Curio cabinet to.... gecko cage?

Yes, I said it. Gecko. As in lizard like, reptile creature. Do you have the heebie jeebies yet? I know I'm not the only one in Blogland who loves animals. In our household, it's me who love the animals.

EDIT* I had someone question me on a heat source for my cage. Please don't think for a second that I would do anything that puts home decor at a higher priority than my pet's health. You'll notice that I do not have a heat source in my cage. Crested geckos need temperatures between 70-80 degrees, and our house consistently stays at 72-73 degrees. Over heating is more of a issue for these reptiles than under heating. They also do not require a UV lighting source, as they are nocturnal. High humidity is the biggest thing these guys need, not a heat source. Now would this curio cabinet transformation work for a bearded dragon, who needs gradient temperatures from 70-90 degrees, and a basking area around 100-105 degrees? No. You have to realize that not all reptile care is generic i.e. heat lamp, crickets, sand, don't touch, etc. 

Now we'll return you to your regularly scheduled programming......

I have three crested geckos. Griffin was my first. Yes, he's named after the UFC fighter Forrest Griffin. My favorite crested, Banana, died back in July. So for my birthday in August, hubby surprised me and contacted a local crested gecko breeder, we went to her house, and I was able to choose any crested I wanted. So I picked out my yellow crestie, Isis. And, another nice surprise was that she had a bunch of baby cresteds that had hatched out a couple of months prior, and she gave me one for free, so Chaos also came home to live with us.

Hubby doesn't mind my pets, but he's not a big fan of the cages and terrariums.

You know what a curio cabinet is, right? It's that glass stand cabinet thingy that people usually shove Precious Moments and other crap figurines in. But I took a curio cabinet and turned it into a new home for my geckos.

Pretty simple stuff. I found a curio cabinet on good ole Craigslist for $40. This thing was sooooo gross. The lady had it stored in her shed, and she had taped all of the glass and wood. No big deal, right? Except that it took FOREVER to get this thing apart. And I had to make hubby remove this creepy crawly bug thing that decided to hitch a ride inside of it and come home with me. I had to peel off all of the tape, unscrew and remove all of the glass, and then sit in the garage for 2 hours with a razor blade and some goo gone.

So after that, it was just a matter of cleaning it up. This thing was covered in dog hair, grime, and all around funkiness. Blech. But I guess for $40, I can't complain. Too much, anyway. I usually see curios going for $100 and up on CL. Plus the mirror and the glass were all in perfect, non stratched condition. So after cleaning it up, came taping off the back mirror and primering and painting it.

After I sprayed it a cream color, I went over it with stain. So pretty! Are you loving it yet?

And after the stain, I waterproofed the inside. No sense in having all of that hard work go down the drain and let the water I have to mist them with warp the wood. After hitting up Walmart and getting some vines and suction cups, I put it all together, and moved everyone in.

Isis and Griffin live in the top.

And Chaos lives in the bottom.

I know, I know. Reptiles are not for everybody. But you have to admit. Going from this...

To this...

Is a big improvement. Hubby was just excited to get the terrarium off the kitchen counter.

I know the pictures aren't great, it's crazy hard to take a picture of something that is surrounded by glass, all I would get in the pictures is reflections of the rest of the living room.

So from Precious Moments wasteland to a gecko cage. Whatcha think?



Partying it up at..