The Animal Enclosures are done!

We finished up the Animal Enclosures this week and I am so in love with them.  This was such a fun project finding all the animals and the contents of their little homes and trying to think of things they would actually have in their real life habitats.  They actually wound up coming out pretty realistic too.  

We started with the enclosures themselves which are from Mckenna's loft bed.  I was able to get them from the outlet when my husband was in town for business, but you can also find them sold separately on ebay.  Unfortunately they're more then twice the cost.  But I think they'd be reasonable enough if you were only doing 1 or 2.  

They all had identical hot pink lids so we decided to paint them all different bright fun colors to make them really stand out from one another.  Conveniently enough, I have a pretty extensive collection of spray paint. 

The little critters themselves are from Michaels and they are the perfect size for these little tanks.  Some came in a toob and some from a little mini pack (mini tree frogs & hermit crab).  Both in the same section.  Here's the link to the toob on Amazon so you can see what to look for in Michaels or order online.  

The backgrounds are all just google images resized and cut to fit the backs of the tanks.

The cage bedding is the real deal.  We have a hermit crab already so we had the jungle dirt bedding on hand and the shavings we got for free when we asked a girl working at the pet store for a handful of the stuff they already had open that they use in the pet store cages.  A little explanation of what it was for and she was happy to give us some.  Score!

Obviously, these little guys needed food so we used contact lens case covers from Target and hot glued in fish food we had on hand, crushed up oyster crackers in one and crushed dog food in the different covers.  The covers were perfect b/c they weren't too deep like soda bottle covers (my first choice) and they already came in these fun colors!

The ferret habitat is one of my favorites b/c of the little hammock.  Just some fabric with 3 pieces of string strung through the ends and hot glued to the lid.  She can really sit in it too! 

The plants are all from Dollar Tree.  They're mini potted plants that I cut apart.  Sticks are authentic and from our backyard.  Ha!

Here's Mckenna's hamster.  This tank I got with her bed set and it came with the food dish and wheel.  We just added the cage bedding to make it a bit more realistic.

The wheel on this one is half of a cat toy that came with a little bell in it.  Also from Dollar Tree.  We hot glued a pony bead onto it then hot glued it to the side of the tank.

Random little red toy I stole from my kids.  

Another Dollar Tree plant and rocks from the yard.

You guessed it, authentic real life sticks from the yard again.  How very realistic of me.

Another Dollar Tree cat toy this time used as a little igloo.

An extra piece of unused wood I broke off from our hermit crab habitat.

Now we just got to find spots for them in each of the rooms, or create a pet store.