I recently came down with a bad stomach ailment and cant work regular hours so I was looking for new ways to make money and I thought why not making custom vivariums. I love doing it and I would love to give people real habitats to keep their animals happy and healthy. I thought I would show a few pictures of the last one I just completed and see if you think there is a market for them. This one took me about 5 days to complete.

Attached Images

	viv1.jpg (39.6 KB, 68 views)
	viv2.jpg (21.4 KB, 69 views)
	viv3.jpg (35.7 KB, 46 views)

It looks nice but I don't think there is much of a market for them. I recently tried selling one for $300 and didn't get a single bite. I can tell you I put in WAAAAAY over $300 into it.

Good luck.

__________________
My name is Liz
Do what's best for the animal, not what's best for you.

I love the vivarium. It might be hard to sell but a place like calgary where I am there is so much oil money you would probable do good.
Question? As I have always wanted one are they hard to clean and what type of humidity and heat could be maintain in one? I have 2 anoles and 2 long tails would this be a good home for them as they are pooping machines? Also I have a horned frog and heard that they like to dig plants up. I would suggest going to some shoppes that excusevly sell reptiles and see if they will carry a few on commision.

Unless you can cookie cutter make them and keep YOUR cost and labor down, no one will want to pay the mark-up price you would sell them for.

Heck, I think Vision cages are WAY overpriced. I know they are injection molded, but I still would never pay for one.

Your best bet is probably get in contact with a local pet store and see if they'd be interested, although chances are they'd make their own, you never know. As mentioned, try and find ways to cut your costs as low as possible.

A suggestion.

I know a lot of people on the forums say they have created enclosures for high dollar businesses that want something pretty to look at in their "waiting rooms" or what have you......................maybe if you pitched to a high dollar clientele that likes stuff like that............Doctors?

it wouldn't be that hard to sell vivs with a good amount of markup.
i think they are quite similar to computers when it comes down to it.
people buy computers at local stores for often more then double the cost to build the same computer from parts ordered online. they don't know how much can be saved by building and/or don't know how to build a computer. however, its nearly impossible to sell a computer to somebody that does know how to build one because they can easily find out how much they could build it for themselves, and chances are it'll be cheaper then your selling it since you have the markup and shipping costs.

people who don't know much about something are suckers when it comes to being taken advantage of. they will pay for looks and convenience more then anything else. look at Alienware Computers. They'd sell PCs for over $3000 that could be built for under $1000. people would buy them because they were over-glorified on the site, looked great, and because they thought the high price meant it was a better computer.

so, like with computers, to make a lot of profit from your vivs you would have to make them look great (don't have to actually BE great, just need to look great), over glorify them, and try to sell them to people who don't know how to build them or don't want to go threw the trouble of building one themselves (like businesses or people new to vivariums).

basically need to take advantage of the idiots :P


besides the cost and markup, you must also factor in the cost to ship a full vivarium.
tank, substrate, plants, lighting, pump, etc.
the weight adds up fast. and if already set up, theres the fragility factor.
if it were to get turned upside down in shipping, everything could be ruined.

the shipping alone could easily add 50-100 dollars to the price.

__________________
i'd be better off opening my own small zoo.

I think there could be a market for custom enclosure's, but there a tough sell if people can't look at them, I'd stick with local. Check pet stores, ad's in a free local classifieds, post on craigslist. Use the internet, but make it pick up/local delivery only. If you buy everything in bulk, and maybe made two or three at the same time duplicating each step, step by step, instead of one maybe you could turn a small profit.

__________________
"Nobody can do Everything, but Everybody can do Something."