smaugthebeardie3756
Hatchling Member
- Beardie name(s)
- Smaug
Just wanted to share some before and after photos of my most recent upgrades for my boy. Still a work in progress, but I'm happy with it so far, and he seems to be as well. Hasn't dug in it yet, but I think he's still figuring it out. He's been on solid substrate his whole life.
Substrate is made from two 40 lb bags of organic topsoil from Home Depot, 20 lbs of regular play sand (I got the 50 lb bag of Quikrete sand and measured two gallons with a pitcher), and 20 lbs of ZooMed Excavator clay. Covers the floor of a 4x2x2 Zen to a depth of about 4 inches. The tile is where I put his salad bowl.
I also added an LED spotlight over the basking spot next to the heat lamp. Still to come will be more branches and things to climb, and eventually making the substrate full bioactive. Possibly I will also add a metal halide light for an even more complete light spectrum, but that is a little way off due to cost and complexity. I may wait until I can upgrade him to a 6x3x3 enclosure to do that.
The LED I used was ordered from Amazon and is a Sansi brand 400W equivalent. It was recommended by Thomas Griffiths in an interview I saw on YouTube. Thomas Griffiths is the go to guy for zoos looking to get their lighting right. Far less expensive than a Jungle Dawn or any of the other reptile specific LEDs. I will link the interview and the Amazon site since I think an LED should be part of the minimum lighting, right alongside a linear T5 and a heat lamp. Let me know what you guys think!
Sansi bulb
Interview with Thomas Griffiths
Substrate is made from two 40 lb bags of organic topsoil from Home Depot, 20 lbs of regular play sand (I got the 50 lb bag of Quikrete sand and measured two gallons with a pitcher), and 20 lbs of ZooMed Excavator clay. Covers the floor of a 4x2x2 Zen to a depth of about 4 inches. The tile is where I put his salad bowl.
I also added an LED spotlight over the basking spot next to the heat lamp. Still to come will be more branches and things to climb, and eventually making the substrate full bioactive. Possibly I will also add a metal halide light for an even more complete light spectrum, but that is a little way off due to cost and complexity. I may wait until I can upgrade him to a 6x3x3 enclosure to do that.
The LED I used was ordered from Amazon and is a Sansi brand 400W equivalent. It was recommended by Thomas Griffiths in an interview I saw on YouTube. Thomas Griffiths is the go to guy for zoos looking to get their lighting right. Far less expensive than a Jungle Dawn or any of the other reptile specific LEDs. I will link the interview and the Amazon site since I think an LED should be part of the minimum lighting, right alongside a linear T5 and a heat lamp. Let me know what you guys think!
Sansi bulb
Interview with Thomas Griffiths
