Bixi
Member
Hello everyone,
Bixi is my ~5 month old Sulcata. I have other posts about her on the forum (with her name in the post title), if you want to check her out.
Here is the album of pics for Bixi's new habitat. http://imgur.com/a/wmnl5
I converted an old 75 gallon aquarium-stand into a box (by laying it on its side and adding walls). I water-proofed it with a heavy plastic liner, and I added some decorative paint on the outside. It looks very Asian (ie. her name-sake). For anyone who is not familiar, "Bixi" is the name of a mythological dragon tortoise:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bixi_(mythology) <~ "Bixi" info here.
The Chinese characters on the front of her enclosure show her name, Bixi.
She has 2 rocky hides with substrate beneath them for her digging pleasure. I secured them so that she couldn't dig beneath the rocks and injure herself. The rocks are quite heavy. She can also climb on top of the hides if she desires. I put a piece of slate beneath her ceramic heat lamp for feeding/sunning.
I think I need to swap her ceramic bulb for a small mercury-vapor bulb to give the enclosure more light. Her current UVB bulb lights up most of the walking area in the enclosure, but I feel that the enclosure could use more light as a whole. Also, I know the plastic liner looks kinda tacky, and I may remedy that in the future. I just wanted to get some pics up because this was a big project and I am proud!
Poor Bixi was scared when I introduced her to the new enclosure. She ran to the outside-back of her water dish (the only thing she recognized) and tucked her head into the wall against that dish. It is warm there, so I am just going to leave her and let her adjust naturally.
The ambient temps in the enclosure went up quickly with her heating setup, but the substrate is still quite cool. I am hoping that the big UTH I installed will warm up her soil within 24hrs.
If anyone has comments/questions/suggestions, please express them! I am open to altering her setup to give her optimum conditions. Thanks!
Proud Daddy,
Burke
p.s. - Quick edit... After an hour of sitting, her tank is ~95 Fahrenheit under her heat bulb, ~85 within a foot or so of that bulb (cooler further away), and holding at ~80% humidity.
Bixi is my ~5 month old Sulcata. I have other posts about her on the forum (with her name in the post title), if you want to check her out.
Here is the album of pics for Bixi's new habitat. http://imgur.com/a/wmnl5
I converted an old 75 gallon aquarium-stand into a box (by laying it on its side and adding walls). I water-proofed it with a heavy plastic liner, and I added some decorative paint on the outside. It looks very Asian (ie. her name-sake). For anyone who is not familiar, "Bixi" is the name of a mythological dragon tortoise:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bixi_(mythology) <~ "Bixi" info here.
The Chinese characters on the front of her enclosure show her name, Bixi.
She has 2 rocky hides with substrate beneath them for her digging pleasure. I secured them so that she couldn't dig beneath the rocks and injure herself. The rocks are quite heavy. She can also climb on top of the hides if she desires. I put a piece of slate beneath her ceramic heat lamp for feeding/sunning.
I think I need to swap her ceramic bulb for a small mercury-vapor bulb to give the enclosure more light. Her current UVB bulb lights up most of the walking area in the enclosure, but I feel that the enclosure could use more light as a whole. Also, I know the plastic liner looks kinda tacky, and I may remedy that in the future. I just wanted to get some pics up because this was a big project and I am proud!
Poor Bixi was scared when I introduced her to the new enclosure. She ran to the outside-back of her water dish (the only thing she recognized) and tucked her head into the wall against that dish. It is warm there, so I am just going to leave her and let her adjust naturally.
The ambient temps in the enclosure went up quickly with her heating setup, but the substrate is still quite cool. I am hoping that the big UTH I installed will warm up her soil within 24hrs.
If anyone has comments/questions/suggestions, please express them! I am open to altering her setup to give her optimum conditions. Thanks!
Proud Daddy,
Burke
p.s. - Quick edit... After an hour of sitting, her tank is ~95 Fahrenheit under her heat bulb, ~85 within a foot or so of that bulb (cooler further away), and holding at ~80% humidity.