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Home > Andrea > Andrea 's Blogs > Itso Cube + Elbow grease = WOW!! (pics and directions included)

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Itso Cube + Elbow grease = WOW!! (pics and directions included)

Posted by Andrea at 3/6/2011 10:23:41 PM

So after reading on several forums (Amazon Alliance in particular), I decided to make my own 'Target' Itso box. For those who don't know, Target has $8-12 boxes for storage uses. People before me have figured out how to make them into Chondro and ATB (or any other arboreal) cages. The boxes are appox. 14.5" exterior and 13.5" interior. Here is a pic of the blue box I bought. They also come in Black, White, and Pink.

So I added a light with velcro for visual aid as well as live plant aid:

I used an existing hole in the box for my lighting cord, simply widening it to fit and filling it with Silicone to seal it:

I pre-drilled holes for the hinges then glued the hinges to the door. Door was made by cutting (to size) a 36" screen door frame and gorilla glueing plexi-glass to the frame.

Then, with difficulty, attached the door to the box with said hinges. I also had to use a small piece of wood behind the hinges so they had something to grab to:

I still have to get door locks for the long term, but I was too excited this morning and had to put my ATB in there after decorating. So I'm using the clamps I used in creating it, to keep it closed for now.

Any questions, let me know!! I'm SUPER excited about it, esp since it came out to about $40 or less!!!

Comments:

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SapphireTigress,	Posted At: 3/6/2011 10:52:12 PM
	i feel silly but did you make the door too? Your cage looks wonderful!

Andrea ,	Posted At: 3/6/2011 11:10:53 PM
	Yep. The doors they have for the cubes are solid plastic and not very secure. Home Deopt sells screen door kits, which I cut shorter and glued the plexi glass to, instead of the screen. There is another option for the door, which is sliding glass or PVC, but that only allows you to get at one side of the box at a time. The sliding doors are TONS easier to do, but not what I wanted. For a calmer species (balls or corns), it would be fine, but my ATB would bite me faster than I could pull my hand out. haha! So I wanted full, simple access and worked for my full door.

Mojo's Reptiles ,	Posted At: 3/6/2011 11:29:40 PM
	that is WAY cool! i will have to check these out at Target. Do they have anything a little larger? I'm thinking about getting a chondro and would like to have a 20-24" box if possible.

Andrea ,	Posted At: 3/6/2011 11:46:50 PM
	Not that Itso makes. One size only.These are mostly for (IMO) babies to yearlings. Too much bigger than that, I think they need more room. My little kid, Nova, loves it. I'm going to attange some more perches higher up incase s/he wants to climb more. Since I intend on buying a cage for when s/he is full grown, this is a great baby set-up that is cost effective. If you want a 20-24" box, look into BARRS cages (www.herpcages.com). They are pretty cheap and already made!! Highly recommended from tons of arboreal keepers.

Mojo's Reptiles ,	Posted At: 3/6/2011 11:53:53 PM
	Thanks for the info!

Leah Gray,	Posted At: 3/7/2011 7:14:26 AM
	That is amazing! Thank you so much for the tutorial too! I want to try that out.

Melanie Bernal ,	Posted At: 3/7/2011 8:54:28 AM
	Looks great! One question...how are you providing heat? Mo, Chris's "bin turned Chondro cage" is a great concept!! Check out his blogs on the subject.

Andrea ,	Posted At: 3/7/2011 9:36:38 AM
	Right now, I have a heat pad on the top of the cage. I am going to change that to heat rope or flex watt with a thermostat. This will be after I add some higher branches and such. Tomorrow is my day off, so I can post more pics then.

Michael ,	Posted At: 3/7/2011 11:15:19 AM
	I made them a while back but I used sliding doors Nice job !!

Emily ,	Posted At: 3/7/2011 11:45:50 AM
	Wow, excellent job!

Buddy Buscemi,	Posted At: 3/7/2011 4:19:52 PM
	I just used the doors that are made by itso, and added a couple of additional clips used to hold screens in windows. I also used the slide in full size tray keep things tidy. Here is the link http://reptiliancages.yuku.com/topic/109/Yearling-GTP-cages Buddy B

Michael ,	Posted At: 3/7/2011 5:35:01 PM
	Itso wonderful world lol

Lucas ,	Posted At: 3/8/2011 11:54:01 AM
	great idea! the only thing i would worry about is the animal climbing up and getting on the light cord pulling the entire light down.

Andrea ,	Posted At: 3/8/2011 8:16:38 PM
	The light is actually pretty hard to get down. And right now, my little one is so tiny that I doubt if s/he hung only from the light cord, I doubt that anything would happen. I'm taking pics tonight of the hinges I used to keep the door closed and my new arrangment of perches.

Andrea ,	Posted At: 3/8/2011 8:37:16 PM
	Finished cage: Close up on the hinges. I hot glued them on because clamping wasn't working, so gorrilla glue was out. The "lock" or piece of plastic hanger, isn't actually needed to keep the door latched, but better safe than sorry imo.

Joe Farah,	Posted At: 3/10/2011 11:40:03 AM
	Nice handy work :-) There's something therapeutic about making your own enclosures... I think it came out very nice.

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