Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I have two boas 6.5ft male and a 7.5-8ft female. They both live in a custom built cage 78"T X 65" W X 32" deep. I made it for my male and then got the female on a freak rescue deal at the local animal shelter. She was in a drug house that got raided. Anyway I would like to seperate them. I was going to make my cages out of 120 weight melamine, with a tileboard inside, and a sliding glass front. I was thinking about 18"T X 60"W X 24"D? would this be big enough or should I just go for 6 footers? Also I was thinking about using ultratherm heat pads from junglehabitatsplastics.com. I have never used heat tape and I'm not sure what kinda wattage to use for it. Any help would be great. Thanks Josh

Josh,

You can probably build the 72" long cages for about the same as you can the 60" cages. Or if you really wanted to save on material you could limit the length to 49" (which is how wide melamine is instead of the typical 48" and add more floor area by increasing the depth of the cage.

But I'd probably go ahead and build 72" cages.

Why tileboard on the inside? It is less durable than 120 weight melamine.

I'll let others deal with the heating issues.
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Current snakes:

0.0.1 Gonyosoma oxycephala - Java locale (green)

1.2 Gonyosoma oxycephala - Jave local (green)

2.2 Gonyosoma janseni - Seleyar locale (all black)

1.2 Gonyosoma janseni - Celebes locale (Black & Tan)

With heating the cage your describing the ultratherms will work but you will need to go with a larger pad i would personally reccomend the 11x35 or even the 11x47. However keep in mind that this size cage is going to be cool unless you add heat emmiters , lights , dome lamp etc to it . personally i would use a radiant heat panel or even some of the kane head pads they are both more price buy you get the best heating styles you can ESP for such thick dense material as you plan to use . Also the ultrathems if used would have to go inside the cage ( which is ok as they are super durable and have sealed connections) and i always used mine inside anyways making stacking them very easy when on cages no cords under them etc.

as to cage size iagree if you can go a lil larger do it wont cost really anymore if its built correct
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I also think that while the Ultratherms are good heat pads, for large snakes like adult boas you may need supplement heat from overhead in case the cages are in very cool rooms. Even a regular bulb socket and a red spot heat bulb will work nicely. You don't need alot of wattage, and you'll likely only have to use it when the room air temp is cool.

When I did have an adult boa (kept in an unheated room), I eventually abandoned Flexwatt and heat pads and went with overhead heat - two fixtures independent of one another. That way, if one bulb burned out, the other still provided some heat so the cage wouldn't get too cold. I used a 60 watt bulb on one end and a 50 watt on the other. The 60 was on a thermostat and the 50 on a dimmer.