This is a new series im creating for caring for a reptile.
Sprayers Made by Flo-Master:
5.24.2010
5.16.2010
DISCLAIMER: I AM NOT RESPONSIBLE FOR ANY HURT REPTILES, ESCAPED REPTILES OR ANYTHING THAT MIGHT HAPPEN TO YOUR REPTILE WHILE IT IS IN IT'S OUTSIDE TERRARIUM(S) Creative Reptile Ideas Blog cannot be held for any misfortune that might fall against your Reptile.
That's right a possible use for Greenhouses, are as Terrariums with some tweaking of course. If you live close to the equator this would work better but, if you do not, nothing to fear you'll just need to do a bit more tweaks for this to work.
First you will need a Greenhouse preferably, a greenhouse with a metal frame for support. Check your local department stores and garden stores, like Home Depot, and Lowes are just a couple of the stores which sell Greenhouses. Instead of actually going to the store right off the bat to see if they have any, Check the store's website, Like when I checked The Home Depot's website i found two Greenhouses and this one i found reasonable: http://www.homedepot.com/Outdoors-Outdoor-Living-Greenhouses/h_d1/N-5yc1vZ1xnoZar01/R-100349417/h_d2/ProductDisplay?langId=-1&storeId=10051&catalogId=10053. The other Greenhouse I found was about $1000 dollars more expensive than the other Greenhouse, you can find the more expensive one here: http://www.homedepot.com/Outdoors-Outdoor-Living-Greenhouses/h_d1/N-5yc1vZ1xnoZar01/R-202065004/h_d2/ProductDisplay?langId=-1&storeId=10051&catalogId=10053. Those are just a few of the hundreds of Greenhouses you can choose for accomplishing an outside Terrarium for all season or most of the season, Depending on your distance from the equator.
Now that you have selected your Greenhouse, it is time to change it into a Terrarium. Once you have assembled your greenhouse you will need to seal it to be weather proof. This part you have to use your judgment to find gaps between the glass windows and the frame of the greenhouse and other small cracks and gaps. Once you have sealed the greenhouse eaither position it on the ground or a concrete slab, like a patio. Once the greenhouse is position you will need to stake it to the ground for those severe weather storms your reptile will be enduring. If you have decided you place your greenhouse on the dirt/ground you would want to dig a "Trench" more like a shallow ditch. This Ditch should be deep enough to get the bottom portion (like the bottom frame bar) of the greenhouse covered. Once at this step you have to choices, using Concrete to hold the greenhouse to the ground or just pack in the dirt you dug up into the trench with the greenhouse frame now in it. If you were the person who chose to put the frame on a concrete slab you will need concrete or another strong bonding agent to seal your soon-to-be-Terrarium to the concrete slab.
Your greenhouse is still far from sutible for your reptile(s). Next you will need to install UV Lights and Heating Lamps. "Why use UV lights when the sun will give the snake the UV it needs?" Well some greenhouses are made to block UV rays from the sun to promote healthy growing habits for plants. Even though some UV rays will still come through you will need UV lights to make up for this loss of UV rays. Do some research on your greenhouse to see the percentage of UV rays it blocks. When you install any type of light into to an interior of a cage you will always need to cover them to prevent the reptile from getting burns from them. Now that you have finished putting up the UV lights, now comes the Heating Lamps. Heating Lamps should be Distributed evenly throughout the greenhouse and should be placed when future basking spots can be placed. This is the time to also talk about Misters and other electronic devices that the reptile will need. Here comes the question on how to get the power to run your electrical devices to your greenhouses. A simple solution to run electricity from your house to your greenhouse is to dig a trench a foot and a half deep to to feet deep and bury a pvc pipe with electrical wire running from the circuit box of your house to a circuit box outside or inside your greenhouse.
