Reptile & Amphibian Forums

This cage was built by a friend and I, it houses 1.1 U. henkeli... Soon to be 1.3...
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attractive also, GOOD JOB ! I need acouple are ya busy?
Hahhahahaha !

Your pair should be happy in there Good luck !
Now lets see pics of them also !

Eve

Enjoyed building this with you, Ben.

Have you received any of my e-mails?

This picture shows the false-ceiling that Ben and I designed for this cage. I had a Bearded Dragon cage with the same design and we adapted it for this cage.

Basically, the cage is 4' tall, but the back panel of the cage is only 40" tall, leaving an 8" space open along the top back of the cage.

The frame you see in this picture runs from the top of the back panel to the bottom of the top lip of the cage in the front. In other words, to just above the track the glass runs in on the top of the cage.

The frame is covered with wire mesh and can be covered to keep humidity up.

The 8" gap in the back allows for easy access to lights, heating elements, misting supplies, etc.

with the wood, will that be fine? I'm sure its been coated. Just wondering as they have to be misted down.

Its very beautiful, you guys should go into biz, really ! You have no idea(or maybe ya do)

How many people need enclosures.
And affordable.

I am trying to talk a friend into a few wall unit type stackables, as to try and fit , bigger enclosures, into my room. And still have room for everybody LOL

NICE JOB you guys, great pics too !

Eve

The interior of the cage was sealed with about $50 worth of Envirotex Epoxy (after two coats of stain and two coats of water-based polyurethane).

EE is a solvent-free, pour-on epoxy. It is very durable. I know one guy who made a huge cage for his Water Dragons and filled the interior with waterfalls and pools formed from plaster. They were all sealed with EE and withstood water for 10 years with no signs of damage.

It was easy to apply. We mixed it up and simply poured it over the wood while the portion we were working on was flat on the floor. We trowled the thick epoxy around with pieces of cardboard and then used a propane torch to preciptate the bubbles out of the setting epoxy. No brushing or spraying.

There are cheaper epoxies but they have nasty solvents and can take weeks to cure properly. If they're mixed improperly they sometimes never fully cure. They also tend to have a cloudy finish and are not as clear as the EE.

The wood used in this project is a lower-grade oak-laminated plywood available from Home Depot and other home improvement stores. Ben and I sorted through several sheets and picked these two for the project. If we had been willing to pay about $60 per sheet we could have gotten some really nice wood from a cabinet shop. But I think we did pretty well with the $35 sheets from Home Depot.

If you guys are really into this,
you can't advertise on these forums, other than showing what you are making like you have done.

BUT.... you sure can go and advertise on kingsnake classifieds for cages , if you want to go that route.

http://market.kingsnake.com/index.php?cat=22

Wish ya luck, they look nice,

Eve

We're not interested in advertising... We are simply showing people what can be done if they put their minds to it... It was my first cage building experience, but its been a long time passion and hobby of Chris's...
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Ben

have reptiles, hahahhaha !!! Wish I could build, I would have them all over instead of tanks !

My hubby would like to try and do one, but he keeps just saying that, *LAUGHING* I need something I can SEE

If I could make them, and they looked like a freakin piece of furniture, I would sell a couple a month, and put money back into my reptiles,

KEEP BUILDING, GUYS !!

Eve

I have little interest in building cages for anyone other than myself and close friends.

With this oak cage I simply showed Ben how I designed it (pretty simple) and then he and I assembled the carcass and installed the face treatment.

Ben and his girlfriend did all of the sanding, staining, and applied the polyurethane. I feel quite comfortable saying the cage would not have looked as nice if I had done those steps - they did a great job.

I came back to help apply the epoxy as I wanted to see how it well it worked. I already knew it would hold up but I wanted to see how easy it was to use after having used many different types of epoxies in the past.

Take away the time we spent designing it and transporting it, and there are still quite a few hours of work in this cage. Even if Ben, his girlfriend and I charged some minimal labor fee the cage would be expensive.

Hey Eve,
The inside of the cage (anywhere water would have come in contact with wood) is coated with a layer or EnviroTex epoxy... It's a two part mixture that is poured on... It's rather expensive, but its an awesome product... To give you an idea of what is used for; Have you ever seen a bar top with coins or beer tabs in it?... Thats basically how this product works... Chris could explain better... With the 8 inch gap in the back, the humidity in the cage stays around 60-70% with two daily mistings... The ambient air temp is basically just a couple degrees above room temp during the day because of the lights... When the lights go out, the temp then drops a few degrees...

I am not completely happy with the humidity levels...
I am in the process of building an automated misting system for the cage, but I have hit some road bumps... I think temorarily I will use a plumable humidifier and run PVC through the back of cage...
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Ben

Sounds great ! Sure looks DANG nice ! I just ran into you, on Exotics, left ya a messeage, hahahhaha

Anyway I have my extra tall tank in my reptile room where it is usually warm due to all the other lights in ther.

So I do not heat my henkeli, I have plants in there and with a couple daily mistings, it stays humid.

But I think glass holds humidity better ! Maybe I'm wrong.

I would love the wood though for many of my other guys !

Eve

just wanted to say how amazing your enclosure is. i think i need to make one of those myself. good luck with your other two females you're expecting

Thanks SP...
There was a lot of time and money spent on the cage... If when you build your enclosure feel free to ask myself or chris_harper2 any questions... He's seen and done it all...

I have the other two females already... I have 2.1 CB and 1.3 WC henkeli groupe right now... I am in the final stages of acclimation with the WC, so I am beginning to construct pairing options...

I may go with the WC 1.3 in the large display, however, after talking to some more experienced keepers, a 1.1 seems to be the route to go when trying to breed... Any suggestions?!
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Ben