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#1844232
Phashroah
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Plans or advice for building your own habitat 
Hello all, I am new to the forum as well as new to being a Uro-caregiver. We recently purchased our new Uro, Pharaoh, and already love him. He is approx 4 months old, according to the lady we got him from. We are buying a 55 gal tank for him this evening, with the intentions to build him a new home when we move in a few months.
So, the question is this: does anyone out there have any plans for a Uro habitat or and good advice for us in building one? We already know to use only oak plywood if we have to use plywood and only use aquarium-safe glues like silicon glue.
Also, have any of you had any good come out of using a 55 gal aquarium so far?
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08/27/08 03:35pm
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#1844249
Rtl402
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Message To: Phashroah In reference to Message Id: 1844232
Plans or advice for building your own habitat
I used a 55gallon (48"x13"x18") for a short time, they need more space to roam around, so I upgraded to a 75g (48"x18"x18") but is also a temporary enclosure, as once I get a house I will be building a 6’x2’2’ for mine.
The Uro in the picture is quite a bit on the small side, he should not be on any form of sand. Under 6-7" total length, paper towel or newspaper is recommended, just to be sure they do not accidentally ingest any of the substrate and become impacted. Try to avoid the sand for now and you may want to put something (even a sheet of oak ply) under the tank with paper towels, as it will not hold heat anywhere near as well as it does with sand substrate (noted from personal experience)
As far as plans, search in the enclosure forum for shyboy or jbreddawg, they both built very nice enclosures with lots of pictures in the process. Hope that helps.
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08/27/08 03:50pm
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#1845101
Phashroah
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Message To: Rtl402 In reference to Message Id: 1844249
Plans or advice for building your own habitat
Thanks. My little guys measures a little over 6", I guess he is curled up a funny way in the pic. I’m just glad that we were able to get him quickly, because the lady we got him from has not a clue about Uros. Anyhow, he has been excreting really well so far, however it was a little watery yesterday morning, but we think it is due to him eating more than normal on the day before. (When we got him, we were told he can just eat romaine lettuce, but as soon as we started learning more about him we went out and got the recommended foods, so I guess he pigged out :)
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08/28/08 02:17pm
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#1845154
Rtl402
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Message To: Phashroah In reference to Message Id: 1845101
Plans or advice for building your own habitat
It would also be a good idea if he has a runny stool to get a sample to the vet. Just to be sure there are no parasites or worms. Best to catch things early then too late.
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08/28/08 03:30pm
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#1845171
Nwtampaguy34
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Message To: Rtl402 In reference to Message Id: 1845154
Plans or advice for building your own habitat
Hello and here is my enclosure i built. It is 4ftx2ft and 22 inch high. I only use one megaray 160watt and a 50 watt regular house light and i get perfect temps. 100F on the hot side and 84F on the cool side with a basking temp of 127F. Very easy to build and was 220.00 and that included a hand jigsaw i had to buy LOL anyway if you want to know more send me a pm or just respond. This is a pic i took during temp tests. i will post another with all the deco in it soon.
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08/28/08 03:46pm
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#1846283
Phashroah
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Message To: Nwtampaguy34 In reference to Message Id: 1845171
Plans or advice for building your own habitat
Thank you so much! That is a great looking home for you! I would love to hear more!
By the way, your guy (or gal) looks great!!
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08/29/08 04:36pm
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#1846290
Nwtampaguy34
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Message To: Phashroah In reference to Message Id: 1846283
Plans or advice for building your own habitat
thanks and it is a he. His name is rex. he is very active and healthy as far as i can tell. The enclosure is made from melamine. You can get it at home depot and they precut the 5 pieces i needed. I then just used a bunch of wood screws and made a box with a open side. then i took it to a glass company and they installed the sliding glass doors. the glass doors costed about 140.00. the whole project cost 220.00. I also bought a hand jigsaw to cut the holes in the top of it for lights and 2 on the sides for airflow. I have 2 domes on it. kinda hard to tell by the pic but they are there. One houes a 160 watt mega ray and the other had a 50 watt regular house bulb. I usee nothing at night as it dont get any lower then 75 at my place. I do use a CHE in the winter but i only use the lowest watt one they have. not shure what watt it is as its paked away for a couple more months. I built this enclosure in about 2 hrrs and had to wait one day for them to install the glass. I also used a water based sealant on the bottom of the enclosure on the inside. The plastic coating over the wood does a great job keeping any fluids from soaking thru and into the wood. but i figured better to be safe then sorry
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08/29/08 04:45pm
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