To "snakeify" your greenhouse you must have three things, Heat, Humidity, and enclosure. We have two of these thing now, Heat and Humidity. Now we must make a sutible enclosure for the Reptile. This will envole materials, Substrate (The ground cover), Plants, Cage Furnature, and Water Bowls/ Ponds or Waterfalls. Before following through with how you wish to make the layout of your enclosure first decide these things, What will the Terrarium be used for? Is it going to be for a Desert/Arid Temperature Creature? or a Sub-Tropical/Tropical Creature? Before building this outside habitat first do some research on the reptile you plan to house and plan the Terrarium accordingly. You can never plan enough when it comes to snake or lizard enclosures, for one simple reason, snakes and lizards are escape artists. When they find a small hole in the Greenhouse wall or a gap you didn't fill, they will exploit it and try to find a way to get out. Always take steps to secure your cold-blooded friends like, Sketches, Small Scale Designs, and 3D models. A handy program that can be picked for free to do 3D model designs is Google Sketchup©.
Example: To create a Airid Grassland or Desert the materials you will need will be:
A Ground Cover Substrate like Bed A Beast Which can be found Here:
Small River Rocks which can be found here:
Reptile Bark Substrate which can be found here:
Desert Grasses:
Cage Furniture:
Some Reptile Sand (for a basking spot):
Water Dish:
Cave House (Optinal):
Reptile Clay Cave Molding Material:
Most of these objects are optinal and are just for Reptifying you Greenhouse.
To setup the Greenhouse you will need to do is first put an even layer of the Small River Rocks, just enough to cover the bottom of the Greenhouse floor evenly. Next fill a bucket up with Warm to Hot water and let the Bed a Beast turn into a padding, follow the instructions and it should be fine. Then once the bed a beast is finished and nice and moist lay out an even layer of it over the river rocks covering the whole floor or leaving spots marked off for where the plants will go. When you have finished that step sprinkle an even layer of the Reptile Bark Substrate over the Bed A Beast. The Reason for the multiple layers it to let the cage drain moisture to the ground and/or the concrete slab. Now go back to your marked off places for the plants and Basking spot(s) and plant the Grasses and/or Plants and put sand down for a basking spot, the sand should go over the river rocks but not the other substrate layers. Now position your cage furniture, houses and bowls. If you want to get creative with your cage you could dig a hole about a half foot to a foot deep and use old toilet paper rolls and paper towel rolls and other objects and mold your reptile his own personal house out of the Reptile Molding Clay. Once the terrarium is completed just add your reptile and your done.
Example: To create a Tropical paradise for your reptile to enjoy you will need:
Bed A Beast Substrate or other moisture absorbing substrate:
Small River Rocks:
Reptile Bark Substrate:
Tropical Plants:
Cage Furniture:
A Water Dish:
To create a tropical Paradise you must first cover the bottom of the greenhouse floor with River Rocks, then Some What mix the Bed a Beast and Reptile Bark Substrate to cover the whole floor. Now add plants and Houses. A neat idea for a tropical Greenhouse would be to check your local greenhouses for Tropical Trees and find out the required moisture and Heat to thrive and plant them in the Greenhouse. Finding Plants and Tree that would spred like Vines would be very creative because they would eventually spread to cover the greenhouse in foliage. Making a large, shallow pond or creating a waterfall would be neat. I will describe how to create those to things later on. Position cage furniture and houses and add the reptile.
Remember it is a must to be able to be able to feed your reptile so make sure that your Greenhouse is easily accessable to you. That means that you should have a pad lock on your greenhouse at all times unless you are inside or you are around to see it. This is a priority because your reptile could escape or a person, like a small child could wander into the Terrarium without you noticing.
