Okay to paint?

[droogievesch]

I have progressed to designing our tortoise table! I have the rough ideas down, and I will hopefully be able to start construction this weekend. My fiance and I are big Mario fans (only game I can whoop him in!) and we plan on making the table very Mario-esque. The table will be two stories high with "Bowser's castle" being the front of the second story (does that make sense?) The "drawbridge" will be the ramp to the second story while the door on the right turret will be an entrance to the humid hide (directly under the second story). Anyway, the only way I can make this look slightly awesome is through a lot of tiny, pointless, details. So the beef of my question is: Can I use acrylic paints (those crafting paints) and a clear sealant (polyeurethane...butchered the spelling, sorry) or is that toxic? Also, can I use baked polymer clay as decorations (thinking of 1-up mushrooms or even those "blocks"for him to climb on, or one of the castles as a hide on the other end). I know this is unnecessary work, and the tort couldn't care less.

 

[ascott]

Sounds cool...the painting and sealing sounds great....BUUUUUTTTT make sure that the think is in the heat and dries and airs out completely for a few days at least....really looking forward to seeing your end result....just a reminder, most torts love red and blue as they equate those colors with nummies...so may want to keep that in mind if adding any painted items to the indoor enclosure walls and such....

 

[droogievesch]

Sounds cool...the painting and sealing sounds great....BUUUUUTTTT make sure that the think is in the heat and dries and airs out completely for a few days at least....really looking forward to seeing your end result....just a reminder, most torts love red and blue as they equate those colors with nummies...so may want to keep that in mind if adding any painted items to the indoor enclosure walls and such....

Thanks for the input! I'm hoping to have it up for a month before introducing the tort. I want to make sure my temps are good before putting it in there.

 

[JoesMum]

I'll add yellow to yummy food colours, and orange and....

They have excellent colour vision and their IQs don't always let them think logically about food. They tend to try rather than think first.

Also tort claws are hard and sharp. A scrabbling tort will probably remove the protective layer and the paint.