Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I have a year old beardie that needs more room. I want to purchase a habitat for her that will have sliding glass doors in the front so I can open from the front and not top to clean and take her in and out. Does anyone know where I can purchase something like this. All I can find around my area (New Orleans Metro Area) is 55-75 gal fish tanks (these will be too hard for me to clean from the top). I have shopped at PetSmart, PetCo and a few feed stores around here. Any ideas would be appreciated. My husband was going to make her home, but we figured by the time we get the glass cut (I do have a large sheet of thick glass) and buy wood, etc, it my be just as economical to buy one. Thanks, Diane

it is deffinitely much more cheaper to build your own cage than buy one. there are plenty of cage manufacturers for reptiles but all are relatively expensive though all look exceptionally nice. at the top of any kingsnake page, look for the heading breeders/dealers/stores and click on it. a long list of stuff will be shown, just look for the heading about cages and you will see a list of cage makers. most are very good quality cages, many more designed towards snakes but most can easily be converted for bearded dragons or some also sell for lizards as well as snakes. nearly all of them have front opening doors, either via sliding glass or acrylic or just doors that open on the front. some i have heard to be very good are 'cages by design' vision cages, AP plastics [or something like that], kustom cages, and much more.

another place to check will be the kingsnake classifieds under cages and supplies. you may find some used cages that wil be suitable there.
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PHLdyPayne

wait, did you say you have the glass already? Then what are you waiting for? It doesn't really cost that much to get the glass cut professionally. If you buy glass from the place, it still only costs usually around $100 for the glass to be cut to the appropriate size.

So far I've built two very nice 4'x2'x2' enclosures (with the help of a friend of my father's, who is an excellent cabinet maker). I have a third one on the way for my baby tortoise, and even with all of the wood, heating/lighting supplies, etc. for all three cages, I haven't spent more than $150-200. He does have the lexan acrylic we're using, so that cut down on the cost, and we didn't have to buy lumber to frame the fronts of the cages, because he has planing equipment. That lumber would have only cost about $5 per cage though.

So really, you could end up spending less, and have a bigger, nicer cage. Look at the cages on customcages.com and the ones by cages by design. Look at the prices. It's ridiculous imo. You can building much nicer cages for less than half the price.

I have built two cages already...one of them cost me nothing because i took all the wood/plexiglass/hinges from my father. I also used his saws and drills etc. the other one i bought all the supplies from home depot and spent $120 (plus $70 in UV light bulbs). If you don't have a saw or drill then it can be expensive. Below are the two cages i built.

(ps- building the cage is way better than buying one...you get more satisfaction!)

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a free range dragon is a happy dragon