# Outdoor enclosure in CA



## Jake lerch (Aug 26, 2016)

Hello everyone! I have a black and white around 5 years old. I have her in a 6x2 1/2 enclosure. She will need to upgrade in a year or so im sure. I want to build her an outdoor enclosure. Something i can easily access her in and clean. Because i am in so cal, humidity control is a big thing. Right now i am thinking using a combo of pressure trated wood and sheet metal. Maybe measurement of around 8x8. Im thinking she could grow full size in there. I was told its a female. Does anyone have any suggestions? Thanks!


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## so_cal_ninja650 (Aug 26, 2016)

I am also in this situation. I'm assuming you meant "5 months old". I was thinking of hooking up a misting system for my outdoor enclosure??


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## Jake lerch (Aug 26, 2016)

Hi there, no i meant 5 years. Its more like 4 years(i cant remember exactly when i got her) Ill post a pic. I currently have a misting system in her current enclosure. Its okay for the size of the current one but with the more extensions you add to it the less powerful the mist is. So i have read and seen some big outdoor ones with a hookup to the water line and some overhead pipes for misting. The clear container with the black top is the misting system.


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## dpjm (Aug 26, 2016)

She's looks really small for 5 years old.

There are great benefits to outdoor enclosures. Sunlight is the biggest, and fresh air is another one. Humidity might be an issue. If I were doing this, I would concentrate on having a good humid hide area, this is easy to maintain and you need to worry less about the rest of the enclosure. Without a humid hide, the rest of the enclosure needs to be fairly humid and that will be a bit difficult if you want to give good access to unfiltered sunlight. Even a misting system will have to work hard to keep the humidity up in an open top.


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## Walter1 (Aug 26, 2016)

That's a tough one. Without lokking at longterm weather data for RH, not sure if a humid hide would suffice. Continuously breathing dry air would harm them.


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## Jake lerch (Aug 26, 2016)

I was thinking about the hide box. how deep and long? Like 5x2? Smaller? It would probably be something with deep substrate and misters going directly to it?


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## Jake lerch (Aug 26, 2016)

Walter1 said:


> That's a tough one. Without lokking at longterm weather data for RH, not sure if a humid hide would suffice. Continuously breathing dry air would harm them.


Thats my biggest concern. Maybe something just long and deep and not so tall? vents on all sides?


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## Walter1 (Aug 26, 2016)

Imagine something about the dimensions of a dresser drawer. Provide lots of moistened sphagnum moss or eco earth. Keep in the shade.


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## Jake lerch (Aug 26, 2016)

I was also thinking like a plexy glass top? there has got to be a way...


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## Walter1 (Aug 26, 2016)

Walter1 said:


> Imagine something about the dimensions of a dresser drawer. Provide lots of moistened sphagnum moss or eco earth. Keep in the shade.


Maybe sink par-way in the ground so it can get respite from piercing heat.


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## Jake lerch (Aug 26, 2016)

Walter1 said:


> Imagine something about the dimensions of a dresser drawer. Provide lots of moistened sphagnum moss or eco earth. Keep in the shade.


That makes sense...


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## Walter1 (Aug 26, 2016)

Jake lerch said:


> That makes sense...


They'll chase a temperature. Important that it's not either scalding hot or cool.


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## Jake lerch (Aug 26, 2016)

Walter1 said:


> They'll chase a temperature. Important that it's not either scalding hot or cool.


Right, i understand that. I think the temp will be simpler to maintain than the humidity. Ive been doing a lot of reasearch on the outdoor enclosures and most people with these are in humid areas like florida. So they do very simple set ups. Ive also read certain types of grass can help with the humidity.


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## Walter1 (Aug 26, 2016)

Jake lerch said:


> Right, i understand that. I think the temp will be simpler to maintain than the humidity. Ive been doing a lot of reasearch on the outdoor enclosures and most people with these are in humid areas like florida. So they do very simple set ups. Ive also read certain types of grass can help with the humidity.