(I did not come up with the idea on how to create the basic idea for this instead im using a tutorial found here: http://www.instructables.com/id/Make-a-fake-rock-cavebasking-spot-for-a-reptile-c/step2/Gather-Materials-and-Tools/ and just modded it a bit) To create a small pond you must gather these materials:
Styrofoam:
Misc. sizes of wood:
Grout Mix:
Cement Color:
Expanding Foam Insulator:
Water Based Polycrylic Satin Sealer:
Knives, Saws and other Misc. Carving Tools:
Bucket:
Paint Brushes of Different sizes:
Hot Glue Gun and Glue Sticks:
a Plastic Shallow Swimming Pool (Size Depending on Animal):
The first step in creating this realistic looking pond you must just get your basic design down cut the Styrofoam and wood to the desired lenghs, all the wood is for is to suppot the structure. Don't do to much carving into the Styrofoam at this point, just get the basic shape you are going for. Now glue the pieces of styrofoam together and also add the wood for support if nessesary. Now use your expanding foam to fill any gaps in the styrofoam. Then proceed to carve the Styrofoam and Expanding foam into a shape or Shapes of Rock that will act as a ring that will go around your small swimming pool, this will give the effect of rocks surrounding a pond. Now grout your styrofoam rocks and add texture with different tools, the grout should be watered enough to be able to be applied to the "Rocks" with paint brushes; the grout should be "Soupy". At this point is when you would want to add your color choice of the cement color to the grout and mix together. Once your creation is finished drying use the Water Based Polycrylic Satin Sealer to seal the "rocks" and do 3 coatings of the sealer. Now just impliment this into your terrarium for your Reptile and Enjoy.
How to create a "Real" pond. To create a real pond first gather these materials:
Shovel:
A knife:
Pond Liner (Can be purchased in the garden section of a store):
Rocks:
Grout:
Small River Rocks (For making it look nice):
To make a "real" fake pond you must first dig a hole, make sure this hole is a resonable depth, but not to deep for your Reptile could possibly drown. Once your hole is dug take the Pond Liner and push it into the shape of the hole and weight down the corners of the liner with rocks or stake them down with sticks. When your hole is lined with the pond liner take your rocks these rocks should be flat irregular shaped rocks and build your design of rocks around the edge of the pond and grout them together to make them sturdy so they couldn't fall and crush your reptile. Now use your knife to cut away excess pond liner from around the rock liner. Now take your river rocks and pour them evenly around the bottom of the liner. A tip of advice is to keep your liner staked in if you are planning to house a large reptile for it could pull the liner out from under the rocks. A neat attraction for your reptile or if you are planning to show this terrarium off is to fill the pond with coy fish or edible fish for your reptile. You could also add pond plants like lily pads, ect.
(My idea to create a waterfall came from this Video tutorial found here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gVGAR1k5e18) To create a functional water fall for your reptile to enjoy first you must gather these materials:
A Shallow, plastic swimming pool or use the previous pond tutorial and make the Waterfall an addition:
Rocks (to hide the pump):
Grout (To hold the rocks in place):
Small River Rocks:
Pond Liner:
A heavy duty storage bin or a number 5 storage bin from lowes:
A Pump (Be careful some of them can get pretty pricy):
Pump Adapter for the pump hose:
Rubber Sheet:
Waterproof Silicone Rubber Adhesive:
Steel Locknut:
Pump Adapter Insert:
Hose Clamp (Depends on the size of the pump hose you are using):
WaterFall Foam:
Water Filter:
Teflon Tape
The first thing to do here is to either dig your hole and make the pond from the previous pond tutorial or use a swimming pool from the first pond tutorial. First thing you want to do is cut a hole in your Storage Bin (I would recommend watching the video in the link to see what kind of storage bin I am talking about) for the Pump Adapter. Before you insert the pump adapter into the newly drilled hole use the rubber sheet, trace out and cut to rubber washers for the pump adapter. Put one washer onto the pump adapter and apply the Waterproof Silicone Rubber Adhesive to the washer and screw the pump adapter into the hole so the rubber adhesive sticks to the plastic bin then apply more rubber adhesive to the other rubber washer and stick it onto the onter end of the pump adapter. Now use a steel Locknut that fits the size of your threads on the pump adapter and screw the locknut onto the pump adapter, dont screw to tight or crack the plastic; this does not need to be very tight it is just for transfering water. Take the teflon tape and wrap the male end of the pump adapter with the threads so there won't be any leaks when you screw on the female end of the Pump adapter insert. Screw on the pump adapter insert to the male end of the pump adapter. Now fill your pond or swimming pool and attach the pump hose to the water pump. Then postion your pump in the water, try diguising it with rocks. Also wrap the pump in Water Filter sheets and tie a string to a large rock and tie it around the pump and filter and sink the filter, also try to disguise the pump hose with rocks and small river rocks. Find the end of the pump hose which does not attach to the pump and attach it to the Pump Adapter insert with a Hose Clamp. Now try to cover and disguise the pump with river rocks and rocks, but advoid the intake side for the water.
