Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Just curious, has anyone here ever used peg board for shelving in a rack? The stuff I looked at today was coated on one side, either in white or silver and was 3/16" thick. I wasn't sure if this stuff would end up distorting over time. It sure would be lighter and easier to work with than the particle board. Thanks. Kevin

Snakes are messy animals, they cant wash up easy without hands and feet,lol. In captivity hygiene is alot more important due to stress and atypical living conditions. We owe it to our stock to due what we can to eliminate all POTENTIAL hazards, this should include ALL wood. When sterilizing wood deteriorates. When washing wood deteriorates. You wont find any old particle board cages or racks in good condition. Forget asthetics(sp?), there are so many plastic,acrylic and glass options its best to spend the extra $$ there first. If you plan to keep your collection for a long time one of the biggest pains in the but is to have to re-rig having skimped the first time. I am of the opinion if you make your cages look better AND easy to clean you spend more attention on the animals. This will show in the long run.Jeff

When built properly wood cages can be an excellent choice. I have many that are over 10 years old and in perfect shape.

However, pegboard is not wood, and I dont think it will hold up for the applications you are talking about. Maybe if you built a frame around it so that the pegboards wasn't the sole weight support. There is a good thread about this on the cage forums where someone built some pegboard cages by sealing them really well.

Even the best sealing and poly will eventually deteriorate. I have made plenty of wood cages and used to think melamime was the answer because of its sealing, but with temperature changes, humidity changes, and lets not forget MOVING as we all do every few years....its just not worth it in the LONG RUN. They are like wooden boats, they look real pretty, but they dont go fast and take so much time to care for each year. Anything that gets as wet and dirty as snake cages. I now use 1/4" ACRYLIC because its visually appealing, easy to clean and becoming more economical to work with--just come up with a design and you can usually find a reasonable craftsman to do the work. I know I paid $200 per cage to Maryland custom design and still think I got a GREAT deal. Even ACRYLIC has issues though, I stack mine so after 4-5 years all of them have stress cracks. These can be easily filled with acrylic glue, which is also VERY hygenic. And as you can see, my use of ROPE LIGHTS has made my setup very safe and economical. Shannon compared it to the dashboard on the starship ENTERPRISE though,lol. Jeff

BUT I'll take the look of the wooden/melamine. Anything is going to need some maintenance and being good with wood Ill stick with these. Oh as an added bonus I love making my own cages.

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www.Wood-N-Snakes.com

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i have two sweater box Racks that have peg board as tops ,glossy side down. they are approx 5 y/o and still in good cond.

Pegboard holds up surprisingly in herp applications. I have some cage tops that are pegboard and have stood the test of time.

Cutting pegboard is easy with a circular saw or tablesaw, but man oh man is the sawdust aweful. Wear a mask - that stuff is very fine and gets on you and in your eyes and nose - and it is a health hazard to breathe in apparently.

You can make a rack with it as the bottom and top of the plastic box, but you must build a frame under each pegboard shelf - it won't hold a box well enough without some kind of framing under it.

Someone posted a pic in one of the forums showing a pegboard rack for adults. I'll try to describe it below:

Cut shelves from pegboard sized to the box you intend to use with adequate overlay around the box top. You will need to glue or screw wood pieces around the perimeter of the shelf (non-vinyl side) and maybe two supports within the rectangle frame. Use wood glue if you use glue, as Liquid Nails smells forever it seems like.

I think that the 3/4" square pine molding is good for the frame on the shelves, but this gets pricey. Some people use 1x2 furring strips, but furring strips aren't straight. Some people use strips of plywood cut from one large piece. This is cost-effective and works very well. Plus, plywood doesn't change shape as much as pine. Extruded aluminum hollow square is the best (use rivets to attache shelf), but it costs so darn much.

The next shelf up will need pegboard attached to both sides of the frame (all shelves have the vinyl side touching the box bottom and top.) Continue with as many shelf modules as you need.

Once you have all of your shelf modules made, you'll need to make the rack frame to attach all of the shelf modules to, basically 2 sides and a back (or open back). The frame can be plywood or 2x4s or melamine. I think plywood sides are a great choice here.
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Mark

Thanks for the input guys. I will check out the cage forum as well. Kevin