Lilith's vivarium guide | Lilith's loops

Lilith's vivarium guide Nov 30, 2016 16:57:25 GMT

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Post by Lilith on Nov 30, 2016 16:57:25 GMT

Lilith's vivarium
DIY guide

I have always wanted to make a classy piece of vivarium furniture to give my girl an upgrade. After all, who doesn't want a beautiful pet enclosure? Vivariums are a conversation piece, as well as a warm, attractive home for your hedgehogs. It will be a challenging project, and will save you a lot of frustration if you are handy or knows someone who is and would be willing to help you out. I lucked out with my base furniture piece, so I will need to do very little modification to the base structure before it'll work. I'll be using an old TV stand to create her new home, however you can use cabinets, dressers, and pretty much any other furniture piece that will provide antiquate room for your hedgehog. Where I'm located the smallest recommended size for a hedgehog enclosure is 3-4 square feet, but more room is always good. Lilith's TV stand turned vivarium has a floor space of a little over 5 square feet, so it should provide her plenty of space. Keep in mind that because my stand already has doors and a basic structure built it'll be much easier to modify. If you use a dresser or a cabinet you will need to buy more materials to shape the structure into something functional. Here's my basic starting structure:

I decided to go with an old corner tv stand for my project. Part of the reason I chose this route was due to the glass doors already built on. Plexiglass can be quite expensive depending on the size of your piece, and a long continuous hinge can also be a decent hit to the wallet, especially if you are looking to paint like I am. Both doors are latched with fairly strong magnets that should provide a decent barrier. I also quite enjoy the shape of it.

As you can see, there is a fair amount of interior room as well.

Currently the biggest points of concern are the back panel, which has prior cable holes cut into it, as well as the seams that are visible. These both will need to be corrected before they will make antiquate housing. The seams will need to be sealed and the back panel will need to come off and be replaced. If you wish to paint like I do, you can choose any durable furniture quality paint from any good company. I personally go with Benjamin Moore every time, not only because I work for them but because I love their color options and products. Just remember that if $25-30 a QT is too expensive for you you can definitely find similar products for cheaper.

Tools
Power drill
Table saw or other method of cutting (many stores will cut to size for you)
Caulking gun
Caulking scraper (optional)
Sand paper blocks in various grits (Medium to fine)
Tac cloth
Sturdy box cutter or exacto blade
Various sized paint brushes (Between a 2" and 3" is usually best)
Paint tray kit (can often find ones that come with a roller, 10mm works best for me)
Diamond varathane non toxic satin aerosol clear coat
Corrugated plastic, cut to the size of the vivarium floor (optional)

Materials

Screws
Peg board
Frog tape or painters mate to tape edges
mildew resistant paintable caulking (All pro Gold)

QT Benjamin moore advance pearl alkyd paint, tinted to Cool Aqua
QT Benjamin moore Natura semigloss, tinted to Black Satin
QT Benjamin moore glaze

How to build it

First thing you will need to do is give the vivarium a good clean and sand down the surface. You will want to sand down any scuffs or imperfections, but other than that you just need to lightly scuff sand the surface. Remember paint will not bond well to overly shiny surfaces. Be sure to lightly sand the shiny side of your peg board as well.
Next thing you'll do is replace that back panel. Mine was screwed in nicely, so I can reuse the screws it came with. This is where the peg board will go. My back panel needs to be 26.6 inches by 16.5 inches, but yours will likely need to be a different size. Measure your panel and cut the peg board to the appropriate length and width. You will want to cut a small hole in the corner of the peg board for wires to go through. The board should supply a fair amount of ventilation, so adding vents is unnecessary but can be done if you wish.

Once you have your back panel ready you can begin the process of attaching it to your vivarium. Be sure to mount it with the shiny side facing inwards. When it's all done it should look like this:

(The top was still damp from me wiping it down)

Looking good! The next step will be to seal any cracks within the vivarium that pee may seep into. This will keep the vivarium in good shape so it doesn't begin to mold. Take your caulk and your gun and seal every floor level Crack you can see. If you'd like you can even seal the higher up cracks. This will leave a more level surface for the paint to stick to. That way you do not get obvious gaps in the finished product. Make sure to get the corners and the edges of the back panel. The stuff I have goes on white, is water resistant, dries clear and is paintable. If you are planning to paint like myself make sure your caulking is paintable. If it isn't the paint will not bond to it properly and you will have a much bigger problem to deal with afterwards. If the caulking doesn't specify its paintability on the container it is safer to find one that does.
Most hedgehogs will find a corner to use the bathroom in if they aren't running on their wheel. Some hedgehogs are litter trained, but for the sake of keeping the enclosure clean we will behave as if Lilith doesn't use a litter box. When you lay out the caulking it'll likely look a little bit messy at first. Wet your finger (saliva works fine) and wipe away any excess. This will prevent the silicone from bonding to your finger. You can also use a caulk scraper if you have one. Try to leave as smooth of a finish as you can. Let this cure fully before you move onto the next step.

