Alright well I ended up getting a bearded dragon from a friend I had not seen in YEARS and he had been living in a smallish tank so I wanted to do something nice for him and I had been seeing all these amazing cages that people had done on line so I decided with a LOT of help from a friend that this was what I was going to do!
I posted this one fauna as well so this might be a repeat for some.
So this is what we have done so far:
Day One:
At the end of day one we ended up with a wonderful box made out of MDF with a wire and wood frame top with a light in it. We sealed the inside area of the MDF (the next day I added a second coat). The box is 42" long, 23" wide and 24" tall
I was really pleased with what we had done that first day but the hardest stuff was yet to come.
Day two (which was a few days later in the real world):
originaly we were going to use styrofoam but for some odd reason we ended up using wire hardwear cloth-ok I think now that this was a huge mistake because it just made things more difficult in the long run
Day Three:
My friend and I work different shifts (I work days and he works nights so when Im getting up at 7am he is just going to bed) and I was wanting to get the cage done a little faster so I was left alone with several cans or Great Stuff...um...lol well..lets just say that Im still wearing some of it.
Now after I took these photos and went out for Red Lobster, I finished the side with the wire showing and begand working on the underside of the cliffs. I also did a water test to see how well the MDF was sealed..it wasn't sealed all that great so since I plan on putting sand in there anyways and because it was on clearance for next to nother and I use them in my ferret cage to keep them from scratching like made-I put down some linolium tiles that will in the end be sealed and hopfuly help to keep any moisture from destorying the cage..perhaps that was overkill? sorry no photos of that part yet.
Day Four:
My friend finly got to see the mess I had made with the Great Stuff and found it very..well..lets say I found it amusing to watch his face when he saw it but he didn't find it as funny. I don't have photos because it is dark out now, but tonight we worked on cutting some of the Great Stuff and began sanding it down to prepair it for the next round.
Now as to the next round
sorry needed a pick me up.
Ok moving along then. We still havn't put in the front of the cage yet because we want to finish as much of the dirty parts on the inside as possible. The plan is to sand and smooth out the great stuff, makeing it looking more natural and rock like. Next my friend really wants to just paint it but I think that with Baxter (thats my new 16 and a quarter inch male dragon) and his nails the Great Stuff will not stand up to well. I have looked at a TON more viv builds and it looks like a lot of people use grout or cement layered over the GS to make it stronger and more relistic and that looks really cool. I'm not an artist and it looks simple enough. And I have been reading a lot of different things about adding the cement or grout over the GS, some people seal it and some don't. I was planning on sealing the egdes around the GS at the very least but what does everyone think? I han't done this before and I don't want to mess it up any more then I already have.
I will post more photos tomorrow after I get off of work and finish sanding the GS.
Thanks before hand for any ideas, tips and what not.
Missina
My first attempt-bearded dragon cage
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