Indonesian BTS enclosure?

[Calli79]

enclosure 3 windows (1).png

First of all thank you for having me. My wife purchased a Indonesian Blue Tongue Skink one month ago and wants me to build her an enclosure. I modeled this in Sketchup and would like to get an opinion since I have never built a reptile enclosure. I plan on lining the bottom 6 inches with glass and sealing the edges with silicone to hold the substrate. The front sliding doors will also be glass. Until today, I was planning on building it out of Cherry but my wife read somewhere that Cherry contains cyanide and may not be suitable for an enclosure. What other type of wood would you recommend? I'm also curious what to seal the higher exposed hardwood/plywood in the enclosure. Something that can handle the humidity requirements of the Indonesian BTS.

Thanks

[mb606587]

I've seen plenty of enclosures built of cherry wood. But pretty much any plywood or hard wood will work (maple, oak, birch). You'll want to avoid lumber from coniferous trees such as pine or cedar or anything chemically treated. I personally use Kennel Seal but you could also use any low VOC water based polyurethane as long as you let it air out. Avoid oil based polyurethanes or any sealants with high VOC's. And as you stated, silicone caulk the seams.