Where is your viv?

[Ralis]

I'm just curious really. Where in the house do you put your viv? At the moment ours is in the bedroom. It's as 30x12 tank and fits perfectly down the side of my husband's work desk. The thought occurred that with Gorbash already 9" long he's going to need an upgrade soonish and I'd ideally like to get him a 48x18, or even a 4x2x2 but I realised that I don't actually have a surface large enough to hold a tank that large. It would take up my husband's entire workspace. The only place it could fit would be downstairs in the spare bedroom which would be a bad idea because 1. The spot is right in front of the window and it gets very cold in winter and 2. That's the cat's safe space away from the dogs and he's already tried a couple of times to climb in top of the viv in the bedroom.

We have a dresser downstairs that might just about house a 48x18 with a couple of inches overlap, but again it gets very cold downstairs in the winter. Or there is the option of moving our coffee table (which happens to be exactly 4x2) upstairs into the bedroom, but the only place it would fit in the room, there are no power outlets which would mean wires trailing across the room! I don't want to just stick it on the floor because of the other animals.

So where do you put your viv and hopefully I'll get some ideas

 

[brittani299]

Hello Mine is in my living room. I like it there so that I dont forgot about my beardies. Not that I would but I spend most of my time in my living room so it made more sense to have it there. It is in a corner away from vents.

 

[Marshamello]

Mine is in my fiance and my's bedroom. We had to extend the back of the dresser when we upgraded him to a 4'x2'x2' viv, he pretty much owns the top of the dresser now because we had nowhere else big enough for him.

 

[simplydunn]

We had an extra buffet and hutch that was given to us by family. We didn't need 2 so we set up just the buffet in the living room and replaced the hutch with the viv. It gives us room to store Goliath's supplies as well as additional storage for other things. It turned out to be a beautiful way to display the viv. Now we're looking for some artwork to hang above it to finish everything off.

 

[Taterbug]

Have a (wood) 4x2x2 that's on the floor in the living room. No dogs, but we have a cat. He doesn't bother the lizard, they just stare at each other all day. The glass doors are heavy so I don't worry about it getting opened by the cat either. It's sturdy enough we use it as an end table/stand for one of the snakes.

 

[Ralis]

Thanks for the replies guys. Well last night I moved Gorbash's viv from my husbands work desk to the end table in our bedroom so he can have his desk back. The table is 36x18 and would fit a 40G tank perfectly but now that I can compare sizes a 40g really doesn't look that much bigger than the 20g he's in now. I really can't see how it would give an adult beardie enough space to run around despite it being the minimum recommended. I'm definitely going to want a larger viv for him.

I like your solid wood setup Taterbug. I think something like that would make me feel more comfortable about having it on the floor. I also have no idea where I would get hold of a larger viv. Most of the places on the adult enclosures list are prohibitive because of cost or shipping and I don't have tools or the DIY savvy to build something like the crossfire enclosure.

 

[Taterbug]

Ours is a crossfire that we built. I'm really happy with the size. It's also super sturdy.

It wasn't really very hard at all, the plans were pretty good. If you can measure you are half way there! The hardest part was finding the glass. Of course it does require tools and a work space, so it doesn't work out for everyone. Maybe if you have a friend with a shop or some hardware stores rent tools. Just some ideas

Sometimes big cages (or people who make them custom) show up on craigslist, and there are some sellers in eBay.

Good luck!

 

[Ralis]

I don't have the tools and I don't know anyone who does. The instructions for the crossfire look simple enough IF I can get hold of the tools but I can just about put together Ikea furniture so building something from scratch just seems beyond me.

I had a friend suggest I convert the cupboards under the window in the spare bedroom into a viv. It's more than big enough. It's vaguelly trapezoid shape and measures around 80" at the front, 60" at the back, is 24" wide but only 16" high. I'd have to sort out the heating and ventilation issues as well as my lack of DIY skills before attempting something like that (plus find a home for all the crap that's in there now!).

 

[Taterbug]

There are lots of cool vivs made from furniture. There was a neat one posted recently I the diy area on here from a dresser.

I love DIY so I'll always encourage people to try

Best luck finding something you are happy with and that doesn't overwhelm you