# Could this be a snake enclosure?



## Tigerlily (Dec 22, 2014)

So my roughie is about a yearling now, and I want to upgrade his living space. I have a lot of time on my hands right now (and not a lot of money lol) so I'm considering making my own enclosure.

I have close to zero experience with DIY and I haven't gone through all the DIY threads yet, but I figured it couldn't hurt to ask:

is this bookcase a decent candidate to be converted?


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## arevenant (Dec 22, 2014)

Replace the doors with glass(sliding being easiest and cheapest), a light fitting on the top, air vents and it should be pretty a simple conversion.
Only hiccup being that it is probably waaaay too big for a yearling roughie...


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## Tigerlily (Dec 22, 2014)

arevenant said:


> Replace the doors with glass(sliding being easiest and cheapest), a light fitting on the top, air vents and it should be pretty a simple conversion.
> Only hiccup being that it is probably waaaay too big for a yearling ...



Thanks arevenant, I just realised I would prefer to use this shelf to allow for vertical climbing. Would it work the same way, even though it's one of those very cheap shelves from Target? I guess I'm concerned about it being too flimsy, and the wood rotting or absorbing smells.

As for size, I could partition it until he grows big enough to need all the space? He's currently in a 50x37cm starmaid and is constantly prodding around looking for an escape route, I really think he could benefit from some extra height to climb. Or do you think he's ok in there for now? What I really want to do is put him in a bigger/deeper plastic storage box but I can never find ones that are clear enough to see in. The ones I've found are all too opaque...


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## arevenant (Dec 22, 2014)

Tigerlily said:


> Thanks arevenant, I just realised I would prefer to use this shelf to allow for vertical climbing. Would it work the same way, even though it's one of those very cheap shelves from Target? I guess I'm concerned about it being too flimsy, and the wood rotting or absorbing smells.
> 
> As for size, I could partition it until he grows big enough to need all the space? He's currently in a 50x37cm starmaid and is constantly prodding around looking for an escape route, I really think he could benefit from some extra height to climb. Or do you think he's ok in there for now? What I really want to do is put him in a bigger/deeper plastic storage box but I can never find ones that are clear enough to see in. The ones I've found are all too opaque...




Your problem with the black one is both it's height and the backing board - the backing board is far to thin and can be easily pushed out - you'd need to replace it with 6-9mm ply board or something similar. 
The problem with it's height is the glass requirement - you'd need 6+mm thick glass for panes that size, which would make them weigh a ton and make the book shelf front heavy and prone to tipping.
It simply doesn't have the depth required for an adequate enclosure, and effectively heating it would be a nightmare.

Check through the DIY section here, or look on Youtube - there are hundreds of enclosure build vids there...


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## Tigerlily (Dec 22, 2014)

arevenant said:


> Your problem with the black one is both it's height and the backing board - the backing board is far to thin and can be easily pushed out - you'd need to replace it with 6-9mm ply board or something similar.
> The problem with it's height is the glass requirement - you'd need 6+mm thick glass for panes that size, which would make them weigh a ton and make the book shelf front heavy and prone to tipping.
> It simply doesn't have the depth required for an adequate enclosure, and effectively heating it would be a nightmare.
> 
> Check through the DIY section here, or look on Youtube - there are hundreds of enclosure build vids there...




Just what I needed to know. Thanks for your advice!!


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