My gecko loves these hides because newspaper is really good at holding in heat and she (obviously ) loves being warm. WARNING: these hides are not great for humid hides, unless you’re willing to replace them every few weeks as spraying them repeatedly can cause them to break apart or harbour bacteria. You can stick on coloured paper, fake plants, eco earth, whatever! step 6) decorate them or put them straight in your tank! remember if your painting to use animal safe paint and leave them to air out for a few days. they might look dry after a few hours but the inner layers might still be damp and that can mess with the humidity in your hide if they’re not filly dry. step 5) leave them out to dry on a plastic lid or folder next to a window for 1-2 days. Repeat this process until you get your desired thickness! mines usually around 4/5 layers, because my gecko seems to like it to be very warm. step 4) next layer can be done with dry newspaper, you don’t want every layer to have the paste or else it will take ages to dry and might grow bacteria. step 3) cover your first layer of strips completely in the paste, i did this by dipping it into the paste and using a spoon to coat it completely, then used my fingers to scrape off the extra paste back into the cup. step 1) tear newspaper into strips (doesn’t matter length/ thickness, all depends on what jar you want to use / preference) I would recommend tearing your newspaper into strips before you make the paste, as the paste can dry faster than you’d expect Mix well until combined and all lumps are gone It’s essentially papier-mâché on a glass jar, but instead of the actual paste (not sure if it was toxic, didn’t want to risk) i made my own paste with just these three ingredients!ġ/4 tablespoon (about one teaspoon) of table salt

Hides can be pretty expensive, and i’ve got quite a large tank that needed a few extra hides so i decided to DIY a few! Hey everyone, i posted about this on reddit and it got quite a bit of positive feedback so decided to post here!

Paper mache gecko hides