May 2, 2010
Roosevelt’s new dignified home
the (mostly) finished mario themed turtle home
I’ve mostly finished Roosevelt’s Mario themed turtle playground. I’d like to put some plants in there, but he eats them pretty much immediately. He’s a pretty voracious turtle.
This is his basking platform, which he rarely ever uses if we’re home. He tends to only bask if we’re not here.
basking platform from the front
basking platform from the inside
The platforms are made from plexiglass that I cut down to size, covered in the reptile carpet made from recycled plastic which is held on with the hard part of velcro. The platforms are suspended by small suction cups that are shoved through holes drilled in the sides of the platforms. This solution will need to be revisted when he gets a bit bigger.
The reptile carpet is doing really well being partially submerged in the water. It wicks water up, as you can see in the picture, but it’s pretty good about not getting moldy and gross.
the other side from the front
The bubble pipe and heating element
platform on the opposite side
The pipes were standard pipes from the home depot. They’re painted with metallic jasmine model paint. The paint is a bit streaky because I didn’t quite have enough. They will be repainted and clear coated at a later date. The short pipe is holding a bubble ring, the tall pipe is holding the heating element. The back of the tall pipe has a couple dozen hold drilled in it that you can barely see in the 2nd picture for water circulation. Roosevelt seems to prefer to hang out on this platform.
Roosevelt hanging out in the cords
That secondary platform obscures the in-tank filter. Roosevelt’s favorite place to hide is to burrow underneath the filter, which scares the crap out of me because i’m scared he’s going to get stuck.
close up of static clings
Most important character of all
All of the art was pieced together from screen caps of the new super mario bros wii. The background was pieced together from 9 or 10 different screencaps from various worlds. All of the character art was recreated in illustrator. I have access to a vinyl printer/cutter at work, which made quick work of cutting all of the pieces out.
I don’t believe Roosevelt appreciates the mario themed home, but he does seem to like the bubble pipe. All is not lost.
Roosevelt scheming to knock the bubble pipe over
things to do in the future:
- add plants that won’t be eaten in 5 minutes
- automatic feeder camouflaged as a question mark block
- repaint the pipes
- find a better solution to hold up the platforms
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great post as usual!
THAT IS SO AWESOME
thanks! it was a real labor of love, that's for sure