Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hi folks,
I'm hoping to be building some enclosures fairly soon. One will be a book case type enclosure with probably about 4 or 5 areas for corn snakes, one on top of the other. About 7' 6 tall, 3' wide and about 2' deep

Another one I'd like to build will be a double enclosure, one on top of the other. Each would be about 4-5 feet long, 2' deep and maybe 2' tall (about 4' tall total) One set of two would be for black pines and another set of two would be for Rainbow boas.

I'm wondering about how to do the doors. I think I could probably use sliding glass for the corns. Possibly hinged doors on the others, maybe sliding.

What are some of the pros and cons on doors?
Sliding, hinged-opening up, hinged-opening down, hinged-opening left or right. Would you have done it differently from what you have? Why?

Thanks for your thoughts,
Rob
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"I reject your reality and substitute my own" Adam Savage
0.1 Brazilian Rainbow Boa-Ziggy
1.0 Creamscicle motley corn--Cozmo
0.1 Creamscicle corn--Wanda
0.0.1 Normal corn
0.1 Black Pine - Spazz
1.0 Eastern King-Ozy
1.0 Bearded Dragon - Gomer

I used hinged doors on the cages I built. I am actually very happy with there look and performance. They offer a good veiwing area and when opened I have access to the full cage. Substrate does not get stuck in the track as sometimes happens with sliding glass. They also work well to keep the critters inside (herps and feeders). I found them easier to build and design as opposed to the sliding doors with track etc., but to each his own.

Well, as for glass sliding track doors, there's a small gap between the two panes of glass that may or may not be important to you. It can let moisture and heat out, and in case you have very small snakes, depending on the track you use, the gap might be large enough for some tiny ones to escape.

However, they are convenient - you don't need to allow 'opening room' in your design. Glass is easy to clean and doesn't scratch easily, and you can pull track glass out easily to give it a complete cleaning somewhere else in the house if you need to. Keyed sliding glass door locks are cheap - about $7 each, and glass track is pretty cheap as well. Hinged doors that open left or right need enough clearance to open. Though hinged on the bottom seems like the way to go if you will be using hinged.

It's all a matter of preference. If you'll be making hinged acrylic doors, just be aware that you need to get thick enough acrylic so that the doors don't warp with heat/humidity much. But if you're doing framed doors, you can use glass or acrylic without worrying about warping. From scratch, hinged doors might take longer to make.

I do like both hinged and sliding, but I mostly have sliding glass doors.

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Lauren Madar - OphidiaGems.com | CageMakers
1.0 BP, 1.0 Hog Is., 1.1 Hypo BCI, 1.1 Surinam BCC, 0.1 GTP

It's really about personal preference. I prefer sliding doors in any application for many reasons. Most importantly I like the 100% open look that is easily achieved with sliding doors and the fact that the doors don't open up into the room.

I also like how easy it is to lift the doors out for those times a thorough cleaning is needed or the cage needs to be moved.

Of less importance is how useful they are for the fast and aggressive species I keep. I can just slide the door open slightly to introduce a rodent on forceps or just enough to remove a water bowl etc.
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Current snakes:

0.0.1 Gonyosoma oxycephala - Java locale (green)

0.2 Gonyosoma oxycephala - Malaysian locale (green)

1.2 Gonyosoma oxycephala - Java local (green)

2.2 Gonyosoma janseni - Seleyar locale (all black)

1.2 Gonyosoma janseni - Celebes locale (Black & Tan)

I like to have as much access as possible into the cage, and I don't have any fast or particularly agressive snakes. For that reason, I tend to prefer swing-down (bottom-hinged) doors on low-height cages and swing-out doors (side-hinged) on taller cages.
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Mark

Thanks for your thoughts on doors. You each mentioned something that I didn't think of. This will help out a bunch.

Thanks again,
Rob
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"I reject your reality and substitute my own" Adam Savage
0.1 Brazilian Rainbow Boa-Ziggy
1.0 Creamscicle motley corn--Cozmo
0.1 Creamscicle corn--Wanda
0.0.1 Normal corn
0.1 Black Pine - Spazz
1.0 Eastern King-Ozy
1.0 Bearded Dragon - Gomer