Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Ok here is a lousy picture of my soon to be cage. The front is not nailed into place yet and just sitting to give the idea of the final product. I have never built a thing before so this has been an experience. I have made A LOT of mistakes but it's not too bad I think. I will be using 1/4" glass and this will be a swing down door. I couldn't find the track and really wasn't up for ordering it. Also after just redoing all my Vision cages I decided that one big opening would be better for me personally.

I'll post a much better picture when it's all done next week but wanted to show you all what I have bugged you so long about. It's a 3/4" birch plywood cage with poplar front. Naked wood except for the polycrylic.

Thanks Chris! Thanks to everyone else who offered advice to me.

First 4'x2'x16 cage

I should also add that the front is going to be flush with the cage. The cage is raised in this picture and the front pieces are not.

I think you're well on your way to being another hobbyist cage builder. I'll warn you now, there was a period of time where I enjoyed building cages more than I enjoyed keeping the reptiles!

Post more pictures when you are done. Things look fine given the cloudy picture and face frame just resting in place.
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Current snakes:

0.0.1 Gonyosoma oxycephala - Java locale (green)

2.2 Gonyosoma janseni - Seleyar locale (all black)

Very Nice ! It looks great. I would only make one suggestion. Reconsider the glass front. I would suggest plexiglass because a large piece of glass without any type of cross brace can easily be broken.

What exactly do you mean crossbrace?

Looks great for your first build, I hope my first one comes out that nice.

As for the glass door/front I'd tend to agree with John Q. , a large piece of glass with no support/brace might get broken easily. Bighurt mentioned in one post a while back about using Safety Glass, that's another option for ya.

Someone gave me a 4ft wooden cage for my Boa and the glass in the doors had cracked in the corners so I replaced it with plexiglass. Its ok but it doesnt look or clean up quite as nice as glass IMHO. To be fair tho the plexi I used was from Home Depot and mebbe theirs is cheap, I'm not sure if all plexi is the same quality.
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Pete

1- 0.1 Boa Constrictor
1- 1.0 Patternless Green Burm
1- 0.1 Pueblan Milksnake - Apricot phase
1- 0.0.1 Honduran Milksnake - Tangerine phase
1- 1.0 Ball Python
1- 0.1 Rainbow Boa
1- 0.0.1 Cornsnake - Blood

Still no one has told me what a crossbrace would be for this door.

I guess I will go ahead with just putting it in and see how it goes.

I put the light in today and am ordering the RHP from proproducts in the morning.

Next step here is to make a pedestal for these cages. Does anyone have sugestions? I will be stacking 3 of these cages on a pedestal and would like to be able to have some storage in it (no doors) and able to cetralize my wires and Thermostat for the stack in there.

>>Still no one has told me what a crossbrace would be for this door.

I don't think you need one, how bigs the door?

>>Next step here is to make a pedestal for these cages. Does anyone have sugestions?

Make it identical to the cage, save add a crossbrace and install cabinent like doors would be my only suggestion. But then you don't want doors so you could just make one shelf instead. the side panels will support nearly all of the weight.

As far as centralizing your wires what did you have in mind?

Something like this.

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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
1.1 Hypomelenistic RTB's
0.2 Pastel Hypo RTB's
2.0 Double Het Stripe Albino RTB's
0.1 Suriname RTB
0.1 Anerthrystic RTB
0.0.11 Red Bearded Dragons
1.1 Rhinoceros Iguana's
1.0 Green Iguana
1.0 Ball Python
1.1 Cream Golden Retrieviers
1.0 Pomeriaian
0.3 Catus Terribilis
0.1 Spouse
0.0.1 Youth -coming soon-

That is pretty cool how you did the front with magnets. I would like something like that. I never wanted to play around with getting doors hung though. I am still not Queen of straight cuts. I was thinking more of bins under the cages inside the frame of the pedastal. I thought I would need support outside the sides of it so my plan was to use supports of lumber to divide the space as bins for all my junk.

As for my wiring, I just want to keep the thermostat and plugs hidden yet not so much that they are a hassel to get to. My one complaint about my Helix is the always glowing readout. My other one, Habitat Controls, doesn't stay lit like that.

Thanks, you picture gave me some ideas.

The glas is about fits right in that frame and I forget the exact measurements but its around 38" x 12" 1/4" glass

>>The glas is about fits right in that frame and I forget the exact measurements but its around 38" x 12" 1/4" glass

With little or no litter dam up top I would consider using a center support but it has to do with the way the cage is primaraly constructed. The reason why the center is necessary is due to sag from the ceiling and possible load from of the above cages.

In my cages my litter dams are 2.5" thick and I have no sag.

Good Luck
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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
1.1 Hypomelenistic RTB's
0.2 Pastel Hypo RTB's
2.0 Double Het Stripe Albino RTB's
0.1 Suriname RTB
0.1 Anerthrystic RTB
0.0.11 Red Bearded Dragons
1.1 Rhinoceros Iguana's
1.0 Green Iguana
1.0 Ball Python
1.1 Cream Golden Retrieviers
1.0 Pomeriaian
0.3 Catus Terribilis
0.1 Spouse
0.0.1 Youth -coming soon-

Great cage. Do you have instructions posted,etc on how you made it?

Thanks

Lia

No I don't but I followed advice from the web and here pretty much. I didn't put a top dam on my cage which I intended to do because my glass frame ended up being too large for one. This cage is the top of the stack so I'm going to run with it and if I need a support I can add one later down the road. All of my others cages will have it though. Here are some of the websites I used a lot as a guide; two of them Chris Harper referred me to.

http://www.arbreptiles.com/cages/4x2.shtml

http://www.finegtps.com/cageplans.htm

http://www.herpo.com/cages/theory.html

http://www.arbreptiles.com/cages/tips.shtml

Ok here it is. I have to pull the tabs off the glass and clean it yet as well as put in the RHP when it gets here but it's done. This has been a heap of fun! I can't wait to tackle the other 6 I have to do.

Chris, if I used polycrylic on the wood in and out of the entire cage, is there a certain amount of time I should wait before running the heat and putting in the snake? I was planning to let it heat for a week and then drop my guy in. I finished the cage finish about a week ago and its been in the garage ever since. The humidity is killing me here so I will be moving it in the house today when I have help lifting it.

Thanks a lot for the sites. The second site has a link to buying track for sliding acryluc front which is very usefull .
I have been looking for cage building sites yet only found one iguana cage these sites never showed up .
Thanks again

Lia