Just got our first BTS! (Pictures included)

[DianaBlueTongue]

you can make a hide like this out of a piece of slate and some bricks too, I would have, just didn't have either handy at the moment. My hubby makes all my melamine enclosures for me so theres always left over pieces laying round

[STCxB]

One idea that kind of appealed to me was using the styrofoam and grout method, but making one out of some slate seems like a much simpler method.

[DianaBlueTongue]

yeah, you can use a hot glue gun to affix the slate to the brick and if you want, brick to the bottom of the cage. That way the bluey cant knock the slate off the bricks and hurt itself. I like having the big flat spot ontop of my blues hide, it makes feeding messy meals much simpler.

[Susann]

In the background you can see one of my raised platforms. This is Maddie's cage, so there's no substrate due to her having been gravid, but it serves as a basking platform or a warm hide. I'm in the process of putting together bigger ones to put their water on, to keep substrate out of it.

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I use Gorilla glue. Once that cures, there's no getting it off, and when cured is perfectly fume free and will never dissolve.

[DianaBlueTongue]

wow, susan! That looks like an awesome caging system! Do you have pics of the whole unit by any chance? My hubby and I are moving into our own house in a few months and are planning to build a big multicage unit into one of our walls

[Susann]

Here you go!

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These are showcase cages. We've actually added two more since then...

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This was before the snake moved in on the bottom left. But you can see some of the platforms

[DianaBlueTongue]

Fantastic! Did you build them yourselves? Are they made from mostly melamine? Wow, would it be remotely possible to get some rough building plans for these cages from you? This is exactly what I was picturing and am gonna show the hubby, he's the builder. If not I think he can probably go by the pics, would you mind if I used this design?

[donkeybuff]

Diana, Susann gets her cages from http://www.showcasecages.com/

[DianaBlueTongue]

oh! Yikes! That's a bit outta my price range at the moment, thanks for posting the link, but I think ill still go for the general concept though. Thanks, sorry for hijacking the thread.

[Susann]

I've been sending you PM's so we wouldn't need to get too OT, why I haven't been answering here...

[Clavietika]

Here's the hide I mentioned earlier buried, and a shot of my dude relaxing on top of it. He's on his way inside right now, actually!

[STCxB]

I'm so jealous of that housing system. It's absolutely gorgeous.

I'm gonna make a little hide for Calypso (that's what we named her and I just realized I never put that up anywhere!) pretty soon here and I'll post pictures up once we have it built and ready to go. Thanks for all the ideas. I'm super impressed with how quickly everyone on here responds and how helpful you all are!

[Susann]

7 new hide/platforms made! 10" X 14" tiles:

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[STCxB]

Those are really nice looking. What did you use for the legs?

[Clavietika]

PVC pipe from the hardware store. I think usually they'll cut it to length for you (You want 2.5-4" legs I do believe, depending on how deep your substrate is and how tall your skinks are.) at the store, but you can also buy a pipe-cutting tool and do it yourself.

I can't comment on what Susann used, but I think a hot glue gun or non-toxic tank caulking would be the things to use.

[STCxB]

Aquarium sealant seems like a safe option for that, or gorilla glue if you're really concerned about strength (or have a very overweight skink!).

[Susann]

Yup, 10" X 14" tiles, PVC pipe, gorilla glue.
I usually have the pipe cut, or cut it myself, but I found a bag of these 2 3/8" length "joints" for PVC pipe. They are shorter than I would normally want for a platform, but the platforms are to be used for the water bowls --which are big 9" X 13" glass pans-- which doesn't leave enough room on the tile for a skink to crawl up on it to drink, so I wanted the tiles lower to the ground. There's still enough room for them to dig in to the substrate to lay under the tile for a cool hide, but hopefully still high enough to keep the substrate out of the water. I bought little rubber bumpers to stick to the bottoms of the glass pans to keep the skinks from pushing them off the platform ...hopefully!

I thought about going with bigger tiles (like 16" X 16"), but thinking about getting them in and out of the cages to dig out skinks or to clean, convinced me I'd rather go with smaller, lower ones.