GRRR...Reptariums!

<img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/mad.gif" alt="" /> <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/mad.gif" alt="" /> <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/mad.gif" alt="" />
Does anyone else have reptariums?! I'm absolutely venting!
I bought a reptarium, and I have to say, I'm not very pleased. There is no where to hang anything. I've been using little paper-coated wire "twisties"...you know, the type of thing that twists around the open part of a bread bag? (Anyone know what the heck I'm talking about?) And...it is SO hard to undo all those annoying little twisties, take everything out, clean it and put it all back it. It's so tedious....

Anyway, I was wondering if (for anyone who has a reptarium) knows any other SIMPLER way to hang ladders, nestboxes, etc?

OR, where can I find a great bird cage/glider cage type thing for CHEAP?
I have to say, my parents are not going to be pleased that I spent 150 some on a reptarium that I don't even like, and want to buy another cage...so...cheap is gooooood...but good quality.

<img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/thanx.gif" alt="" />

I'll post pics of the twisties and how im hanging everything later.

I use cable ties, which I learned about at the SGGA, and you can buy them at Wal-Mart. I only use my reps for temp use, though; however, I know there are many people who use them instead of cages. Hope this helps!

You can also screw circle hooks into the pvc.

I use keyrings that are slightly bigger than the pvc pipes for hanging toys and pouches. Works great for me!


Jen

I can make reptarium "sleeves" that have hooks and such. I have also been working on some cross peices that will go in my repts to hang things from both across the top and along the sides. If you are interested, pm me and we'll discuss some of my ideas.

I bought two repts for the SGGA and since then have been working on making them more user friendly.

GFS,

There is a very simple and satisfying way to fix your problem. It sounds like you have the exact same reptarium style I have. Probably even the same brand. Anyway, I had the same problem and fixed it very easily:

I went to Wal-Mart (where else!) and bought some coated wire shelving. Then, I took a hacksaw and a tape measure and measured the distance across the cage. The package I bought came with two shelves that were designed to be mounted to a wall. I cut two pieces - one to set across the top cross-bars and one for the middle ones.

Then, I sanded all the cut edges smooth and rounded. If you do this right they won't be accessible to your babies anyway because the mesh will stretch tight against the ends, but it's better to be safe than sorry. A sharp edge can hurt your baby a lot of different ways.

Then, I set the shelves in and zip-tied them in place. They are wire shelves so there is a TON of ways to hang things! I use the top shelf for their sleeping pouch, Tiki Hut, and toys and it works perfectly!

The middle shelf is even better though! I took the cage that came with them (a standard 18x18x24 white wire pet cage)and placed it right on the middle shelf. It has the tray in the bottom for droppings and the little water bottle and feeder dishes sit right in there. I use it as my glider kitchen and they love it! I have an exercise wheel in there and it makes feeding them and cleaning up a snap. Plus, I have a ferret house and a couple of small toys clipped to the underside of the shelf itself!

I leave the bottom half of the cage wide open so they can jump around down there and go nuts. I just keep an old sheet at the bottom to catch their normal messes. I have the 6ft reptarium and they really like it set up this way.

My digital camera is no longer in this world or I'd send you some pics. Feel free to e-mail me if you have any questions and I'll gladly try to help you out.

One word of advice though: If you got the black-mesh reptarium that comes with the flimsy black PVC pipes? DO NOT try to screw directly into them!! They are super-weak and they will crack and splinter!! I'm drawing up plans right now to re-engineer the support structure with much sturdier PVC. The ones that came with it are a total waste.

I hope some of this helps!

GreatBallsOhFur (Ron)

I bought the metal shower curtain rings. They firt over the PVC tube great. From them I attached the plastic chain CalleJean sells. I run the chain from one side to the other and hang the toys off of that. For the food bowls I got the some bird dishs that have hooks on the back and hook them right into the reptarium.

Everything sounds great! I think I might try that keychain thing, or just talk to my parents about another cage.

Going out right now to buy a bunch of keyrings.
Thank you so much everyone!
You saved me from tedious hour long cleaning, and from buying them another cage. I'd feel bad, cuz I can't afford another 6ft tall cage...Reptariums are real cheap but I have a feeling a 6ft tall bird cage is NOT cheap.

