I am currently looking into building a cage for my burm. I'm hoping for something in the range of 5'X 3' footprint. My question is what kind of wood is best for such a cage. I was thinking 1/2" plywood
For a 5x3 footprint I would highly recommend russian/finnish baltic birch plywood that comes in 5x5 sheets. You could save a lot on material that way. If you changed the footprint to 5x2.5 you could save even more. 30" is about as deep as I'd want to go for saftey reasons anyways with a burmese.
There might be ways that 1/2" ply could be used, but I think I'd go with 3/4" to make things easier. Pine plywood would be fine as the material would be sealed anyways.
Also, what do you use to seal it. I know this has been discussed at length lately, and right now I'm thinking a deck stain for color and then a couple coats of polyurethane over the top to waterproof.
What look are you wanting for the interior of the cage? Baltic Birch ply is a very light colored wood and does not accept stain well at all, but there are other ways to darken it. Most people who use it only put a clear coat on. Solvent based finishes tend to amber over time which ends up looking pretty bad on light woods like this. And you want to avoid solvent based finishes if at all possible since this cage will hold an animal. Again, they can be used but they can offgas solvents for over a year, especially if they are not applied correctly.
Deck stain is not appropriate here. The flexibility and UV resistance that is built into these products actually make them less water resistance when used in an interior application.
What you use to seal a cage really depends on the look you want and how much you're willing to spend. Let us know and we can go from there.
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Current snakes:
0.0.1 Gonyosoma oxycephala - Java locale (green)
2.2 Gonyosoma janseni - Seleyar locale (all black)