Thankyou for reading this and I hope you enjoy, remember you are only limited by your imagination. Please help me improve anything in this by commenting. Thankyou.
That's right a possible use for Greenhouses, are as Terrariums with some tweaking of course. If you live close to the equator this would work better but, if you do not, nothing to fear you'll just need to do a bit more tweaks for this to work.
First you will need a Greenhouse preferably, a greenhouse with a metal frame for support. Check your local department stores and garden stores, like Home Depot, and Lowes are just a couple of the stores which sell Greenhouses. Instead of actually going to the store right off the bat to see if they have any, Check the store's website, Like when I checked The Home Depot's website i found two Greenhouses and this one i found reasonable: http://www.homedepot.com/Outdoors-Outdoor-Living-Greenhouses/h_d1/N-5yc1vZ1xnoZar01/R-100349417/h_d2/ProductDisplay?langId=-1&storeId=10051&catalogId=10053. The other Greenhouse I found was about $1000 dollars more expensive than the other Greenhouse, you can find the more expensive one here: http://www.homedepot.com/Outdoors-Outdoor-Living-Greenhouses/h_d1/N-5yc1vZ1xnoZar01/R-202065004/h_d2/ProductDisplay?langId=-1&storeId=10051&catalogId=10053. Those are just a few of the hundreds of Greenhouses you can choose for accomplishing an outside Terrarium for all season or most of the season, Depending on your distance from the equator.
Now that you have selected your Greenhouse, it is time to change it into a Terrarium. Once you have assembled your greenhouse you will need to seal it to be weather proof. This part you have to use your judgment to find gaps between the glass windows and the frame of the greenhouse and other small cracks and gaps. Once you have sealed the greenhouse eaither position it on the ground or a concrete slab, like a patio. Once the greenhouse is position you will need to stake it to the ground for those severe weather storms your reptile will be enduring. If you have decided you place your greenhouse on the dirt/ground you would want to dig a "Trench" more like a shallow ditch. This Ditch should be deep enough to get the bottom portion (like the bottom frame bar) of the greenhouse covered. Once at this step you have to choices, using Concrete to hold the greenhouse to the ground or just pack in the dirt you dug up into the trench with the greenhouse frame now in it. If you were the person who chose to put the frame on a concrete slab you will need concrete or another strong bonding agent to seal your soon-to-be-Terrarium to the concrete slab.
Your greenhouse is still far from sutible for your reptile(s). Next you will need to install UV Lights and Heating Lamps. "Why use UV lights when the sun will give the snake the UV it needs?" Well some greenhouses are made to block UV rays from the sun to promote healthy growing habits for plants. Even though some UV rays will still come through you will need UV lights to make up for this loss of UV rays. Do some research on your greenhouse to see the percentage of UV rays it blocks. When you install any type of light into to an interior of a cage you will always need to cover them to prevent the reptile from getting burns from them. Now that you have finished putting up the UV lights, now comes the Heating Lamps. Heating Lamps should be Distributed evenly throughout the greenhouse and should be placed when future basking spots can be placed. This is the time to also talk about Misters and other electronic devices that the reptile will need. Here comes the question on how to get the power to run your electrical devices to your greenhouses. A simple solution to run electricity from your house to your greenhouse is to dig a trench a foot and a half deep to to feet deep and bury a pvc pipe with electrical wire running from the circuit box of your house to a circuit box outside or inside your greenhouse.
To "snakeify" your greenhouse you must have three things, Heat, Humidity, and enclosure. We have two of these thing now, Heat and Humidity. Now we must make a sutible enclosure for the Reptile. This will envole materials, Substrate (The ground cover), Plants, Cage Furnature, and Water Bowls/ Ponds or Waterfalls. Before following through with how you wish to make the layout of your enclosure first decide these things, What will the Terrarium be used for? Is it going to be for a Desert/Arid Temperature Creature? or a Sub-Tropical/Tropical Creature? Before building this outside habitat first do some research on the reptile you plan to house and plan the Terrarium accordingly. You can never plan enough when it comes to snake or lizard enclosures, for one simple reason, snakes and lizards are escape artists. When they find a small hole in the Greenhouse wall or a gap you didn't fill, they will exploit it and try to find a way to get out. Always take steps to secure your cold-blooded friends like, Sketches, Small Scale Designs, and 3D models. A handy program that can be picked for free to do 3D model designs is Google Sketchup©.
