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OKReptileRescue
at Sun Oct 28 03:34:58 2007 [ Email Message ] [ Show All Posts by OKReptileRescue ]
our big cage is actually a set of 4 cages. the total is 7x7x7. two cages stacked ontop of 2 cages. 1 cage is 7long, 3 1/2 wide, 3 1/2 tall. These cages were made to hold many kinds of animals- as the things here are constantly changing. I can put the big snakes in here, the iguanas, the monitors and in the winter our personal sulcata goes in one- he's not very big- only about 9-12 inches long...
anyway- they are made of plywood and 2x4's. we used plywood on the inside and outside of the cage (inside to cover the 2x4's) we used Drylock on the wood and then put down some slick plastic- like board...most ppl use it in bathrooms and stuff similar to a tub surround.... its on the bottom and then goes 6 inches up the side- caulked all the seams. We use flexwatt sitting on the floor with a peice of plexy-glass ontop to keep it from moving around... We also made light boxes- a plywood box with a locking door on the front with 2 heat lamps or heat emmitters inside- depending on the animal inside- keeps it nice and warm, as well as gives a basking spot... we used metal hardware mesh on the bottom of the box (where the lamps sit) to keep the critters out of the box (no burns!!) We used large storage totes and made a wood frame for the totes to sit inside of full of water- thus far not had a single one tip over- my husband has to lift the one out of the upper cages though... The doors are just hinged to the front- has 2 slide locks and a hasp with a deadbolt (not that there are many people willing to break into a cage with that inside of it...)
we have huge driftwood peices we can put in for the iguanas, etc...
The only draw back to this cage is that the upper 2 cages require a stepstool and a person physically getting in the cage to remove the snake.... not always a fun thing to do 4 foot off hte ground.... thus far its not been a problem... just a bit of an adrenaline rush...
We have some pics of when we were building it- there are 4 larger size adults inside the cage with Shivvah (13 ft burm)... i'll dig up the picture and see if i can post it...
hope that helped... they do look pretty good but I would use MDF board if it was made to be a display cage... the plywood is pretty rough- even though we put a coat of paint on the outside... the inside is pretty shabby... the drylock smoothed it out a bit- used a thick coat to cover any possible splinters... ----- The rescue site: www.freewebs.com/okreptilerescue
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