[:"blue"] Could you please post what size rept you purchased? I have used them as permanent housing for several years and will never return to wire. These have been awesome for me but they are not for everyone.

Decorating can be a little more challenging than wire but with a little imagination and help from other users, most problems can be solved.

Zipties are great as are the other suggestions. You can also use plastic shower curtain rings or baby links. You can tie glider friendly rope from side to side and all around. If you have a shelf cut (be sure to use the rubber end caps for where the cuts were made) you can sit feeding stations on it and hang pouches/toys from it also.

I'm sure there will be other rept users to post soon. [/]

What a great thread! You guys are just so clever with all the tips! I've used the round baby teething rings, but I like the idea of metal key rings (and that's great, as long as they are the right kinda metal). I've noticed my teething links are a bit "fat" and kind of stress the mesh a little...

OH! I'm soooo glad i found this post! just bought a 175 gal rep for trout and his soon-to-arrive sister, and was worrying about the very same thing. (thought i haven't tried anything, cause no one's living in it yet - i'm keeping it neutral for introductions) I love the shelving idea! If i'm picturing it right, that'd be a great place to hang stuff and play (well ... errm ... for the gliders to play, anyway...) I was thinking about getting harness rings, but keyrings or shower curtain rings would be much cheaper.

Does anyone ziptie/twist tie stuff directly to the mesh? i would think it'd stress it too much, but from what i've read, it seems some do.

and another question - how is the mesh on their nails? if they're a bit long, does it catch a lot?

keep the good ideas a-flowin'!!

</font><blockquote><font class="small">Quote:</font><hr />
Then, I sanded all the cut edges smooth and rounded.

<hr /></blockquote><font class="post">

I just finished building a bigger cage (from PVC coated wire) and I found the greatest tool for cutting things like that is a Dremel tool. When you use wire snips for cutting wire, it leaves that little sharp ridge on the end of the wire. The Dremel leaves a smooth edge.

If you aren't familiar with a Dremel, it's like a drill, but you can attach cutting wheels to it for cutting through wire mesh, thin sheets of metal, plastic (I used it to cut the door for my glider kitchen) etc. Be sure to buy the fiberglass reinforced cutting wheels, though. The so-called cutting wheels that come with the Dremel break like glass!

I found some water bottle hangers which had tongues on the back side. I bent the tongue over the pvc pipe and fitted the water bottle into the hanger. This also worked great for me.

So glad you like my keyring idea. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/thumb.gif" alt="" /> I had so many keyrings at hand as I am crafty, lol. It spawned on me to use the keyrings.


Jen

Wow! This turned out to be such a big post!
Glad I posted it! Seems like a lot of people had the same problem!
Anyway, I went out and bought A BUNCH of small keyrings, and hooked them straight onto the mesh. Doesn't stress the mesh at all, and now, I don't have that problem anymore!

Also, KarenE, you asked what size rept I have. I have 260 gallon, it's almost 6ft..little bit less.

The mesh is fine on their nails, even if they're long. My girl had real long nails (because I was too scared to cut them) but I never had a problem. (And I also finally got around to cutting the nails).

Anyway, out of all the posts, I think the keyrings was definately the best, as well as the shelving units (I already have one shelving unit in there, it's just a simple storage unit wire box, with one side open (I put the wheel inside the box, and they just go in through the open door) and I sit their food bowls on top of the storage unit. They love it. They hated eating on the bottom of the cage.

Here is a picture of my reptarium - another pic to come of the keyrings I'm talking about, and then a pic of the "twisties" I was talking about earlier.

Now the keyrings I was talking about.

In the picture above - you can see the ladder hanging on the simple small keyrings.
Here's a pic of the twisties which I reccomend DON'T USE. VERY TEDIOUS. USE THE KEYRINGS

And just one more pic of my rept

How did you attach the keyrings right on the mesh? Wouldn't the keyrings that are attached to the mesh itself tear the mesh? I am kinda worried about that.

As for mine, I slid the keyrings on the pipe itself before attaching the elbows of the frame.


Jen

Nope, it doesn't hurt the mesh. What I did Is used a pen tip to seperate the keyring "leg" from the keyring "body", so I could just, hook the "leg" right through the mesh hole. As you can see from my pictures, it didn't hurt the mesh.

Where did you get your reptarium from I want one but haven't been able to find one!

