Thought I'd post some info & pics on my in-wall enclosure as I had a few questions asked when I posted the pic on another thread. In my case, it's more of a "design it yourself" not "do it yourself" as I didn't really do much hands on stuff myself.
Well, it all began when we were renovating the house and in the hallway, I had double doors leading into my study and these doors were recessed in, with the walls either side coming in on an angle. We decided to extend another room into the study and so these double doors were closed permanently. From the hallway, however, we were left with closed doors that we wanted to cover up somehow. We decided on an in-wall snake enclosure as a feature in the hallway.
We got a friend in that's a cabinet maker and he measured it up, allowing for an enclosure that was 2.7m long, 1.7m high and about 600mm deep. The guts of the enclosure were built with white melamine and the cupboard faces with vinyl wrap. There are two tall cupboards either side of the enclosure (inside, they are triangle shaped to allow for where the walls were angled in). Then there are 6 small storage cupboards underneath.
View attachment 270625 View attachment 270626 So, at this stage, it looks pretty plain.
After this, I ordered a piece of latex background (the most expensive part of the whole project) and then had that fitted by cutting it to size and screwing it to the back-board and then covering the screws with non-toxic silicone. While the silicone was still wet, we dabbed it with fine 2mm gravel to cover the screws - they're barely noticeable.
The next thing that went in was the Strangler Fig. This was cut on an angle at the top so that it fitted flush against the side of the enclosure. It was then screwed to the side of the enclosure to make sure it didn't budge.
The most difficult part was probably the glass. As I mentioned earlier, we were doing reno's on the house and the company that installed some windows to the extension had a look at the enclosure and said they could fit sliding doors no problem. I insisted on 10mm glass, being that each door measured 165mm high x 137mm wide. When they initially installed the glass, they basically put a track on top, a track on the bottom with some plastic balls for the glass to run on and just popped the glass on.
This was useless as whenever we opened or closed the doors, the plastic balls kept popping out of the tracks - the doors were way too heavy! Then they tried larger metal balls - this just chipped the bottom of the glass doors! In the end, they decided to cut the doors back a bit from the bottom and fit tracks directly onto the doors that had runners on the underside so that they could move freely inside the tracks. This worked, although the doors are still heavy and it does take some effort to move them, they do move a lot smoother.
Yay!!! We finally have doors!
Now finally for the heating. I bought a huge heat mat and then had a piece of glass cut to size that was about 20mm bigger than the heat mat on all sides. I put the heat mat in place under the Strangler Fig and then placed the glass on top and siliconed it in place. That made it water tight if the snake ever defecated on it. Obviously water bowl was up the other end. Heat Mat is connected to a thermostat and I've got a separate digital thermometer on the heat mat and the temps get to about 26 -28 degrees directly on the substrate thats on top of the heat mat. At the other end, temps vary around 20 - 24 degrees.
Then I had 4 x 50w halogen globes fitted to the roof of the enclosure. These are on a timer and only on during the day. Although small, I found these raise the temps by about 2 degrees when they're on, allowing for a cooler night time temp.
I let everything sit for about 2 weeks - allowing for the silicone to cure and constantly monitoring the temps. Then I added some fake plants that I'd purchased online and I am currently using Critter Crumble as the Substrate - may switch to Repti-Bark though, 'cause he makes a mess with the Critter Crumble and pushes it around too easily. I'm constantly vacuuming it out of the tracks and fixing it up.
So, this is the finished product:
I thought I'd put my Black Headed in and watch his body language as I was considering putting in a heat lamp as an additional basking spot. He's been in there about 6 months now and he's using the entire enclosure really well. After eating, he sits on top of the heat mat for about 3 - 4 days, then after a poo, he spends most of his time up the cooler end. When he's hungry, he climbs up the Strangler Fig and even up the background a few times. He's still not shedding in one piece, but he never has in the 3 years I've had him.
Cuddles seems to love his new enclosure!
Well, it all began when we were renovating the house and in the hallway, I had double doors leading into my study and these doors were recessed in, with the walls either side coming in on an angle. We decided to extend another room into the study and so these double doors were closed permanently. From the hallway, however, we were left with closed doors that we wanted to cover up somehow. We decided on an in-wall snake enclosure as a feature in the hallway.
We got a friend in that's a cabinet maker and he measured it up, allowing for an enclosure that was 2.7m long, 1.7m high and about 600mm deep. The guts of the enclosure were built with white melamine and the cupboard faces with vinyl wrap. There are two tall cupboards either side of the enclosure (inside, they are triangle shaped to allow for where the walls were angled in). Then there are 6 small storage cupboards underneath.
View attachment 270625 View attachment 270626 So, at this stage, it looks pretty plain.
After this, I ordered a piece of latex background (the most expensive part of the whole project) and then had that fitted by cutting it to size and screwing it to the back-board and then covering the screws with non-toxic silicone. While the silicone was still wet, we dabbed it with fine 2mm gravel to cover the screws - they're barely noticeable.
The next thing that went in was the Strangler Fig. This was cut on an angle at the top so that it fitted flush against the side of the enclosure. It was then screwed to the side of the enclosure to make sure it didn't budge.
The most difficult part was probably the glass. As I mentioned earlier, we were doing reno's on the house and the company that installed some windows to the extension had a look at the enclosure and said they could fit sliding doors no problem. I insisted on 10mm glass, being that each door measured 165mm high x 137mm wide. When they initially installed the glass, they basically put a track on top, a track on the bottom with some plastic balls for the glass to run on and just popped the glass on.
This was useless as whenever we opened or closed the doors, the plastic balls kept popping out of the tracks - the doors were way too heavy! Then they tried larger metal balls - this just chipped the bottom of the glass doors! In the end, they decided to cut the doors back a bit from the bottom and fit tracks directly onto the doors that had runners on the underside so that they could move freely inside the tracks. This worked, although the doors are still heavy and it does take some effort to move them, they do move a lot smoother.Yay!!! We finally have doors!Now finally for the heating. I bought a huge heat mat and then had a piece of glass cut to size that was about 20mm bigger than the heat mat on all sides. I put the heat mat in place under the Strangler Fig and then placed the glass on top and siliconed it in place. That made it water tight if the snake ever defecated on it. Obviously water bowl was up the other end. Heat Mat is connected to a thermostat and I've got a separate digital thermometer on the heat mat and the temps get to about 26 -28 degrees directly on the substrate thats on top of the heat mat. At the other end, temps vary around 20 - 24 degrees.
Then I had 4 x 50w halogen globes fitted to the roof of the enclosure. These are on a timer and only on during the day. Although small, I found these raise the temps by about 2 degrees when they're on, allowing for a cooler night time temp.
I let everything sit for about 2 weeks - allowing for the silicone to cure and constantly monitoring the temps. Then I added some fake plants that I'd purchased online and I am currently using Critter Crumble as the Substrate - may switch to Repti-Bark though, 'cause he makes a mess with the Critter Crumble and pushes it around too easily. I'm constantly vacuuming it out of the tracks and fixing it up.
So, this is the finished product:
I thought I'd put my Black Headed in and watch his body language as I was considering putting in a heat lamp as an additional basking spot. He's been in there about 6 months now and he's using the entire enclosure really well. After eating, he sits on top of the heat mat for about 3 - 4 days, then after a poo, he spends most of his time up the cooler end. When he's hungry, he climbs up the Strangler Fig and even up the background a few times. He's still not shedding in one piece, but he never has in the 3 years I've had him.
Cuddles seems to love his new enclosure!
any plans for more?
