DIY Naturalistic Cave Enclosure Background for Reptiles

Do you have an unappealing looking reptile enclosure that’s in need of a sprucing up? Or would you simply like a DIY project to transform your store bought enclosure into a more natural reptile habitat?
Shannon from Reptile Way is going to walk you through this step-by-step guide on how you can create a natural rocky background for your reptile enclosure. This design is great for a variety of snakes and lizards! In particular Children's pythons and Stimson's pythons would thrive in this enclosure setup!
This video is keeping in mind the Australian audience, therefore, all these building materials can be bought from Bunnings and Spotlight.
A video that we highly recommend you watching if you want a step by step guide of creating a different style of naturalistic rock background and/or feature is this one from The Natural Herp Keeper: www.youtube.com/watch?v=y_Yo1...
We hope this video helped and gave you some inspiration!
If you liked the video don't forget to hit the thumbs up and if you would like to be made aware of future content hit the subscribe button! See you next time!

[@Hogstrictors]

Your foam builds are so awesome looking. Definitly giving me ideas. Im starting small though just making a custom foam rock hide box.

[@Edward..de..lanndo]

One of the best I've seen.....lucky snakey...

[@drdoolittlefishhobbyist6055]

Wow awesome. Can you come to the uk and design all my tarantula enclosures? X

[@Inverts4Introverts]

Pro tip for carving the spray foam. Using a dremel tool with something like a kutzal bit works the best. You can really get the details in and its so fast. You can also get an extension for the dremel that way you cam hang the motor and use a lighter smaller pen like handle to make things even easier!

[@ReptileWay]

Great tip! Thanks for taking the time to share that! 😊 💡

[@pamhouweling7141]

We need more build videos. Hello from Ontario Canada.

[@ReptileWay]

Thanks so much for the comment! We will hopefully be releasing our biggest build video yet in the next 4 weeks. We have been converting a wardrobe into a snake enclosure! It is great to hear where people are from who are watching these videos! From what we have looked up online Ontario Canada looks beautiful 😍

[@ashton5493]

I’m glad you made this video, I’m hoping on doing something similar for my Chinese cave geckos but also make it bio active.

[@ReptileWay]

Wow that sounds like a great idea. Goodluck with you build. Thanks for watching our video 🤗

[@hannahworley3336]

It turned out really great. I like the angled ledges. Hope you’ll do some more build videos!

[@ReptileWay]

Thanks! We have a new building video coming out in a few days, just finishing up the editing. It's a step-by-step guide, so stay tuned!

[@alwaysanovice]

Again, I say WOW!

[@ReptileWay]

Thanks soo much for the positive feedback! And thanks for watching a couple videos and supporting the channel! It means alot 🙏

[@cjleveille2626]

it looks great and thanks for the tip about the spray bottle to apply the acrylic paint

[@ReptileWay]

Thanks for the positive feedback! No worries! Good luck with your future builds!

[@billclinton1018]

You're very talented, thanks for the video.

[@lee6532]

Awesome video, thanks. It’s very informative.

[@ReptileWay]

Thanks soo much for the positive feedback! Makes doing these videos worthwhile!

[@BeachesScalyBeasts]

Good video!

[@ReptileWay]

Thanks for the positive comment, appreciate it 🙏

[@stevet73]

Looks great buddy

[@ReptileWay]

Thanks for the positive feedback 😊

[@tmccandlish2144]

can you use these in a fish aquarium fully submersed?? I absolutely love the way your technique looks above many others ive been researching...the waterproofing im assuming holds up long term if its meant for ponds?

[@ReptileWay]

I haven't personally tested it fully submerged in a fish tank. You would have to be extremely methodical to make sure entire surfaces are coated in the pond sealer. But again I have not used this technique in fish tanks. Fish as I'm sure you know can be very sensitive to any changes in the water. So I wouldn't recommend this method as I never recommend something if I haven't tested it myself. But SerpaDesign have lots of backgrounds that have been tested and are safe for fish 🙂

[@ReptileWay]

Here's a link to the channel: youtube.com/@SerpaDesign

[@jadecarrot16]

currently attempting this, thanks for the video ☺️

[@ReptileWay]

That's great to hear! Goodluck with your build 🤗😊

[@jadecarrot16]

@@ReptileWayhey! i am halfway through the grouting process, and i’m finding that the surfaces are very grainy and rough. was this the case for you, and did you sand it? also, how many bags of grout did you go through for the entire tank? i’m 2 bags in and only on my second coat

[@ReptileWay]

@jadecarrot16 I think I used 3 bags but can't remember exactly. The first couple of layers of grout will have an even more of a rough texture as the grout is of a thicker consistency. In the last few layers, the grout mixture is a thinner consistency (more watery), which can assist with smoothing areas out. However the purpose of the grout is to mimic the appearance of a rocky surface, which generally isn't smooth and is quite textured and somewhat rough. This texture and slightly rough surface the grout creates, is really good enrichment for your scaley pet and it assists with shedding. However, if you really don't want that rough, grainy texture you could sand it down slightly, and once you've finished the painting phase, you can seal it with the clear pond sealer. The clear pond sealer will move the texture away from being a rough, grainy texture to a more of a fibre glass, smooth texture. If you want to increase smoothness, add additional layers of pond sealer. However it may not look as natural as it creates a slight shiny surface. The the clear pond sealer which is essentially a waterproofing is called: Crommelin waterproofing pond sealer clear. Hope that helps 🙏 🙂

[@jadecarrot16]

@@ReptileWaythank you! this helped ◡̈

[@ReptileWay]

@@jadecarrot16 Great to hear! ☺️

[@tyliful]

nice enclosure.

[@ReptileWay]

Thanks 🙂

[@zoinksss1372]

I know this vid is a year old, but do you remember how heavy this turned out to be? I think I'd like to build this outside, but I'm worried I won't be able to carry it back inside haha

[@ReptileWay]

It was probably around 45kg or so. I would recommend 2 people to carry such an enclosure. Hope that helps 🙏

[@ashleighvincent-heylen814]

Do you use the complete 5kg bags of grout or would I get away with 3x 1.5kg bags?

[@ReptileWay]

Thanks for the comment. This build was a while ago, but I think I used 2 of the 5kg bags at least. When your doing between 3 to 5 grout coats and even more on the pond it gets used up quickly 🙂

[@ashleighvincent-heylen814]

Thank you for your reply. Has it lasted well?

[@ReptileWay]

@ashleighvincent-heylen814 Well it's coming up to 1 year, and still looks the same, so it's lasting well in my opinion 🙂