How to Make an Amazing Moist Reptile House

This morning I woke up and looked at my leopard gecko's 50 gallon bow front tank, and saw that it looked really plain and bad. I then decided that I was going to rearrange his habitat, and while I was doing this I thought of the following project that will turn any boring reptile habitat into something spectacular. Well at least, that would be nice right? Well, here goes:

Before I tell you what you're going to need to make this, I'd better tell you exactly what we're making. Most reptiles require a 'moist house' in their habitat for when they are going to shed their skin. This house must have a substrate that holds moisture very well, and the house must be pretty closed off, you know, sealed other than a door. That way the humidity stays very high in there. In the following pictures you can see that I used a diaper wipe box for my 'moist house' and this is because it is for my leopard gecko. If you have a larger reptile, use a larger, similar container.

Okay here's what you'll need:
1 container that will fit your reptile, and some substrate
Some reptile safe moss (I bought mine at a pet store, I recommend doing so)
A sheet of 'reptile carpet' (I used to use it as the substrate in my tank,  until I switched to sand. There are many natural looking colors and I had green so that's what I used)
Non-toxic hot glue gun, and glue for it
Scissors

Step one:
Cut out a piece of reptile carpet out that is a little bigger than the top of your container. Make sure to leave a little extra around the edges, you'll see why later.

Step Two: Cut out a strip of the carpet as tall as your container. Cut the carpet so that it sticks off a few inches off each side of the front. (See next picture) This will give it a more natural look at the end. Also, cut out a space where the door is. Make sure your door is small, but at least as big as the largest area on your reptile. I also don't recommend having a door on the roof, as many people do. A door on the roof will reduce the humidity level. After you have it all cut out right, hot glue it to the front of your container, being careful not to glue it to the lip of the lid, otherwise in the future the lid wont open.

Step Three: Take the extra carpet that is sticking off the sides of your front, and hot glue them around the corner of your container, they will hopefully cover both of you sides. 

Step Four: If your front strip of carpet didn't cover all of the sides, cut out small pieces of carpet and glue them to where the sides are blank. We will not be covering the back of this container for a few different reasons. The main reason is that it will prevent us from being able to open the lid easily. It also wouldn't make much of a difference because in my habitat the back of this house is against a wall, and not visible. 

Step Five: Glue on the piece of carpet that you have measured for the top. Also you're going to want to trim the corners off this piece a little, other wise they will stick off your container a lot. 

Step Six: Nope! We're not done yet! Now we need to add some bling. (Reptile bling = moss :) So you need to take some dry (it must be really dry) moss and you can actually just stick it onto the carpet. It should stick pretty well. If for some reason it doesn't, just use some glue and decorate until you are satisfied.

Tony seems to like it! I hope you and your reptile do too!

Thanks for reading,

as always, 

    Moira