24/06/2025
** swipe for progress **
Spent the majority of our evening swapping out two, glass front opening enclosures for some dubia enclosures.
Currently in the process of changing several of our setups over to these. The sliding doors are more space friendly, and the dubia enclosures are more flush and true-to-sizs measurement wise.
While the front opening glass tanks worked well enough for a smaller handful of animals, they were EXTREMELY heavy and had a thicker base than the usable dimensions of the tank. This made it really hard to find a standard shelf that would fit them properly, and we have a few creative or custom with work arounds.
I rearrange my reptile room often enough to try and maximize space and keep things feeling fresh and relaxing for me, that having lightweight enclosures that FIT has become really important to me.
I personally only have 2 more enclosures im planning to swap over here, but at my partners place (as our collection is split between the two of us at this time), there will be plenty more to go.
1. Midas, our Cinnamon Champagne girl, in her freshly set up and decorated enclosure
2. One of the old tanks, with Edith (kingpin) inside-inside a quarantine tote. This was her setup while being treated for an RI so she could still receive overhead heating; due to the fact i knew I was changing enclosures soon, I just kept her in that tote until the new enclosure came in so I wasnt cleaning twice
3. Old tanks out, new tanks in
4. The girls new enclosures before I got the decorations back in; all the wood was baked, all plants washed, and entirely new substrate added in.
5. More zoomed in view of Midas climbing/basking side. Even for a female ball, shes always used this branch a ton!
There's still more work to do. Thermostats, blocking part of the screen with cling wrap, and getting name tags and locks back up.
Another bonus is because im using low profile lamps, the previous enclosures were at risk of melting if they weren't angled on the lids properly. The dubia enclosures being fully metal all across, is going to be super nice!
Not sponsored, just happy to have something thats been a better fit for our zoo falling into place.