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I have a 6' albino burm who has outgrown her 50 gal aquarium that I have been keeping her in. I have some spare time over the summer so I decided to save a little money and build a new cage for her. I'm thinking around 6'X 3'X 3' although those are subject to change. I was thinking a fairly simple 2X4 and plywood design with sliding doors on the front. Any suggestions/blue prints that have worked well for you? I appreciate all help. Thanks in advance

As much as I think a 6x3x3 cage would be neat, I think you'll have a real hard time moving something like that around. My home was originally built to be handicap accessible and I could not move a cage that size around my house.

Another concern is the 6x3 footprint. Why not go ahead and build her a cage that she can spend the rest of her life in? Or were you goingt use the cage for something else when she outgrows it?

If it were me I would use some Baltic birch plywood that is readily available nowadays. It comes in 5x5 sheets meaning you could easily build a cage 60"x30"x30" with very little waste. Even better, the BB is of very high quality and is priced well.

When she outgrows that cage just build another one and bolt the two of them together. You'd just have to cut a hole in the end of each cage.

Somebody on this forum is doing a similar project right now. I'll see if I can find the links.

FYI, I'm not a huge fan of plywood cages with framing. With the quality of both the plywood and modern adhesives you can easily build a large cage using "frameless" construction.

But your peace of mind is most important so do what you're comfortable with.

There have been actually quite a few discussions regarding this topic in the past few months.

I suggest searching the forum archives and reading a few.

That being said there are a number of important factors icluding;

1) Cage location, this will ultimatly determine the size cage. With Burmese bigger is better. I suggest a two part cage with dimensions similar to what you had in mind. However I wouldn't want such a deep cage do to the fact you will have to get in it for cleaning.

3' is not that bad but something around 30" is about arms length. For aditional floor space you may consider adding a shelf

If you made two cages 5' or 6' by 3' tall 30" wide and bolted the two together it would be a great cage for an Adult Burm. You may only need one part now but in a few months you will need the other. Burms grow fast!

2)The temperature of the room is very important. How much energy required will fall on the temp of the room its in. RHP probally work best but if the cage is uninsulated it will take a lot of energy to heat.

3)Finally asthetics(sp), is the look important or minimal. Weight can also be considered a factor but less likely with a Burmese.

Again Good Luck
My 2 Cents
Jeremy

>>I have a 6' albino burm who has outgrown her 50 gal aquarium that I have been keeping her in. I have some spare time over the summer so I decided to save a little money and build a new cage for her. I'm thinking around 6'X 3'X 3' although those are subject to change. I was thinking a fairly simple 2X4 and plywood design with sliding doors on the front. Any suggestions/blue prints that have worked well for you? I appreciate all help. Thanks in advance
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Jeremy

"I am become death, the destroyer of worlds" July 16, 1945 Robert Oppenheimer

1.1 Double Het "Sharp" Snow RTB's
0.1 Albino RTB -Coming Soon-
1.1 Hypomelenistic RTB's
0.2 Pastel Hypo RTB's -Coming Soon-
2.0 Double Het Stripe Albino RTB's
0.1 Suriname RTB
0.1 Anerthrystic RTB
1.0 Ball Python
1.1 Rhinoceros Iguana's
1.0 Green Iguana
1.1 Cream Golden Retrieviers
1.0 Pomeriaian
0.3 Catus Terribilis
0.1 Spouse
0.0.1 Youth -coming soon-

Hello awe...

I was asking about building a burm cage few months ago on here, chris_harper, and bighurt helped me a great deal. I took what they suggested about the 5x5 sheets of baltic birch and I am Very pleased with this wood and choice of size. I am no where near completed with my cage as I am no wood worker so I have to work on it when my bud is available and we've had some problems last few weeks that has stopped us from working. I do have some pics of what all we have done. My burmese is a male, so the 10'x30"x30" may be bigger than I actually need, but I like the idea of my burm having more room than just the bare minimum and since the birch I used does come in 5x5 sheets, it made things easier. I think chris's idea is a great idea for a burms enclosure if you have the space/time/money/know-how. I have learned alot too. Anyways, here are the links for the few pics.
Good luck with whatever you do.

http://www.knology.net/~lyricalsatan/cage/

http://www.knology.net/~lyricalsatan/c1/

Thanks for all the advice, it's helping a lot