Vivariums

Your Pet’s Home Away From Home

Having an exotic pet, such as a reptile, is immensely popular to a lot of people these days. Keeping a reptile entails dedication, experience, and a beautiful reptile vivarium.

A vivarium is an enclosure or a reserve where live plants and animals are kept in a small simulated ecosystem. Therefore, these living things that are raised in captivity are still kept very close to their natural habitat. The animals kept in a vivarium can be anything from bugs and spiders to amphibians and reptiles. The environment’s humidity, temperature and ventilation in a vivarium are all controlled by the use of a lighting system, ventilation system, hydrating system, and heating system. These environmental controls are very important when keeping an animal because different animals need different environment and conditions.

If you want a happy place for your reptile, make sure that you have all the essential things needed to create a beautiful vivarium. Your vivarium should be a healthy place for your reptile to live.
But first, you have to consider the size of the reptile that you are going to keep as this will determine the size of vivarium you will need. Make sure that the reptile you are keeping can move around and the plants have enough room to grow. Then, after choosing a reptile and deciding on the size of the vivarium, you should also set the environment of the vivarium.

An essential part of creating a reptile vivarium is choosing the right kind of light. The lighting system in a vivarium is essential not only because of the need for a regular day and night cycle, but because light is also important for the health of the animal living in a vivarium. Some reptiles need to bask under the sun, these kinds of reptiles need Ultraviolet (UV) wave lengths. Thus, various lights would be necessary to simulate this in a vivarium.

You will need a light that replicates the sun; natural-spectrum fluorescent lights or any cold lights would be great for your vivarium, but UV lights are the best and necessary for reptiles. Stay away from halogen lights or anything that creates and causes extreme heat as they may burn the living things in it.

In addition, providing appropriate temperatures in your reptile vivarium is very important. Reptiles are cold-blooded animals; to regulate their body temperature, they rely on the environment’s temperatures. When in the wild, reptiles settle to an area where the temperature fits them, they may bask under the sun, or just stay under a shade. Therefore, your reptile vivarium must have a portion where reptiles can bask from a heat source, and a portion (a shaded area) that maintains a lower temperature.

Creating a perfect reptile vivarium doesn’t only benefit the reptile that lives in it but also the reptile’s keeper. Reptile vivariums can really be relaxing to the eyes especially if it is decorated well. You can decorate your reptile vivarium with plants, branches, vines, moss, a waterfall, driftwood, rocks, or anything that can present the beauty of their natural habitat. Creating and decorating vivariums with the right reptile accessories is pretty straight forward but you might find that it can hurt your pocket for the initial setup and purchase of your reptile, but seeing your healthy reptile in a beautiful vivarium is truly priceless.