New DYI 160x70x60cm enclosure (Length Height Depth)

[Vilderup]

Hi all,

I am gathering ideas and brainstorming for a new, huge enclosure for my 2½ year old beardie Sandy. She loves to run around and climb everything she can. She is very energetic and therefore I think she should be able to do so, whenever I am not home to take her outside or out in my room, etc.

I am thinking of making a big 160cm long, 70cm tall, 60cm deep enclosure. Yes this is big for one bearded dragon, but considering Sandy and her very energetic lifestyle, I think she should be able to atleast have some chance of living that life. Currently she has a large 120cm long, 60 cm tall, 50cm deep enclosure, so it is not that much of an improvement in size, but definitely larger aswell.

I am thinking something like this:

It is supposed to be a zoo-worthy enclosure, going for a realistic and natural feel, with red sand, gravel, dirt and whatever plants I can get my hands on, with many cliffs(colored grey and reddish/orange like in the picture) with a blue sky. There will be atleast two caves, one under the basking lamp and one in the cold area. I will use some sort of silicone glue or what it is called to make the substrate stick together, so that it isn't loose for her to accidentally eat, and when it is hard, I will vacuum any loose substrate away.

My questions are:
1. How should I make the cliffs? I feel like styrofoam will be too weak, and that it will eventually break. Wood will maybe be too heavy.. Something in between?
2. Any "healthy" or atleast not toxic glues/silicone I can use (I am from Denmark) to smoothen the curves on the selfmade cliffs and to make the loose substrate stick together? Any specific type of glue?

Thanks in advance!
Vilderup

 

[WinFam01]

I wish I could help but I've never done anything like that.
I do remember seeing people post about some excavator clay stuff?

 

[Draven88]

I would highly suggest checking out this article https://www.beardeddragon.org/articles/falserock/

While the Styrofoam itself would be weaker, once you cover it in some layers of grout that forms a strong rigid shell and the foam simply becomes the lightweight core.

As mentioned there Kids non toxic PVA glue is good, and for silicone you want something that is 100% silicone with no additives like mold inhibitors. I would lean towards using the methods described in the article for fine detail to get the look you want over using glue or silicone to stick on loose substrate, just because that substrate could wear off and become loose things to ingest where as carved in detail will not.