Example: To create a Airid Grassland or Desert the materials you will need will be:
A Ground Cover Substrate like Bed A Beast Which can be found Here:
Small River Rocks which can be found here:
Reptile Bark Substrate which can be found here:
Desert Grasses:
Cage Furniture:
Some Reptile Sand (for a basking spot):
Water Dish:
Cave House (Optinal):
Reptile Clay Cave Molding Material:
Most of these objects are optinal and are just for Reptifying you Greenhouse.
To setup the Greenhouse you will need to do is first put an even layer of the Small River Rocks, just enough to cover the bottom of the Greenhouse floor evenly. Next fill a bucket up with Warm to Hot water and let the Bed a Beast turn into a padding, follow the instructions and it should be fine. Then once the bed a beast is finished and nice and moist lay out an even layer of it over the river rocks covering the whole floor or leaving spots marked off for where the plants will go. When you have finished that step sprinkle an even layer of the Reptile Bark Substrate over the Bed A Beast. The Reason for the multiple layers it to let the cage drain moisture to the ground and/or the concrete slab. Now go back to your marked off places for the plants and Basking spot(s) and plant the Grasses and/or Plants and put sand down for a basking spot, the sand should go over the river rocks but not the other substrate layers. Now position your cage furniture, houses and bowls. If you want to get creative with your cage you could dig a hole about a half foot to a foot deep and use old toilet paper rolls and paper towel rolls and other objects and mold your reptile his own personal house out of the Reptile Molding Clay. Once the terrarium is completed just add your reptile and your done.
Example: To create a Tropical paradise for your reptile to enjoy you will need:
Bed A Beast Substrate or other moisture absorbing substrate:
Small River Rocks:
Reptile Bark Substrate:
Tropical Plants:
Cage Furniture:
A Water Dish:
To create a tropical Paradise you must first cover the bottom of the greenhouse floor with River Rocks, then Some What mix the Bed a Beast and Reptile Bark Substrate to cover the whole floor. Now add plants and Houses. A neat idea for a tropical Greenhouse would be to check your local greenhouses for Tropical Trees and find out the required moisture and Heat to thrive and plant them in the Greenhouse. Finding Plants and Tree that would spred like Vines would be very creative because they would eventually spread to cover the greenhouse in foliage. Making a large, shallow pond or creating a waterfall would be neat. I will describe how to create those to things later on. Position cage furniture and houses and add the reptile.
Remember it is a must to be able to be able to feed your reptile so make sure that your Greenhouse is easily accessable to you. That means that you should have a pad lock on your greenhouse at all times unless you are inside or you are around to see it. This is a priority because your reptile could escape or a person, like a small child could wander into the Terrarium without you noticing.
(I did not come up with the idea on how to create the basic idea for this instead im using a tutorial found here: http://www.instructables.com/id/Make-a-fake-rock-cavebasking-spot-for-a-reptile-c/step2/Gather-Materials-and-Tools/ and just modded it a bit) To create a small pond you must gather these materials:
Styrofoam:
Misc. sizes of wood:
Grout Mix:
Cement Color:
Expanding Foam Insulator:
Water Based Polycrylic Satin Sealer:
Knives, Saws and other Misc. Carving Tools:
Bucket:
Paint Brushes of Different sizes:
Hot Glue Gun and Glue Sticks:
a Plastic Shallow Swimming Pool (Size Depending on Animal):
The first step in creating this realistic looking pond you must just get your basic design down cut the Styrofoam and wood to the desired lenghs, all the wood is for is to suppot the structure. Don't do to much carving into the Styrofoam at this point, just get the basic shape you are going for. Now glue the pieces of styrofoam together and also add the wood for support if nessesary. Now use your expanding foam to fill any gaps in the styrofoam. Then proceed to carve the Styrofoam and Expanding foam into a shape or Shapes of Rock that will act as a ring that will go around your small swimming pool, this will give the effect of rocks surrounding a pond. Now grout your styrofoam rocks and add texture with different tools, the grout should be watered enough to be able to be applied to the "Rocks" with paint brushes; the grout should be "Soupy". At this point is when you would want to add your color choice of the cement color to the grout and mix together. Once your creation is finished drying use the Water Based Polycrylic Satin Sealer to seal the "rocks" and do 3 coatings of the sealer. Now just impliment this into your terrarium for your Reptile and Enjoy.
