New Boyds Enclosure Set-up Pics.

[Southside Morelia]

Hey all,

Just thought i'd share some pics and set up stages for the construction of my new Boyds Forest Dragon Enclosure.
Thanks to Dickynee, who made the actual enclosure for me, he did a top job and is a nice guy as well.
Thanks Mr Knee!!!
First pics are of the enclosure in stages of manufacture.
I changed my mind after the start of construction and made it deeper, which weas a challange to Brett, but he made it happen!

 

[Aslan]

What are the dimensions? looks great...

 

[salebrosus]

Make sure you waterproof the bottom. My enclosure is nearly stuffed. I spray mine with water everyday and the melamine has swelled. I know, obvious issue (yes i am blonde) but it never occured to me at the time.

 

[Southside Morelia]

Second stage is to fit a waterproof base in the way of a perspex tray to allow me to add a substrate and drainage.
I then added some large pebbles, follwed by flyscreen, follwed by small pebbles...then the substrate.

 

[Southside Morelia]

Hold on guys the only way I can fit all the pics etc in, is if I do it in multiple posts as I can only fit 4 or 5 at a time...
Anyways back to the story...
The substrate comes next, this consisted of Coir or palm peat, which you get at any gardening supplier. DON'T GET THE ONE WITH FERTILZER as this will feed any bacteria in the substrate!

 

[salebrosus]

will be great to see the final product.

 

[mrmikk]

Great job, looks fantatsic, make sure you show us the pics when complete with its new inhabitants.

 

[luke.r.s]

wow cant wait to see the finished product looking like its gonna be a stunner when its finished

 

[Southside Morelia]

Next, Is the enjoyable part of fitting out the enclosure!!
I purchased a rock wall face with a waterfall built in from Universal rocks. not cheap but I have all their stuff in nearly all of my enclosures, it's so life like, it's looks just like the real thing!
I also went to my mates at Extreme Pets who fixed me up with some mad looking rain foresty branches etc, that have bits of moss and leichens on it.
With the main tree, i actually strpped the bark off the branch and tore it in a way to make it look like the butrose roots of a large tree...came out pretty good if I must say so myself. I have added a close up as i'm pretty stoked with my handy work there...(sorry to sound like a Wa*ker there).

 

[Jungle_Freak]

Top looking set up Scott
Spectacular ,,
any pics of the boyds ?
and how do you feed them ?


cheers
Roger

 

[Southside Morelia]

And finally, the new inhabitants enjoying their new bigger, better home.

I have auto misting which I purchased from the US, which has a full on digital programmable timer, which can turn on anf off with as many programs as you want, it's unreal...I intend to mimick the rainfall periods in the part of QLD where the Boyds inhabit, so it is as close as possible to get it how they actually live in the wild. Wetter in Summer, dryer in Winter, this will also hopefully help them to breed....
Although I will not have as much rainfall as what occurs in the wet season, as I won't have a big enough catchment vessel underneath...LOL
Oh, and I intend to mimick temps as well.
Have a go at the male having a bath in the waterfall, priceless hey, he went in there after about an hour after moving in.

 

[Southside Morelia]

Top looking set up Scott
any pics of the boyds ?
and how do you feed them ?


cheers
Roger

Thanks Rog,

I love setting up my enclosures, it's the best part of the hobby IMO, although i'm not one of the best breeders in OZ and making sh8t loads hey mate...only joking!:lol:

I feed mine a variety of roaches, silk worms, earth worms & mealies.
I feed them either by hand or if i'm lazy just chuck them into a ceramic bonsai planter pot which has teflon paint painted on the sides so the roaches don't escape.

forgot to mention, in the rock wall/waterfall I planted tropical rock orchids in the little nooks and crannys, which will add to the rainforest effect when they flower.there good cause they don't grow big at all.

 

[Southside Morelia]

What are the dimensions? looks great...

Sorry Asian, forgot to mention, it's 1800mm high, 900mm viewing window and about 1000mm deep.

 

[theduclos]

best looking enclosure i have seen in ages. would be cool as a frog setup aswell. with a few small mods of course.

 

[Aslan]

Wow, that's massive...awesome looking enclosure and brilliant Boyds

 

[arbok]

wow thats incredable, maybe u could get a job setting updisplay enclousures

didnt realise boyds needed so much space! how big do they get?
any ideas on how you will go about cleaning? i spose with the water yuck stuff might get washed away ? (hopefully lol)

great job mate!

paul

 

[Southside Morelia]

wow thats incredable, maybe u could get a job setting updisplay enclousures

didnt realise boyds needed so much space! how big do they get?
any ideas on how you will go about cleaning? i spose with the water yuck stuff might get washed away ? (hopefully lol)

great job mate!

paul

Thanks for all the kind words guys...keep em coming!! LOL

As a matter of fact Paul, I'd love to do it as a job, friends and family say it often, although mate I don't think it would make ends meet somehow, it would be nice though, going to work and doing something that you are passionate about!!
I actually do alot of research beforehand before starting, right down to contacting people individually, like a biologist in QLD on what orchids would grow in this enviroment with the parameters it will have.

Cleaning will be fine, I did have a smaller version of this running for the last 14 months, this is basically the same but a larger scale. Ewhat you do is frequent watering of the substrate and because it has good drainage it flushes all the nasties through.
I actually cleaned out the substrate in the last enclosure and after 14 months it smelt like earth, not foul or unpleasant in any way, I was very suprised at how fresh it smelt...good drainage is the key.
it was funny I found heaps of earthworms, and wood roaches it was like a mini eco system, pretty cool.

Anyone up to have their enclosure fitted out.....must be a big job that lasts me until retirement!

 

[Minka]

Thats a beautiful set up Southside Morelia! Boyds are the most beautiful animals and so calm lol

Do you feed them in a seperate tub? I find trying to feed things like woodies to them when there is substrate in the enclosure difficult to say the least! You walk in at night and find all the lost insects running wild lol

Like i said Great Job!

Minka

 

[Aussietoby]

Wow thats amazing :shock:

 

[sneakypete]

Wow! what a great enclosure, looks like a lot of time amd effort has gone into it. It's great to see people like yourself so dedicated to providing a great environment for their pets to live in. Congrats