Oh, wow, that'd be great. I live in SC Pennsylvania, and my three live in a wood and wire walk-in with primarily cement base for 8.5 mo. Inside and sleep for the rest.


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## Jake lerch (Aug 26, 2016)

Thanks for your help! Let me know if you have anymore ideas!


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## Jake lerch (Aug 26, 2016)

Walter1 said:


> Oh, wow, that'd be great. I live in SC Pennsylvania, and my three live in a wood and wire walk-in with primarily cement base for 8.5 mo. Inside and sleep for the rest.


Indoors or outdoors?


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## Walter1 (Aug 26, 2016)

Jake lerch said:


> Indoors or outdoors?


Outdoors for most of the year.


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## Jake lerch (Aug 26, 2016)

Walter1 said:


> Outdoors for most of the year.


Is it pretty humid in PA? How do you control it?


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## Walter1 (Aug 26, 2016)

It is sufficiently humid naturally. The two hides are 1/2 filled with moistened eco earth. To clean, I 2X-3X/wk hose down. No shedding problems reinforces my conclusion that they are fine in this milieu.


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## Jake lerch (Aug 26, 2016)

Walter1 said:


> It is sufficiently humid naturally. The two hides are 1/2 filled with moistened eco earth. To clean, I 2X-3X/wk hose down. No shedding problems reinforces my conclusion that they are fine in this milieu.


Wow, very nice. I will definitely look into that eco earth.


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## so_cal_ninja650 (Aug 27, 2016)

Jake lerch said:


> Hi there, no i meant 5 years. Its more like 4 years(i cant remember exactly when i got her) Ill post a pic. I currently have a misting system in her current enclosure. Its okay for the size of the current one but with the more extensions you add to it the less powerful the mist is. So i have read and seen some big outdoor ones with a hookup to the water line and some overhead pipes for misting. The clear container with the black top is the misting system.



Oh, I'm sorry I misread your post. It sounded like you just got her and this was your first upgrade. My mistake.
I was having the same problem with my misting system. The more I added the weaker the spray.
I'm thinking of doing an 8'x8'x6' with plywood and chicken wire. I was going to use cypress mulch, eco earth, and lawn/grass clippings for the substrate.


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## Walter1 (Aug 27, 2016)

so_cal_ninja650 said:


> Oh, I'm sorry I misread your post. It sounded like you just got her and this was your first upgrade. My mistake.
> I was having the same problem with my misting system. The more I added the weaker the spray.
> I'm thinking of doing an 8'x8'x6' with plywood and chicken wire. I was going to use cypress mulch, eco earth, and lawn/grass clippings for the substrate.


Chicken wire will cut flesh.


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## so_cal_ninja650 (Aug 27, 2016)

Walter1 said:


> Chicken wire will cut flesh.


There will be about 3ft of plywood and about a foot of plastic siding above the plywood so he couldn't reach the chicken wire.


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## Walter1 (Aug 27, 2016)

so_cal_ninja650 said:


> There will be about 3ft of plywood and about a foot of plastic siding above the plywood so he couldn't reach the chicken wire.


Should work.


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## Jake lerch (Aug 28, 2016)

so_cal_ninja650 said:


> Oh, I'm sorry I misread your post. It sounded like you just got her and this was your first upgrade. My mistake.
> I was having the same problem with my misting system. The more I added the weaker the spray.
> I'm thinking of doing an 8'x8'x6' with plywood and chicken wire. I was going to use cypress mulch, eco earth, and lawn/grass clippings for the substrate.


This for an outdoor enclosure? Your thinking this will maintain humidity? Ive read it needs to be around 70%. Or are you also doing a hide box? The other thing im concerned with for outdoors is the wood rotting. Thats why im looking into pressure treated wood.


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## CameronJayBauer (Aug 28, 2016)

Jake lerch said:


> Hi there, no i meant 5 years. Its more like 4 years(i cant remember exactly when i got her) Ill post a pic. I currently have a misting system in her current enclosure. Its okay for the size of the current one but with the more extensions you add to it the less powerful the mist is. So i have read and seen some big outdoor ones with a hookup to the water line and some overhead pipes for misting. The clear container with the black top is the misting system.