How to create a "Real" pond. To create a real pond first gather these materials:
Shovel:
A knife:
Pond Liner (Can be purchased in the garden section of a store):
Rocks:
Grout:
Small River Rocks (For making it look nice):
To make a "real" fake pond you must first dig a hole, make sure this hole is a resonable depth, but not to deep for your Reptile could possibly drown. Once your hole is dug take the Pond Liner and push it into the shape of the hole and weight down the corners of the liner with rocks or stake them down with sticks. When your hole is lined with the pond liner take your rocks these rocks should be flat irregular shaped rocks and build your design of rocks around the edge of the pond and grout them together to make them sturdy so they couldn't fall and crush your reptile. Now use your knife to cut away excess pond liner from around the rock liner. Now take your river rocks and pour them evenly around the bottom of the liner. A tip of advice is to keep your liner staked in if you are planning to house a large reptile for it could pull the liner out from under the rocks. A neat attraction for your reptile or if you are planning to show this terrarium off is to fill the pond with coy fish or edible fish for your reptile. You could also add pond plants like lily pads, ect.
(My idea to create a waterfall came from this Video tutorial found here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gVGAR1k5e18) To create a functional water fall for your reptile to enjoy first you must gather these materials:
A Shallow, plastic swimming pool or use the previous pond tutorial and make the Waterfall an addition:
Rocks (to hide the pump):
Grout (To hold the rocks in place):
Small River Rocks:
Pond Liner:
A heavy duty storage bin or a number 5 storage bin from lowes:
A Pump (Be careful some of them can get pretty pricy):
Pump Adapter for the pump hose:
Rubber Sheet:
Waterproof Silicone Rubber Adhesive:
Steel Locknut:
Pump Adapter Insert:
Hose Clamp (Depends on the size of the pump hose you are using):
WaterFall Foam:
Water Filter:
Teflon Tape
The first thing to do here is to either dig your hole and make the pond from the previous pond tutorial or use a swimming pool from the first pond tutorial. First thing you want to do is cut a hole in your Storage Bin (I would recommend watching the video in the link to see what kind of storage bin I am talking about) for the Pump Adapter. Before you insert the pump adapter into the newly drilled hole use the rubber sheet, trace out and cut to rubber washers for the pump adapter. Put one washer onto the pump adapter and apply the Waterproof Silicone Rubber Adhesive to the washer and screw the pump adapter into the hole so the rubber adhesive sticks to the plastic bin then apply more rubber adhesive to the other rubber washer and stick it onto the onter end of the pump adapter. Now use a steel Locknut that fits the size of your threads on the pump adapter and screw the locknut onto the pump adapter, dont screw to tight or crack the plastic; this does not need to be very tight it is just for transfering water. Take the teflon tape and wrap the male end of the pump adapter with the threads so there won't be any leaks when you screw on the female end of the Pump adapter insert. Screw on the pump adapter insert to the male end of the pump adapter. Now fill your pond or swimming pool and attach the pump hose to the water pump. Then postion your pump in the water, try diguising it with rocks. Also wrap the pump in Water Filter sheets and tie a string to a large rock and tie it around the pump and filter and sink the filter, also try to disguise the pump hose with rocks and small river rocks. Find the end of the pump hose which does not attach to the pump and attach it to the Pump Adapter insert with a Hose Clamp. Now try to cover and disguise the pump with river rocks and rocks, but advoid the intake side for the water.
Thankyou for reading this and I hope you enjoy, remember you are only limited by your imagination. Please help me improve anything in this by commenting. Thankyou.
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