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I would like to share my recently finished enclosure building project for my male Gaboon Adder.
The enclosure size is 2.5m long by 2.5m wide and 2.5m high and is constructed out of brick walls, a semi transparent corrugated fiberglass roof and a large sliding glass door in the front.
Here is a picture from outside:
The temperature and humidity are controlled with a KELD KLTH43 controller and is capable of controlling the entire climate inside the cage.
The enclosure is capable of heating, cooling, humidifying as well as dehumidifying depending on what is required to maintain the correct environmental conditions.
Everything is fully automated and can be adjusted if needed by only changing a few settings on the controller.
Heating is primarily achieved by using a Xpelair WH30 fan heater, but there is also a basking spot heated by heating pads and an UVB light to stimulate solar rays.
Humidifying is done with the help of a Bosan UPH-3000 Ultrasonic Humidifier. This model is fitted with an UV-C lamp to sterilize the fog before it leaves the system thus preventing airborne bacteria from causing health risks.
The water feeding into the humidifier is also filtered with a reverse osmosis system to remove lime/calcium and thus preventing the humidifier from causing a layer of mineral powder forming inside the enclosure.
Cooling and dehumidifying is achieved by increasing the enclosure's ventilation. For this I use two Xpelair GXC6 extraction fans. (See humidifier pic.)
There are life plants and a small fountain in the cage as well. I opted for tropical cycads and one tree fern because they will do well in shady and humid conditions and look good.
The fountain is for providing drinking water as well as decorative purposes. The flowing water also helps with stabilizing the enclosure temperature to a small degree.
When I initially tested the enclosure's temperate fluctuations throughout the day I had trouble with over heating due to the greenhouse effect caused by the fiberglass roof. The cooling system couldn't keep up on very hot days, but the solution was to use shade netting as a radiant barrier. As can be seen from the pics I hung the shade netting about 50mm underneath the roof and this keeps the building from becoming too hot, but still lets enough sunlight through to keep the plans alive and stimulate a forrest floor effect.
Air temperature is maintained between 24-28C, but may go up to 32C on very hot days. (However the floor of the enclosure is always about 4C cooler than the air, except for the basking spot where heating pads are under the floor.)
Humidity is kept between 40-50% RH, however at night when the outside temperature drops the relative humidity inside will rise. To prevent condensation from taking place the ventilation system will kick-in to bring down the humidity to 50%RH.
Unfortunately I didn't keep track of exact costs involved with building this enclosure, but a quick estimation works out at a little over R43000. I'm sure that if I build another one of these I will be able to do it for much cheaper since I've gained allot of experience from this project and there are a number of places where costs can be cut... for example I found cheaper bricks that do not require plastering and installing a 9000 btu air conditioner will be allot cheaper than the three Xpelair fans and will be more energy efficient as well.
Finally, here are a couple of pics of my Gaboon adder in his new home. He is about to shed, so his coloring is not a their best, but once he sheds I will upload more photos.
I'm also looking for some medium sized females, so please let me know if you have some for sale or know of anyone selling some.
