turned out. When I was looking at backgrounds online I found 12" x 24" backgrounds for $15-20/each (I'd have needed two) and this one cost me around $40 in materials and a few hours of my time but it is more original and has a couple of places to add plants. It was really easy but it was also fairly time consuming and requires that you let some of the stuff sit and dry over-night before you can move on to the next step but I'd definitely recommend this to anyone that likes to make things themselves.

 

[mrfixit01]

Hey, I really liked the black wall until I saw the sand-flecked one. Very same spray I used on mine. You did a much more artistic job than mine, LOL! Great ideas for the next project.

 

[robcam]

I like it. Its coming along great. I wish i would have taken the time for a rockwall too.

How is that tray going to work for you?

 

[NorCalAnthony]

Hey, I really liked the black wall until I saw the sand-flecked one. Very same spray I used on mine. You did a much more artistic job than mine, LOL! Great ideas for the next project.

Thanks I'm pretty happy with how it turned out for my first attempt at one of these.

 

[maxttu]

Looks great, bro! Can't wait to see it finished!!

 

[NorCalAnthony]

I like it. Its coming along great. I wish i would have taken the time for a rockwall too.

How is that tray going to work for you?

The tray looks great and so far it looks like it's going to fit perfectly. Thanks again for making it for me.

I have to apply a couple more coats of sealer to the rock wall before I can put it in and reattach the bottom for final assembly. I'll update this build thread again once I get all that done and put my plants in.

 

[IronHulk]

Nice Job !

 

[NorCalAnthony]

Got some more done...

So I had some spare time to work on the cage again and am almost finished...


I got the a satin nickle sash lock to work with the magnetic catch that I already installed. Looks nicer than a hook and loop style lock and gets the job done lol.



Here's a shot of the the inside with the drip tray that robcham made for me and the fake rock background that I built now installed. You can also see the two square bars going across the middle that I installed above the drip tray to I can add potted plants while still being able to slide out the drip tray for cleaning.



I added some adhesive foam weather stripping around the opening to fill in the small gap caused by my not using flush mount hinges.



Here's a shot of my drip pan with my drainage plan.



I cut one of the tips off of a 1/4" double barbed drip line connector so that I would have something to counter sink in to the drip pan and add some strength when I glued it in. Now that it's installed all I have to do is connect a 1/4" hose that will dump into a container to get rid of the excess water.

 

[robcam]

Wow im liking it. Looking better everytime i really like the bars you got going across the enclosure. I might have to add something like those bars in my enclosure also, thats a brilliant idea.

 

[DanSB]

Anthony, this is looking great. I love all the details and thought that went into this. I'm sur you've read how I feel about rock walls, yours looks fantastic in there. They are really difficult to do so they don't look silly in a cham cage but I think you pulled it off.

Rob, Your drainage trays are fantastic. If you can build them fast and cheap enough I'm sure more than a few of us on here would love to buy them. Have you seen the pre-formed flimsy substrate trays available? I'd much rather buy one like yours!

 

[NorCalAnthony]

Wow im liking it. Looking better everytime i really like the bars you got going across the enclosure. I might have to add something like those bars in my enclosure also, thats a brilliant idea.

Thanks they're actually 3/4" aluminum C-channels that you would use to protect the edge of a plywood board. I just picked them out because they were cheaper and lighter than steel square stock lol. I cut a couple of pieces of wood that I had left over and notched them so that the bars would be supported on each side. I'm sure that someone with the proper tools could have made it look a lot better but hey it's simple, light weight, and cheap.

Anthony, this is looking great. I love all the details and thought that went into this. I'm sur you've read how I feel about rock walls, yours looks fantastic in there. They are really difficult to do so they don't look silly in a cham cage but I think you pulled it off.

Rob, Your drainage trays are fantastic. If you can build them fast and cheap enough I'm sure more than a few of us on here would love to buy them. Have you seen the pre-formed flimsy substrate trays available? I'd much rather buy one like yours!

Thanks Dan. This was my first attempt at making a cage or a rock wall so the compliments are much appreciated. I'm definitely happy with how this is turning out and am already looking forward to making the bigger-better adult size cage once my future cham is big enough.


I'm hoping to get the plants put in tomorrow and then I can start playing with the water and lighting systems and get them dialed in and ready to go. Hopefully if everything goes as planned I might even be able to get a cham from one of the local breeders this weekend

 

[mrfixit01]

Anthony, I'm so thrilled with the way your cage, and especially that great rock wall, turned out. I think we both learned a lot doing our respective builds and watching each other's progress. Thanks for the inspiration! (Mine is set up and running as of noon today and our 'boy' was shipped out at 1:45 pm. We're watching the cycling of the lights and sprinklers today.) Want to see yours when you have it up and running too. Thanks for sharing a great project.