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 #1853118


Newtoleos
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 New habitat

Someone is giving away a homeade wood and plexiglass habitat. It used to house a snake. I am thinking of getting it since my leos definitely need a bigger home but have a couple ???s

1. It was previously used for a snake...will that freak my leos out? Is there anything I can clean it with to make them not notice. I just don’t want to stress them out!

2. Since it is wood on the bottom I can’t use an UTH. What could I use with the lights so they could still have efficient belly heat?

Thanks so much for the help!!!
09/06/08  08:01pm

 #1853129


Nicksmominsc
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   Message To: Newtoleos   In reference to Message Id: 1853118


 New habitat

I have read of people placing a UTH under a piece of tile. That may work for you. I can’t help with the previous snake thing - sorry.



09/06/08  08:09pm

 #1853206


Shutterstud06
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   Message To: Nicksmominsc   In reference to Message Id: 1853129


 New habitat

my homemade cage has a piece of tile as the bottom and the UTH works great on it. Although everything I have read concerning the UTH says that you need it to be able to breath. Just wondering if you make the breath place, then will your leo be able to get under and get burned?

You could possible (even though i have no clue what the tank looks like) get a 12 x 12 tile, cut out a section of the wooden bottom that’s like 10x10, but the UTH on the tile and then place this whole thing flush into the opening of the tank. This should A) seal the tank so that your leo can not exscape B) take away any possibility of your leo coming in contact with the UTH (aka accidental burn) and C) make it so that you can have the ground temps in the enclosure to help with digestion. What do you think? Thanks.

Ed
09/06/08  09:30pm

 #1853233


Estott
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   Message To: Shutterstud06   In reference to Message Id: 1853206


 New habitat

yup i use the uth on the tile as well the geckos love it.



09/06/08  09:50pm

 #1853266


Newtoleos
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   Message To: Estott   In reference to Message Id: 1853233


 New habitat

hmmm I think we will definately do the tile. I’m not sure about cutting a hole. I’m afraid I would screw it up. Sounds like a good idea though and I totally feel where you are coming from :) I don’t want my leos to get burned!

Those of you that use UTH with tile how do you let yours breathe?

I will post a pic once I get it all set up.

Thanks for the ideas
09/06/08  10:15pm

 #1853697


Shutterstud06
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   Message To: Newtoleos   In reference to Message Id: 1853266


 New habitat

Let me see what pics I have in my archives to see if I can show you how I did it.... (although I doubt it and the tank is in use)... I believe someone just posted a massive 6 cage unit they built and if I remember right they are using tile on the wood...



Here you can see how I have the tile as my whole bottom of my tank. I have my UTH up in the front left hand corner covering about a third of my tank for the heat. Since I have the height in my tank I also have a 75 watt day bulb and a 60 watt night bulb on this tank. Claws seems to be happy and healthy in it since this was him about a week after birth:



Claws has the three white marks on his head, hence the name.

And here’s claws today:



He’s huge compared to Deuce his hatch mate who’s barely bigger and still has the same coloration!

And here is his tank today!



I’m thinking, when you buy a UTH at the petstore, they have four little plastic stick-um’s that come with it. If you take these and put it on the 4 corners of the tile, it should lift the tile about 1/4 inch off the wood of the tank. I would then defiantly make sure you used paper substance or tile on the rest of the cage and that this piece of tile was on a non-burnable surface and has air circulation on at least 3 of the 4 sides. Does that make sense?

BTW it’s Estott that I was referring to about the tile/uth/wood thing I saw on here.



09/07/08  01:53pm

 #1853703


Shutterstud06
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   Message To: Newtoleos   In reference to Message Id: 1853118


 New habitat

Also to get ride of snake smell....

Since it’s wood, I’m not sure if this will work as well but if you take diluted bleach and spray down the whole cage, then rinse it out well, make sure there’s no bleach smell and then rinse it again to be certain it should sterile the cage and also get rid of any left-over musk that the snake might of left behind. I’ve never dealt with snake (they give me the chills) so I don’t know much about any musk they might have.



09/07/08  01:57pm

 #1854058


Newtoleos
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   Message To: Shutterstud06   In reference to Message Id: 1853703


 New habitat

Thanks for all of the help! Since the tank is so huge (4’ x 2’ x 2’) I just assumed it was for a snake. It was actually a bearded dragon. I didn’t expect the cage to be so big but they seem to love the room. Is this too much room for two leos?

We got their habitat today and spent forever trying to set it up. We put Roxy and Daisy in there and they were going all over the place checking everything out then finally got wore out and went to their favorite cave to sleep. I’ve never seen them move around so much.

Right now I am just using my ceramic heat emitter and it seems to be keeping the temp pretty stable. We are using shop paper towels (the blue kind) since we had a ton and no piece of repti carpet big enough to fit. I also put some tiles in there on the warm side of the cage. They seem to be asorbing the heat well and not getting too hot. I’m still unsure if the UTH is going to work. Even with the things that come with it to lift it up there isn’t much breathing room and they kept trying to get under it.

Does anyone not use a UTH? Is there a reason why I can’t just use the ceramic if its heating the tiles up? What kind of heat source do you use?

Also the guy gave me a basking light. They do NOT need these. Is this correct?

Once again I really appreciate all of the help!
09/07/08  09:18pm

 #1854081


Shutterstud06
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   Message To: Newtoleos   In reference to Message Id: 1854058


 New habitat

Hey there 4 x 2 x 2 feet? Sweet Awesome cage set up. Since you seem to know alot I hope I don’t sound like I’m being condescending. I would highly suggest doing multiple hides, more then the 3 hides that are recommended for leopard geckos. They (in the wild) live in a rocky desert region with compact clay, caves, driftwood, plants, ect. With the room of 4 x 2 x 2 you have a ton of space to fill this up. You could do ledges, caves, multi water dishes and meal worm (if you feed worms) dishes.

Here’s Tinker’s NEW set up



Top level: It’s 13 x 13 inches and 49 inches long. I have 5 hides in this tank and then two potted plants that create another 2 hides for Tinker to hide in. Food bowl, calcium bowl and water bowl and three pieces of driftwood.

She’s all over her tank.



09/07/08  09:34pm

 #1854466


Newtoleos
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   Message To: Shutterstud06   In reference to Message Id: 1854081


 New habitat

Happy for the help. Not condescending at all :)
Yes it is 4x2x2 feet
Right now we have 5 hides, 2 big flat rocks , water dish , mealworm dish. We need some more stuff. Definitely gonna put in plants and driftwood. We really don’t want to do multi-level right now. Maybe later down the road. What kind of plants can you put in? Do you just put the whole potted plant in it and they can crawl in the dirt and everything?



09/08/08  01:29pm

 #1854475


Newtoleos
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   Message To: Newtoleos   In reference to Message Id: 1854466


 New habitat

We’ve moved some things around but this is our leos new home.

Here is a pic of the warm side



cool side



As I’ve said I do still have lots of work to do so if anyone has ideas on how it could be better please share. Also forgot to mention in the above post...I DO have a calcium bowl also.

Heres another pic of my girls just because I love this pic :)



09/08/08  01:50pm

 #1854558


Shutterstud06
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   Message To: Newtoleos   In reference to Message Id: 1854475


 New habitat

Looks AWESOME!



09/08/08  03:17pm


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