36" tall would be nice, but not absolutely necessary.



On my bearded dragon cage the false ceiling ended up being a bit under 6" tall. It's fine for the 60 watt CHE I use and the shoplight, but it would be nice to have a slightly larger space so I could fit mercury vapor bulbs. My next cage will have that.



One thing you want to avoid is the upper lip being too tall. I'd figure out how little space you can get away with and then add an inch or two "just in case".



Also, I prefer my upper and lower lips to be the same height. I think the look is more balanced. If the lower lip is too tall and makes it hard to see the dragon you can always raise the floor with substate or something else.



In my case I put down a couple of layers of foil-covered poly-iso insulation board and covered that with linoleum. Between that and the Reflectix on top my cage is remarkably efficent. Even with the entire top being screen and ventilated out the back.



A 36" tall cage probably would look nice. With 8" upper and lower lips, for example, that would give a viewing area about 20" tall.
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Current snakes:



0.2 Gonyosoma oxycephala - (Silver/Yellow)



3.3 Gonyosoma oxycephala - (Green)



2.1 Gonyosoma janseni - (Black)



3.3 Gonyosoma janseni - (Black & Tan)

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