Ultimate cage build

[Turningdoc]

I'm preparing for some new Bradypodion and thought I'd share my cage build. I'm modifying some technqiues I learned from dart frog world. All is going great so far.

First I bought plastic corrugated sheet at Home Depot and fit some cork pieces to the area to make a treelike centerpiece and two planters

I then glued on with great stuff pond foam and let dry

A learning point here: I now wish I had painted the corrugated board w Krylon fusion spraypaint first. It would have made later steps easier.

 

[Turningdoc]

I then built a wheeled cart and top deck to fit a pair of 18x18x36 cages from a tool chest cabinet and plywood. I added casters to make mobile.

It was slightly top heavy, so made more bottom heavy w high tech weighting system

 

[juju]

Lol very high tech

 

[Turningdoc]

I painted background w Krylon

Added coco fiber for texture, let dry, vacuumed, and added more paint

 

[Turningdoc]

I then sealed whole background w acrylic sealer

Installed mistking head to top of cage

 

[Turningdoc]

I used 50# leader fishing line to tie back around cage struts

I wanted to separate view between cages, so i used landscape fabric and hot glued on outside on cage as a privacy screen for them.

 

[Turningdoc]

The final product of cage 1. Will be posting cage 2 and fully vined, planted, and lighted pics as I move along.

 

[gperlman]

Looks great. You make it seem so simple. I might look into this in the future.

 

[reptoman]

Great stuff pond foam eh? I'll have to try that stuff. Looks pretty cool. Nice build. Looking forward to seeing the finished product.

 

[Turningdoc]

You can also use regular, but the yellow makes it painful. My advice, use the black from the garden section, extra $$ is worth it to avoid painting a million yellow spots later. ($10 vs $4) The can in pic is from Lowes

 

[Turningdoc]

Cage 2 rough background

Twin cart finished

Left cage

Right cage

Mistking for water. Arcadia 6% uv lights

Now justing waiting for Showjet to send me some South Africans!!

 

[Turningdoc]

I thought left cage needed more vines. Can you have have enough?
After more

 

[theAfamily]

lookin good

nice set up

chris

 

[chamillionaire3]

hey what did you use to attach your mistking nozzle to the top of the cage. it looks like glass or something

 

[Turningdoc]

It a plexiglass square predrilled that is hot glue gunned to frame and screen. This has worked well for me.

 

[maxttu]

Dude, it all looks fantastic, but holy cow! You musta spent $30 in Krylon products!

Seriously, fantastic job!

 

[Turningdoc]

That was the cheap part!

 

[chamillionaire3]

sweet ill have to try the plexiglass. where did u get it at?

 

[Turningdoc]

Either lowes or home depot. you can cut w any sawblade for metal w fine teeth

 

[Dendroguy]

Cool, another Dendroboardite. That's a really great build you have there.

D