Hi everyone
Since there hasn't been any news in this section recently, I thought I'd add something.
Here is the terrarium I set up for my Brazilian Rainbow Boa, "Talyn". It's a plexiglass/glass construction, custom-made by a company here in Switzerland. Mine is 5ft long, 2.5 ft deep and 4 ft high. I have to cover some of the ventilation holes at the top, but otherwise it holds the humidity well. Av. 75-85%
I have a heating pad on the right side bottom of the cage with and a heat lamp (on a regulator) above that. The temp gradient stays between 70 and 85. She tends to go to the warm side at night and spend the day on the cool side. I have a large pool in the center for her to soak in, if she wants to (haven't seen her in it yet) and a smaller water bowl on the cool side.
She also has a hide box on both the warm and cool side. (I now have a protective mesh cage for the heat lamp, but I want to paint it cuz it kind of ruins my backdrop painting.) and I have a zoo med night light (red bulb on the left side. I can't tell yet if she is bothered by that or not.
The plants are artificial (except the branch: cork oak). I made the backdrop myself out of construction foam and mosquito netting then carved and painted it with acrylic paint. (completely washable and able to be sterilized with bleach if necessary.
I use a mixture of terrarium soil and repti-bark as substrate. Misted daily at least once.

Attached Images

terrarium1.JPG (39.0 KB, 276 views)

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Andrea

Looks really nice Blackjack,,,you seem to have all the bases covered....great job on the painting too !!!

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Ken
"Some people spend an entire lifetime wondering if they made a difference in the world. But, the Marines don't have that problem." -- Ronald Reagan

I love the backing, it looks so realistic. Great job. It looks awesome.

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MARSHA

:D I'm smiling because I have no idea whats going on!

VERY nice job. I too really like the background!

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Merlin,
What's Life Without A Little Magic!

That is a great looking tank...^_^

This is a really cool little cage you have, and I am curious about the backdrop. I am drawing on my theater design and production training here with these questions. Did you "chunk out" the foam and layer netting over it to keep the foam from further breaking loose or do folds and wrinkles in the netting provide texture too? Did the netting get a "Elmer's glue bath" before hand to secure it to the foam? How many coats and of what did you use to seal over the acerlics? Do you think it is strong and secure enough to be climed by a smaller lizard (lets say the size of a large gecko up to an adult bearded dragon) without destruction?


Mark

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~ Mark

Thanks for asking about the backdrop. This was just an experiment and I wasn't sure it would work at all but I'm happy with the way it turned out.

This is how I went about it:
I measured the size I wanted and put a simple wooden frame together about an inch bigger all around(to be removed later) Then I bought some polyester mosquito netting from the hardware store and stretched it over the wooden frame and attached with a staple gun. (Not too tight and not too many staples, but just to hold it in place while I worked.)
Important: if you don't want a disastrous mess -- put plastic down under and around your working area. I recommend wearing a painters coverall, have LOTS of disposable rubber gloves on hand (excuse the pun!) and wear protective glasses -- you do not want that foam stuff on your skin or in your eyes!!!!!!!! (or on any furniture for that matter.) The only thing it doesn't stick to is plastic: well it sticks to plastic when it's wet, but falls right off when it's dry.
I bought canned insulating foam (the kind used to seal around windows during construction). For my backdrop (about 5 ft by 4ft). I needed about 5 large cans.
Shake the can and attach the nozzle. Hold upside down and squirt the foam all over the netting. I did it in rows, horizontal then vertical then diagonal, etc. Because mine was so huge (I did one half at a time.) Spraying the foam lightly with water will increase it's volume and the drying time faster.
Now here's the really icky, messy part: I used a mason's trowel and when the foam started to dry a bit, I pressed it flat and tried to smooth it into and over the netting. I'm not sure it was necessary at all, but I was trying to get good coverage... most of it ended up sticking to me, or the trowel.) As this stuff dries, it swells up and it looks like a bunch of sticky half-melted marshmallows spread over the surface.
I repeated the process with each layer, making sure all of the netting was covered. At the end, I squirted the stuff out in the general form of a tree trunk and branches and left that to swell up.
After it completely dried, I took a carpet knife (X-acto .. the kind that allows you to extend the blade far) and carved the surface of the tree and some of the rest. (Be careful!!! -- you need a sharp blade and -- on my current project using the same stuff, I slipped and sliced into the back of my thumb! ouch -- needed three stitches!!!!)
Anyway this stuff is like styrofoam when it's dry and can be sliced away fairly easily: (cut off thin slivers). If you slice off too much or decide to add something, you can just get another can of stuff and squirt it on, let it dry and carve some more.

