Good morning everyone
Been meaning to post this for a while, i bought my first snake a few months back and decided i wanted to get bigger housing ready for it. I started looking round for 4ft vivariums and was suprised at how much companys and shops charge for them. In the end i decided to have a go at making my own....not as hard as you might think.

I started by measuring and marking my floor to see what size of viv i would have the space for.

Once i had got the dimensions i got up to b&q and had some contiboard in maple i think its called cut to the sizes i required. top, bottom, 2 runner pieces and 2 sides. For the backing i got a thin sheet of white hardboard (i cut this myself with a stanley knife) i picked up some chipboard screws, screw caps, iron on wood laminate, some pins and 2 fascia vents.

I got home and screwed together the contiboard i had cut (from my little sketch, take some time over this as it has to be perfect) Also be careful as your screwing chipboard is known for splitting, aswell as the vivarium being very wobbly with no back board at this point.



Once this is done you can put on your back board, before i pinned the board to the back of the viv i siliconed on my background picture (much easier than trying to cut it inside the viv) i then used the poly top pins to secure the back board in place. The viv is now very sturdy!



Then the finishing touches on the wood, cap off the screw heads with the screw caps from b&q and then iron on the laminate wood to cover the bare chip board (part and parcel of having it cut) once youve ironed it on trim off the excess with a stanley blade.


Here is a pic of the screw caps (nice finishing touch i think)


Here is a pic of the iron on laminate and some small feet i had knocking around


I am using a mat on a stat in this viv, The best way to hide the wires is to drill a hole in the base of the viv now and shove through the thermostat sensor and the wire from the mat (you need to cut the plug off to shove the wire from mat through) dont worry, its only 2 wires to re wire the plug, brown to the fuse on the plug and blue to the opposite side.

OK so once youve got the wiring sorted, i tape mats down with heavy duty gaffa tape to prevent the snake getting under the mat. You can now mount your thermostat somewhere!



Im pretty dissapointed i dont have the runners from viv builder yet, he has good feedback but im not convinced theyve taken well over a week. Ill add to this thread when they arrive.

I went ahead and fitted out the tank
I used a xl hide, l water bowl, smooth wood, cork bark, aspen bedding and the best bargain were the plants 79p each.






heres a pic of the critter in question, im going to try keeping her with another female corn in this viv, as a guide, next to the viv is a small faunarium 12" long i think, so the viv stands at roughly the 4 foot mark.





So left to do, i have to fit my uv starter and bulb, runners and glass, but hopefully this gives people a rough guide of how to make a viv and just to show how over priced vivs really are for what they are. I wish i had used my slr now instead of my phone and made it a bit more detailed. oh well.

It hasnt cost me much, i think £35 so far for everything apart from decor and heating. Ill do a breakdown of the cost when i get chance.

ps im no carpenter by the way, its pretty simple.

Looks fantastic! Unfortunately I'm no DIY person and would rather have someone else do the hard work I'm tempted to get my corn a 4 foot viv (partly so I can have 2 2 foot vivs on top of it for my Steno's)

Where did you get that background from?

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1.0 Anery Corn Snake
2.4.3 Stenodactylus stenodactylus
0.2 Mourning Geckos
1.0.60+ Shark & Ray Fossils

1.0 Boyfriend



The Natural World Forum

looking very good well done

Could you have stuck your background pick to your backboard and then pined it in place just a thought ??

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Some of my collection
1-1 Hog's islands, 2-1 Rosy boa's, 1-2 Brazilians, 1-2 Hognose, 10-15 Corns, 2-3 Albino APH, 1-1 Tortoise, 0-1 Bosc

Well done viv looks great.

__________________
Andy and Sue


1.1 Black Rat snake
3.2. Royal Pythons
lots of Corn snakes
1.2 Argentine Boa (not rainbow)
0.1 Albino Burmese
1.4 Common Boa
1.2 Bearded Dragons
1.1 Chinese Water dragons
1.0 Bosc
0.0.1 Golden gecko
0.0.1 Marble gecko
0.0.1 Giant millipede
0.1.1 Chile Rose Tarantula
1.0 Mexican red knee Tarantula
1.1 Madagascan Hissing cockroach

ok so its for a corn, and your getting a UV :S?

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1.1 Epicrates cenchria Crassus - Carr and Carrla

0.2 Python Regius - Nyoka and Meesha

0.1 Varanus Acanthuras - Irwin

1.1 Uromastyx Ocellatus - Apollo and Electra

yeah thats what i did, think i might have worded it wrong up there

Ill use UV, why not? corns get sunlight in the wild, i want to make it as natural as possible.

Nice job mate ... really good at that

Where did you get the plants from at 79p ?

Also one disagreement and i am sure quite alot of others would agree, i wouldn't use UV for corns personally (by the way i am not having a go, so do not take it personally or anything) but apart from that all is good

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i stand corrected, corns are nocturnal and dont require UV, thanks for the advice. My g/f can have the uv for her geckos. I got the plants form a place near me called carols discount.

thats looking really good! I wish I could build things like that

I'm sure it will make a very cosy new home!

the contents are good too - lots of good hidey places!

The viv looks nice. Are you planning to just silicone the runner strips for the glass into place?

BTW you can often pick up the runner strips for glass doors in 4mm or 6mm at good hardware stores.

Mark