Archive for the ‘Reptile Vivariums’ Category
Perfect Simulate Your Reptile’s Natural Habitat in a Reptile Vivarium
What is the biggest favor you can do for your pet reptile to make it feel at home?
Answer: Simulate your reptile’s tank as close as possible to its natural habitat! It’s as simple as that. Researching your reptile and its interactions with its natural habitat and constructing a reptile vivarium to mirror that environment can boost your reptile’s personality, while making it feel more comfortable around you and save you from having to deal with a reptile that simply hates how you decorated its tank as if you were Ray Charles with a interior design license.
Variety is the Spice of Life!
Once you’ve done your research, you can have some fun by mix-and-matching different textures in your reptile tank. As long as the material isn’t too foreign to its natural environment, creatively place natural or natural-looking materials into the reptile vivarium. If you own or want to own an iguana, putting at least 4 different textured branches and 3 varied live plants inside the reptile tank along with 10 different textured stones can keep your iguana’s interest level high. If you own a bearded dragon, I recommend mixing different colored sands (like red and white) on the bottom of the reptile vivarium and including 2 different textured huts to hide in. This will never cease to amaze your pet reptile and keep boredom at bay. Do as much creative decorating as possible to interest your reptile, but always keep functionality, safety, and aesthetics of the reptile vivarium in mind. Never allow materials to take up so much space that the reptile doesn’t have any ground to run around on.
Creating the Perfect “Mirrored” Environment
When you customize your reptile tank to ensure your reptile stays healthy and comfortable, you should always factor in temperature, space necessities and lighting requirements. All reptiles need temperature regulation and some species also require humidity control. When you install a light for your reptile tank, make sure it is strong enough to produce the minimal heat your reptile needs to live in to survive. If it is not, you can always buy another heater, be it a ceramic heating system or a heat mat underneath the reptile vivarium. Make sure you give your reptile enough space to roam around in. Keep in mind that all species of reptiles desire different amounts of space to exercise in. Bearded dragons tend to want a ton of space whereas frogs do not need that much.
Be the Paul Blart of “Reptile Vivarium Security”
When customizing your vivarium, install measures that keep your reptile from escaping. Obviously, you shouldn’t forget to cover the tank when done with visiting your reptile. Security is common sense for most people, so I won’t go into great detail about it. Just use your smarts when deciding whether or not to include an item in the reptile tank.
If you follow these guidelines to perfectly mimicking your reptile’s natural habitat, your reptile will give back to you tenfold in love!
Factors in Buying the Perfect Reptile Vivarium
Choosing the right type of reptile vivarium for a reptile is much more comprehensive than picking an aquarium for a fish. It can get pretty confusing if you go to a pet store or look online to buy a vivarium without knowing where your reptile naturally comes from. You must first research the natural habitat of your current or future pet reptile and then pick and buy the correct type of vivarium. This is especially important for both prolonging your pet reptiles life and making it as comfortable and happy as possible.
Depending on the vivarium you choose to buy, your reptile may love you or hate you. This is the sheer truth. If you give it only the basic essentials like food, water and heating, but don’t give it any privacy, hiding space or even a substrate like sand, your reptile will likely not like you one bit. If you factor in all of the following bullets in the list below when customizing your reptile vivarium, your reptile will absolutely love you!
Here are important factors to consider when buying a reptile vivarium:
- Make sure you know its natural habitat
- Current size of reptile
- Future size of reptile
- Number of reptiles that will be housed in the reptile vivarium
- How much hiding space it wants
- How much privacy it wants
- If you’re building your own vivarium, do your how-to-build-it research
- Strength of reptile (to determine how strong the vivarium itself needs to be to prevent escape)
- Type of vivarium material (ex: wood, glass, wire mesh, ect.) your reptile is best suited for to mimic its natural habitat
- Whether your reptile is ground-dwelling or tree-dwelling to determine how tall your reptile vivarium needs to be
- Heating and light requirements
This is the list of essential factors to determine what reptile vivarium you should buy. Make sure you don’t only use this as your reference sheet for buying your own vivarium. Browse this site to answer any other questions you may have about buying the perfect reptile vivarium. If you’d like a question answered specifically for you, simply comment on this article with your question.
Reptile Vivariums
Reptile Vivariums are the most basic component of any reptile housing one may set up. Since the vivariums are where your reptile will spend most of its life, it is very important to make sure you purchase a high-quality housing unit (vivarium) for your pet. Fortunately for you, I have had the experience buying and trying out most of the brands and types of vivariums sold in both America and the UK, so I can easily explain to you which reptile housing units have the highest-quality for the lowest-price that you can buy painlessly on the Internet.
RVS Mascot in Reptile Vivarium
Different Types of Vivariums
1. Most plastic vivariums are much too small for adult-sized reptiles. If you would like to house a small reptile in an enclosure for the minimal cost to you, buying a plastic vivarium is a fantastic idea…if the reptile wont outgrow the cage itself and is still comfortable within it if the reptile does grow larger.
2. Glass vivariums are perfect for animals living in habitats filled with water, such as turtles or fish. This type of enclosure always has either a removable wire mesh top or a ventilation hood to provide just that – ventilation. The ventilation hood may also include a light/heating unit that is necessary to monitor (a very easy task) in order to be certain that your reptiles/animals do not overheat. Since glass vivariums are see-through, it is important to provide a small shelter within the vivarium where the reptile can go to hide or to escape to in times of feeling stressed from seeing something moving outside of the cage that may scare them.
3. Wire vivariums can be bought to house reptiles such as chameleons or bearded dragons. This cage is usually made out of wire mesh crafted around a wooden frame. Since the wire mesh is not the best type of insulation, it can be difficult to maintain a certain temperature necessary to simulate the reptile’s habitat. Fortunately though, your reptile will get plenty of fresh air with a wire vivarium because of the many natural holes in the cage’s walls. This type of enclosure will also offer you a greater view of your reptile over what a wooden cage will provide for a view. Make sure you buy a wire vivarium that has tightly-woven wire mesh so that your reptile cannot escape, but will still get great enough air ventilation. One very-high quality cage I have personally bought and tested can be found here: Extra Large Screen Reptile Habitat Cage – U.S.A. made
4. The most popular type of lizard enclosure is the wooden vivarium. The popularity is mostly due to the fact that since lizards are agoraphobic, or fear of a difficult escape from an enclosure, the visible walls of a wooden vivarium will prevent your lizard from running into them like lizards in glass vivariums frequently do. Because of this and since wood is part of their natural habitat, most reptiles in wooden vivariums feel more comfortable and relaxed. Buying a wooden housing unit for your reptile could make a huge difference in its personality when it is both inside and outside of the reptile vivarium. Wooden reptile vivariums are also very good insulators as compared to a wire mesh or glass cage. More insulated housing means lower electricity bill since the wooden vivarium’s heater works much less to keep the cage warm for your reptile. Need I say more?
5. Melamine is another type of vivarium which is made out of wood painted with a finish resembling plastic. Usually, a melamine vivarium has a glass front with three side walls and a bottom made of melamine. This type is very innovative because it provides the insulation of a wooden vivarium and the ability to see your pet as with a glass vivarium, all the while still providing the reptile with its own privacy. Melamine vivariums are great at resisting water and absorbing heat.