Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I have been wondering for a while what is the best plastic type material for making cages for boas. Cages that are about 5 feet long 2 feet deep and 17 or so inches high. I have seen the boaphile cages and some of the other plastic snake cages. I want to know what is the best material and how thick and also where would you go to get stuff like that. I enjoy making my own cages and right now I do them out of 3/4 inch sheets of nice wood but after about 5 of those cages it will get real heavy and I want a lightweight but very sturdy material. I would appreciate some help. I live in northern Florida if that helps with locating a place. Thank you.
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1.1 Motley het butter corns
0.1 Snow corn
0.1 Okeetee corn
1.0 Anery mutt corn
0.1 Stripe Ghost corn
0.1 Amelanistic corn het carmel
2.1 Colombian Redtails
1.0 Hypo Colombian redtail
1.0 Brazilian Rainbow Boa

That is a very tough question. There are tradeoffs between different types of plastic. Mostly between weight, cost, easy of working with, etc.

One thing I'll suggest from the start is finding a plastic that comes in 5'x10' sheets for the cage size you mentioned. Many plastics do come in these sizes of sheets and while more expensive, you end up saving that money and more by utilzing the material better.

Just how important is light weight to you? How much are you willing to spend in order to have a cage that is 70% the weight of your wooden cages? How much for a cage that is 50% the weight of your wooden cages.

Some plastics are very heavy. The way to save weight with plastic cages is to mold them somehow (like Vision) or to use a lighter weight plastic (like Boaphile, Jungle Habitats, PVC Cages, etc.).

I can tell you that a lot of people have contacted me about working with 1/2" HDPE. I almost every case they have later complained that the final result was much to heavy and not necessarily worth the extra cost over a wooden cage.

If lightweight is extremely important I think 1/4" expanded PVC is hard to beat. But there are tradeoffs. The material can sag and crack, and this may be more likely in a 5' long cage. But is easy to work with regular tools.

For a 5' cage I probably assemble panels with PVC corner angle.

The absolute lightest material is 1/2" Ultra Plus, which is a styrene panel sandwiched between two 1mm layers of Sintra. A cage built from 1/2" UP would be less than half the weight of a similar sized Boaphile.

The downfall of this material is four-fold and entirely due to the styrene core.

First, the styrene interior is efficient enough at insulation that you MUST have a heat source on the inside of the cage. That means either heat tape on the floor or a RHP on the ceiling.

Second, the styrene itself is highly flamable, even though the Sintra coating is not. This may or may not be a problem. Note that styrene is used inside of reptile cages all of the time. Still, I might not use this material in a lizard cage that may have a super hot heat lamp. For a Boa, a RHP should be safe and in fact a RHP company said that their product would be safe to mount to a cage made from Ultra Plus.

Lastly, this stuff is so light that it may be TOO light. Have a boa hook a tail on a corner of one of these cages and the entire stack may stumble over. It would have to be mounted somehow.

One other issue with UP is that it cannot be thermoformed or joined like other plastics.

If I were to build a cage from UP I would use a combination of PVC corner angle (solvent welded to the Sintra skins), latex based Liquid Nails, and rivets.

Oh yeah, it does not come in 5'x10' sheets except by special order. I think you'd have to order quite a few sheets.

I think UP has potential, but I would only use it if extreme light weight at a cheap cost is your primary goal.

I like the idea of plastic over wood also for the fact that it will not hold any moisture. I used a glossy paint on the inside of the wood to cut down on some moisture probs but still cant beat plastic there. I also really like the look of all the plastic cages out there and one day I would like to make a rack for my corns and stuff out of plastic to give everything a nice uniform look but still be cheaper than buying say a boaphile or other cages like that. So for something that could be the same weight as wood or maybe a little less and still be study what of those options is best and where is the best place to go to buy something like that.
Thank you for all of the information you already gave.
-----
1.1 Motley het butter corns
0.1 Snow corn
0.1 Okeetee corn
1.0 Anery mutt corn
0.1 Stripe Ghost corn
0.1 Amelanistic corn het carmel
2.1 Colombian Redtails
1.0 Hypo Colombian redtail
1.0 Brazilian Rainbow Boa

So for something that could be the same weight as wood or maybe a little less and still be study what of those options is best and where is the best place to go to buy something like that.

I would save 1/2" polypropylene or polyethylene. There are numerous types of each and I don't know a lot about the differences.

I would start with plastic distributors withing driving distance in Florida.

thier # is 1-866-gepshap i think they have hdpe sheets. for sintra i would check local sign shops. often you can get free shipping if your order ships with thier shipments, especially if its only a few sheets. sometimes shipping cost of one or two sheets will double your costs.
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scaledhabitats.com

Get out the yellow pages phone book and start checking with all the plastics dealers in your area. Expanded PVC is one option, another name I've heard used is Sintra(sp). I checked into the cost of materials, cut to size, before I purchased my racks. The quotes I had were $120 to $130 before tax and a minor charge for extra cuts. That was also prior to the increases at the gas pump. Everything plastic has gone up considerably since then. The stuff is expensive. If you resize your plans to 4 foot instead of 5, you'll cut down on waste and cost. You'll also be able to get one cage per sheet.