Then I painted it, using acrylic latex paint. (You can put a ground of gesso over it first if it's really porous to help seal it. -- I didn't do it on this one.) I didn't use oil based paints because I was not sure about the toxic elements and didn't want to wait forever till they dried! I used paint out of the cans and slapped it on pretty thick (front and back to seal it all over.)
Next time I would put a sealant on it, and then spray paint (with water-soluable acrylic) the general colors I wanted. Then use the canned paints for more detailed work. I finished it off with a clear (matt) acrylic spray paint (thin coats 2-3 cans) You can then cut it off of the wooden frame with the x-acto knife to the size you need. It was great because I had to cut an area out for the light fitting etc.
The end result is something similar to a plastic/foam board. Somewhat flexible, but also breakable. I screwed it to the back of my terrarium (you need to use washers or you'll just sink the screw straight through it. You can also drill holes through it for cables, etc.I think small lizards and geckos would be able to crawl over it without problems. The thicker the paint on the surface, the more resistant it will be to claws. I wouldn't use it with any animal that could chew on it or really dig claws into it. Basically, if they could claw through acrylic painted styrofoam, they could damage this. I wouldn't want them swallowing pieces scratched off either.
It seemed like an ideal thing for my Brazilian rainbow boa since her terrarium is hot and humid (and she has no claws to rip it to shreds!)
I originally bought her a cork-oak hide and within two weeks, it was growing fungus! So I decided to make her new hides out of this same foam stuff. (I wanted something that would look nice and natural, since she's usually nowhere to be seen!!) I made two tree stumps and a higher tree house so if she wanted to be up closer to the heat lamps or just up higher, she could. (This one has a wood and metal framework structure underneath.) The others are just foam.
They're not yet completely finished, but I'll attach some photos. They'll look better with some moss hanging off of them and some fake plants around. I also thought about attaching some of those plants that can grow without roots to the sculptures. I made all of mine to look like a rainforest scene, but you could also carve and paint this stuff to look like rocks or other stuff...

Well this is getting LONG !! Let me know if there's any more info I can give you. I was thinking I should make a business out of making things out of this stuff... it's pretty fun to do!

Attached Images

	stump1.JPG (28.2 KB, 49 views)
	stump2.JPG (35.1 KB, 41 views)
	tree house.JPG (29.3 KB, 50 views)

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Andrea

Absolutely beautiful tank BlackJack! I wish we were able to make all of our set ups like that, but with 50 animals it would be a little time-consuming and make cleaning time so much longer! It's a gorgeous set up though, well done on creating it.

Just a concern though - you said your average humidity levels are 75-85% ..for an adult Brazilian Rainbow Boa that is too high. You need to keep it nearer 60%, no higher than 70%. You certainly have provided your Brazilian Rainbow Boa a lot of space!! - it will think it's in the wild!

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"If you know everything you may as well blow your brains out because the reason for existence is to learn more everyday." - Mark O'Shea, 2004

PS -- The tree stumps are hollowed out underneath to provide a place to hide. Here I put a plastic sheet over a construction helmet and sprayed layers of foam over and around it. When it dried, it came off the plastic easily and had the hiding place set up. All I had to do was carve the top into a shape I wanted, make entrance and exits and paint it!

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Andrea

Thanks Bitis
I'm going to scale back on the humidity as soon as she finishes her shed... hopefully tonight or tomorrow! (She cleared up yesterday, so I think it'll be soon.) Everything I've read on BRBs say 70-80% humidity, but I'm going to take it down to 60-70% and see how she feels with that. As far as temp goes: I read that she should have a gradient from 70° to 90°F; (21° to 32°C), I've got it usually between 21 (cool side) and 28C (warm side)... is that OK? She seems to spend most of the day on the cool side and the early mornings (late at night after exploring) on the warm side.

After her shed,I'm going to clean out everything, wash it down well and then re-decorate with her new furniture!
I know I've gone really overboard with the decor, but she's the only pet I have and since we hardly ever see her, I need to make this giant tank something attractive to look at: it's taken over a huge part of our living room!

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Andrea