My ladies' "luxury condo" Stage 1 complete

[Khrysty]

This has been my project for about three months now because school and such keeps making me put it off, but I've finally finished the first stage of my girls' luxury condo.

Dimensions are about 14x18 inches per floor. It's two stories tall, with a staircase toward the back left corner. Both the top story and the bottom have viewing lights, and there's a hole cut into the top of the viv and covered with a screen for a heat lamp if I ever need to heat the top floor. Right now, just the bottom is heated. The substrate is paper towel and the walls are just a clean white, but eventually I'd like to put in some tiles and a naturalistic background--that'll be stage 2.

Whatcha think?

Front View

Bottom Left

Bottom Right

Top Left

Top Right

 

[theclean1]

nice

 

[stewy84]

Looks good, Im kinda gettin an itch to build somthing again other than a rack. Built 4 racks this winter but want to build a nice show case that can house 4 or 5 breeders i want to retire after this season. I love making different levels and flag stone from work. Looks realy nice.

 

[xRyudo]

Love the 2 level, did you build the setup yourself?

 

[Lady_Kiya]

Very nice. ^^

 

[ariana]

VERY nice
im jealous

 

[Khrysty]

Love the 2 level, did you build the setup yourself?

Yep. It was a nightstand with a bed set I had. I took out the drawer, turned the whole thing on its side, moved the feet, and used the parts of the drawer to make the second level.

Idk if you can see it in the pic, but I cut ridges into the "stairs" so their little claws could get a better grip

 

[leosrus1970]

very nice!

 

[daleo]

very nice! question. how do you heat it? with a normal UTH? thanks

dale

 

[Khrysty]

very nice! question. how do you heat it? with a normal UTH? thanks

dale

Yeah, I used a ZooMed 10-20gal UTH. In order to keep it from burning the wood, and to ensure proper heat transfer, I had to get a little creative. I lined the floor with aluminum foil and put the UTH on top of it, INSIDE the viv. I dremmeled out a circle in the back for the cord and, after running the cord through it, blocked the hole up with modeling clay. The substrate right now is just paper towels, on top of the foil and heat pad, but the next re-model is going to include some tiles.

 

[daleo]

so the heat pad is inside the cage? with just the paper towels as a sub she wont get burned? sorry if this is a stuped question just im new! lol

dale

 

[Khrysty]

so the heat pad is inside the cage? with just the paper towels as a sub she wont get burned? sorry if this is a stuped question just im new! lol

dale

Don't be silly, there are no stupid questions!
I have a pretty thick layer of paper towels over the heat pad. The temp right over the pad reads 90*. It's warm, but not too hot. My girls will sleep for about two hours directly over the heat pad, and then move to the top floor or onto the top of one of the hides on the bottom floor where it's much colder for another 2-3 hours. Neither one of them seems to be getting too warm.

 

[daleo]

swwweeeeet!! im building a wood cage as well so this means i can put the UTH in the tank. im going to be useing tile too! its going to be great!!! thanks!!

dale

 

[Khrysty]

swwweeeeet!! im building a wood cage as well so this means i can put the UTH in the tank. im going to be useing tile too! its going to be great!!! thanks!!

dale

No problem! Post pics up when you're done so we can all see! :main_yes:

 

[Bellalee]

I really like that idea, your definatly creative.

 

[gothra]

Gecko's modern life!! That's very cool!

 

[Khrysty]

haha OMG that would totally work!! I was trying to come up with a brand name for the cage furniture I want to create--that would be absolutely perfect! Thanks Bonnie!

In case you're curious, here's a thread about it:
http://www.geckoforums.net/showthread.php?t=39475

I'll post more pics probably in early June, of the finished products.