Another TV cabinet conversion! New and exciting!

[konp69]

Picking up a new snake tomorrow, a bredli, and I figured I'd take the weekend to build an enclosure for when he's big enough out of an old TV cabinet I had lying around gathering dust. So far I've been at it for a total of about 6 hours and I've already installed the vents, gotten two coats of polyurethane on it, installed the glass runners and installed a litter dam (that wound up being a little taller than I expected).

In my eagerness to get it done, I didn't take any "before" shots but here is where I'm up to now. The cabinet used to have a set of doors on it, I was trying to make them work for this but they wouldn't cooperate so I ditched them. The vents are sink strainers in pairs, one inside one outside - I wanted to go drain grates but at 10 bucks a pop I wasn't interested. $1.25 per strainer was a much better choice economically.

 

[Python-Lover4lyf]

Kool ... Some great ideas there. How old is your bredli that your getting and who are you buying off?

 

[konp69]

Kool ... Some great ideas there. How old is your bredli that your getting and who are you buying off?

3 months old on the 16th and off jham66. Can't wait to get it. My gf is purchasing it for me as a belated birthday pressie.

 

[Python-Lover4lyf]

lol kool as .. your so lucky! I recently purchased a 6 week old hypo bredli ... he's now 12 weeks old (3 months) You'll be so happy with your little guy. Bredli's are amazing and i wouldn't change mine for the world.

 

[konp69]

lol kool as .. your so lucky! I recently purchased a 6 week old hypo bredli ... he's now 12 weeks old (3 months) You'll be so happy with your little guy. Bredli's are amazing and i wouldn't change mine for the world.

Yeah this one's a hypo as well. It was actually really fortuitous that I found the thread where he was selling them, because like a day or so before I decided the next snake I wanted was a bredli.

Just a question - how big are they at 3 months? My spotted is just under a meter and he's about 5 years old, and I know bredlis get much bigger than that.

 

[Python-Lover4lyf]

My 3 month is about 45cm - 50cm. Alot smaller than i was expecting him to be.

Haha my first snake was a spotted to and my second a bredli. What's your spotted's temperament like? My spotted is pretty nasty IMO hypo bredli's are the best looking pythons and one of, if not the most placid. But everyone has their own oppinion.

 

[konp69]

My 3 month is about 45cm - 50cm. Alot smaller than i was expecting him to be.

Haha my first snake was a spotted to and my second a bredli. What's your spotted's temperament like? My spotted is pretty nasty IMO hypo bredli's are the best looking pythons and one of, if not the most placid. But everyone has their own oppinion.

He's super-friendly. Doesn't mind being handled now that he recognises me, is happy to have hands in his cage, doesn't get snappy or strikey. He doesn't flick his tongue though. Like, ever. I got him from a friend who could no longer care for him and even then I never recall seeing him tongue-flick.

I'd be more worried about that if he had obvious problems eating or was otherwise unhealthy but he'll be 6 soon so clearly it's not causing him problems.

 

[balthazar]

Why use a TV cabinet when you can use a TV.

 

[konp69]

Lighting's done, along with adding some screws to the sides of the litter dam to hold it in place. The fitting is just a little $22 twin 20W low-profile halogen downlight wedge from Bunnings. Lights it up really well though as you can see.

 

[konp69]

$30 worth of glass and a bit of dremel tooling later, and it now has glass doors!! The tool worked quite well at getting the corners rounded. Not so fantastic for the edges but it took the sharp edge off mostly evenly. It's safe to run your fingers along the edge, at any rate.

Next up is a set of THESE and then it will be almost complete. Just have to sort out a shelf on the inside, and the background, and then it'll be ready to go. The housecat will not be a permanent resident though. He was just "testing" it.

 

[Python-Lover4lyf]

Lol a good tester. It's looking good and it's lit up real well. That might be a bit big for a 3 month old bredli but as long as you have heaps of hides, can keep the temp at a constant and your bredli doesn't seemed stressed and eats without problems it should be fine! Here's my hand to show the size of my bredli. My hands are small btw lol

 

[konp69]

View attachment 253282

Lol a good tester. It's looking good and it's lit up real well. That might be a bit big for a 3 month old bredli but as long as you have heaps of hides, can keep the temp at a constant and your bredli doesn't seemed stressed and eats without problems it should be fine! Here's my hand to show the size of my bredli. My hands are small btw lol

Eh, he's not going into it for a while. I was considering putting my spotted in there when it's finished, and putting the bredli in the spotted's old enclosure until he gets bigger. Then I'll just do a swap.

Unless there's some reason I shouldn't do that? Their scent or something?

 

[Python-Lover4lyf]

There's no reason you shouldn't do that. Just give the enclosures a good scrub between swaps

 

[Ambush]

My Coastal was in a big enclosure straight away. Just gave her plenty of branches and hides. She was fine and still is. She fitted into a chinese food container then.

 

[Python-Lover4lyf]

pic didn't work Ambush

 

[Ambush]

hhmmm not sure why. Fixed... That was taken this afternoon. Got lots.. went snap happy with the iphone.

 

[konp69]

My Coastal was in a big enclosure straight away. Just gave her plenty of branches and hides. She was fine and still is. She fitted into a chinese food container then.



View attachment 253312

But he's so tiny, I'd be afraid he'd find the one spot I didn't properly seal or something. At the very least I'd have to get some thin ply strips or some thick felt and glue them down the inside of the right-hand pane and the outside of the left-hand pane to close that gap.

Maybe when he's a little bigger. Seriously. So tiny right now.

 

[Python-Lover4lyf]

lol That's what i was worrying about konp69

 

[konp69]

I AM A GODDAMN GENIUS



So for a little while I've been wondering about utilising the space the two bottom drawers of this cabinet took up. My girlfriend and I bounced ideas off one another as to how exactly to achieve this - I was thinking a hinged acrylic panel, whereas she was... well actually I had all the ideas, she didn't think it'd work very well and would be "more trouble than it was worth" (due to her thinking there was a piece of wood horizontally across the front between the two drawers requiring removal). I was just removing the drawers and taking them outside when I saw the old doors from the top half. And I thought to myself "I wonder..."

Turns out I should be some kind of engineer or something because the door fits PERFECTLY across that space whilst looking really awesome. Now all that's required is a method for locking it to the cabinet when closed so it can't be nosed open (I'm thinking one of those big locking bolts for sliding doors you can get from bunnings) and a piece of wood across the bottom so it's not bare tile, and cutting a rectangular hole in the surface that's the "bottom" of the cabinet so that he will be able to get between the two spaces easily. That way he can go down there when he wants to get away from the light or whatever.

I'm quite proud of myself for coming up with this solution, to be honest.

-ninja edit-

Also, I've started working on a background using random styrofoam shapes from the packaging of our TV. It's intentionally not as tall as the cabinet so there's room for a light cage.

 

[Revell13]

thats looking effing amazing mate, keep up the great work! Going to be stealing your ideas for my snake enclosure, this is my foam "rock" wall and furniture if you want some ideas?

http://www.aussiepythons.com/forum/diy-zone-5392/first-attempt-terrarium-furniture-186546/