[:"blue"]I have purchased all of mine from

http://www.reptilehavenonline.com/cgi-bin/supplies.cgi?p=reptariums

The product as well as service is great. If you buy them retail you will end up spending approximately 30% more than ordering. [/]

go to my website in my signature, go to sugar glider housing requirements, and click on the link for reptariums


there from petsmart and REALLY cheap.
for those who don't wanna do all that stuff, heres the direct link...but still, look at my siteee. its sahweet.

PetSmart Reptariums

Thank you so much and your website looks great will go back and look more extesively when I have some time. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/yelclap.gif" alt="" /> I am off to physical therapy in a little while! Hopefully I can get back to work soon! <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/dance.gif" alt="" /> Bye and thanks again! <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/thumb.gif" alt="" />

I got my 175 gal from LLLReptiles online.
A warning for fellow canadians --- it was all american prices (exchange!! ahhh!), and shipping wasn't $10, as they said, but $25, AND customs opened it and charged me another $20!! [censored] government. so a $97 rep cost me more like $150 in the end (maybe a little more... i decided not to do the math). OH!! and I bought a softray and it was $30!! so all in all, i really didn't save any money. [censored]. i wish i hadn't posted this <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/frown.gif" alt="" />

so (censored by KarenE) is a swear word, is it? jeeze.

(har har. the inserted "[censored]" allows the imagination to run wild, doesn't it?)

[:"blue"]You know that word is censored by the system and is not appropriate for a "G" rated family board.

We do not take kindly to people posting in a way to "trick" the censor. [/]

I bought my 260 gallon Reptarium from www.thesquirrelstore.com for just $93 total. That's including tax and shipping & handling too. It was WAY cheaper than PetSmart.

Just talk to Chris and she'll hook you up with the cheapest reptariums that I could find anywhere on the web. I love mine and wouldn't want anything else.

www.reptariumstore.com has a lot of good prices too! :o)

Also, I still don't understand how you got the keyrings on the mesh like that... Can you explain again? Sorry, just not quite grasping that concept.

I'm getting an Exo-Terra Explorarium which is the same mesh as Reptariums, but they are in a circular tube design. I am using it for temp cages but will have the problem of not being able to hang things as well.

How did you get the water bottle to do that??? LOL Thanks!

Haha sure I can explain again! brb lemmie go take some pics so u can see what i mean. i'll post the pics in a few mins.

Alrighty, here's what I mean ( I took pictures)

The first picture is of me seperating the keyring leg from the keyring body, so I can slide the keyring leg through any mesh hole, and then hook it.
You'll see in the first picture, I have a pen tip holding open the space between the "leg" and "body". This just makes it easier.

Then you slide that little piece sticking out into any mesh hole, and you get this *posts picture*

KarenE - I am sorry if i offended you , but the board often censors random words, and as the one in question not often defined as a 'dirty word', i assumed the censor was up to it's tricks. secondly, there have been many many posts where periods or symbols have been used to space or replace letters of much worse words, and they have been neither repremanded nor removed (one comes to mind that is in a sticky!), so I thought this to be a generally ignored rule. again, I'm sorry if this was taken wrongly.

[:"blue"]You didn't offend me. The owners of GliderCentral determine what words will be censored as this is a privately owned board.

We do our best to moderate the board, however, we don't always catch everything. That is why there is a "notify moderator" icon at the bottom of each post for the members' use. Anytime you see something you think should be brought to a moderators attention, please use that little button <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/agree.gif" alt="" />

As for the sticky, if you will PM me where it is, I'll be more than happy to check it out for you. [/]

And that doesn't ruin the mesh???? I'd think the constant pulling of the toys, and dangling on the ladders would cause some wear and tear. Hmm, thanks for the great instructions and pix!

where did you get the long ladders? i have seen short ones, but not long ones. i want!

Well, Christinahan619, I've hung everything I had on there and not one tear of the mesh. Prettay saweet.

Weesiepoo,what I did is I connected three different packs of ladders. At petsmart, in the bird section, they have connectable ladders and you can buy as many packs as you want to make the longest ladder you want.

Wow you guys are really making me want a reptarium now. I've been thinking of getting one for travel and just in case we need to evacuate for a hurricane *knock on wood*.

Here is a good thread about them and how to decorate.
Reptariums