I just felt like adding

I notice you've got a zoo med timer switch plugged in there. That's great, timer switches are a life saver, and zoo med is awesome and ill trust them with just about anything.
But ive come to find their timer switches are unnecessarily finicky, and I grew to really dislike them. Theyre huge, twice the size they need to be because of how theyre designed. They ridiculously overpriced, as well as the timer wheel spinning too easy with little force, meaning it can be bumped and adjust your timing accidentally.
One piece of advice that took me too long to realize. Timer switches are everywhere. You can find a basic one for $5 at home depot. I managed to find one for $3 at walmart. Just food for thought, in case you ever need to buy another haha. I wish i could have gotten generic ones from the start lol.
[/EndRant]


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## Jake lerch (Aug 29, 2016)

CameronJayBauer said:


> I just felt like adding
> 
> I notice you've got a zoo med timer switch plugged in there. That's great, timer switches are a life saver, and zoo med is awesome and ill trust them with just about anything.
> But ive come to find their timer switches are unnecessarily finicky, and I grew to really dislike them. Theyre huge, twice the size they need to be because of how theyre designed. They ridiculously overpriced, as well as the timer wheel spinning too easy with little force, meaning it can be bumped and adjust your timing accidentally.
> ...


Totally agree. I had a generic digital one. It stopped working. I picked this one up out of convineince as i was at petsmart. They are way too big. It has changed my settings before with that sensitive wheel. I wont buy it again. And will probably change it when she gets her new outdoor enclosure. Thanks for the comment!


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## CameronJayBauer (Aug 29, 2016)

Yeah it bothers me that they put the outlet on the face of it, because if they put it on the side like every other timer switch, the entire top half of it could be eliminated.


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## so_cal_ninja650 (Aug 30, 2016)

Jake lerch said:


> This for an outdoor enclosure? Your thinking this will maintain humidity? Ive read it needs to be around 70%. Or are you also doing a hide box? The other thing im concerned with for outdoors is the wood rotting. Thats why im looking into pressure treated wood.



Yes an outdoor enclosure. I will piping in a sprinkler system from the sprinklers that water the grass and there will be a 15gal hide box so humidity shouldn't be an issue. As of now I'm thinking of using drylock and silicone to keep things waterproof, however, I may using metal siding instead. Pressure treated wood is a good idea as well though. I'm trying to keep costs to somewhat of a minimum by using stuff I have around the house. I will be creating a build diary in the forum once I get started.


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## Jake lerch (Aug 30, 2016)

so_cal_ninja650 said:


> Yes an outdoor enclosure. I will piping in a sprinkler system from the sprinklers that water the grass and there will be a 15gal hide box so humidity shouldn't be an issue. As of now I'm thinking of using drylock and silicone to keep things waterproof, however, I may using metal siding instead. Pressure treated wood is a good idea as well though. I'm trying to keep costs to somewhat of a minimum by using stuff I have around the house. I will be creating a build diary in the forum once I get started.


Im thinking the same thing with the metal siding. When do you plan on getting this done?


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## so_cal_ninja650 (Aug 30, 2016)

Jake lerch said:


> Im thinking the same thing with the metal siding. When do you plan on getting this done?


I'm planning on before the holidays. Beginning of Nov. maybe.


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## Jake lerch (Aug 31, 2016)

so_cal_ninja650 said:


> I'm planning on before the holidays. Beginning of Nov. maybe.


Awesome. What are your plans for the winter? Im going to keep my current enclosure and most likely use that for the winter.


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## so_cal_ninja650 (Sep 5, 2016)

Jake lerch said:


> Awesome. What are your plans for the winter? Im going to keep my current enclosure and most likely use that for the winter.


 I have a 155gal 6x2x2 tank that I need to clean out to use as an emergency setup.


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