Now that the caulking is dry we can start making the enclosure look pretty. Do a glance over your previous work and make sure everything is well sealed before you continue.

The two paint colors I've chosen are Cool Aqua and Black satin. Cool aqua will be applied to the exterior of the enclosure and Black satin will be placed on the interior. I chose Advance for the exterior because it hardens to a much tougher finish for the outside, while I chose Natura for the interior due to its zero VOC, zero emissions quality. VOC stands for volatile organic compounds; this is what gives paint its smelly quality, as well as produces unhealthy toxins that you do not want your pet breathing in. If you paint the interior of your enclosure like I am you will want to find a paint that falls in this category. You can even find paints that are labeled specifically as pet safe.

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Cool Aqua, Benjamin Moore

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Black Satin, Benjamin Moore

You will want to remove the glass doors if you have them on your furniture piece. It'll make painting much easier. In my case the doors were not removable, so I learned how to clean paint off easily. I'll get to that. If you opted to buy roll on stuff you can take your paint brush and begin cutting in with the primer. Make sure to get every corner as well as you can. When you finish that you can start rolling the primer out over the remainder of the surface. If you are spraying your piece you can start working over the surface with the can. This will give a nice rough surface for your paint to bond to. In my case I lightly sprayed. If you sand well enough you won't need to do a whole bunch of coats.

Patchy primer job is patchy... But it'll do. I might be a paint expert but I'm not a professional painter.

Once that cures you will need to start taping off any area you need a crisp line. Yellow frog tape works great for this. Many tapes have strong adhesive that can rip through freshly coated surfaces. Yellow frog tape is specifically for delicate surfaces and is much less likely to cause this problem. In my case the only spots I need to tape off are around the mouth of the enclosure.

Once everything is taped off you can start applying your paint. I am starting with my cool aqua color, as I will be reusing one of my brushes and rollers and black is darker and less likely to wash out.

Coat number one:

The first coat will likely look a bit patchy. This is completely normal, so don't worry.

Coat number two:

See? The paint looks much nicer on the second coat. I also took the liberty to clean up the over spray I left on the hardware. Hopefully you won't have to worry about that part.

Basically the only reason I bothered to paint the interior is due to the caulking and back panel. This will make all the black tones match. Remove your first tape job and let the paint dry before moving onto the interior. Tape off the blue edge to prevent overlapping. Repeat the previous process with the black on the interior.

To make sure the interior paint holds up to moisture you will likely want to use a non toxic clear coat. I opted to buy an aerosol for this part(Diamond varathane in a satin finish). It'll leave the smoothest finish possible. You only need to spray the inside with this stuff, and you may want to do two or three coats just to be sure. The main focus will be the floor of the enclosure.

After this step is finished you will want to clean up any overspray on your hardware / doors if you were left in the unfortunate position I was. My furniture piece had the doors built into it in a way that would be nearly impossible for me to reassemble on my own. So I opted to work around it. You can tape off the door, or you can wing it like I did (Like I said, not a professional painter AT ALL.). If you choose the lazy man's road you will need a good paint remover. You can find better stuff, but I used goof off. I didn't want to use a stripper because I'm perpetually clutzy and I didn't want to risk dripping on my nearly finished piece. I used a paint scraper (can be found at most paint stores) and a little bit of goof off spray to peel it off.

Now that your base paint job is all finished you can opt to leave your enclosure as is or you can do what I've chosen to do; I wanted to add some depth to the cage so I opted to take some of my remaining black paint and mix it into a glaze. Glazing furniture gives a more antiqued effect and can make cracks and corners pop out pleasantly. In my case I used a technique called dry brushing to give the paint some texture. If you have never glazed before know that the more detailed your enclosure is the more options you will have for different techniques. I chose dry brushing specifically because my base furniture piece doesn't have much for decorative molding. If you have decorative moulding you can make those portions stand out in a lovely way with traditional glazing techniques. You can brush on your glaze fairly sloppily without concern. When you feel you have a decent amount of coverage you will want to take a dry, clean bristle brush and drag away the excess. If you apply too much glaze you can take a wet rag and wipe it off. Just be sure to keep your wiping direction consistent. You should notice any decoration or corner has retained much of the black glaze while the flat surfaces have developed an almost wood like texture. You only need one coat but you can definitely apply more if you wish for the top coat to be more dramatic.

Glaze coat:

If you have a liner diver like myself you may find it quite challenging to encourage your spike baby to sleep in one of their hides you may want to buy a sheet of corrugated plastic to line the bottom of the enclosure with. This also will give your enclosure an extra water resistant barrier. If you don't wish to go this route you can also buy fabric quality velcro to pin them down with.

That's basically it guys! Now all that is left to do is move all of her stuff over to the new cage. The thermostat and lighting cord will need to go through the smaller hole in the back panel and the vent cover will need to be put in place.

The finished product:

If you have any questions or concerns please PM me!

Last edit: 12/28/16

Made by Time Lapse of Adoxgraphy.