Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I have a large section in my house where I can build a walk-in cage for my 13' burm. I expect him to grow much more than he is now and do not want to build another cage, this will be the last. I want a walk-in both for space, looks, and getting into for cleaning, I'm not getting any younger. Any advice, preferably on good ideas for ease of cleaning, insulating etc. rather than why I shouldn't, would be greatly appreciated. I have allot of tools and a pretty good idea of how I plan to build it, just wanted to see if anyone has done this successfully who could offer ideas. I want to automate everything as much as possible.
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DZ

"People sleep peaceably in their beds at night only because rough men stand ready to do violence on their behalf." -- George Orwell

Make it tall enough to walk comfortable, make sure you have a floor drain. Insulation depends on the means of construction and weather this will be a perm structure.

Lou Dadano was killed in a walk in cage so even that doesn't provide a true safe situation with large boids. Only bet there is muiltiple handlers over for every 5' of snake over 10'.

Best of Luck

>>"People sleep peaceably in their beds at night only because rough men stand ready to do violence on their behalf."

Your Welcome or Thanks depending on how it falls.
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Jeremy

"I am become death, the destroyer of worlds" July 16, 1945 Robert Oppenheimer

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Well the first thing I would consider the materials you want to use, I mean a 13 foot burm is a strong snake, but thats obvious, I think more of the challange with that would be haveing the stronger materials but it also looking really nice, kinda like comparing a more natural looking enviroment instead of a bunker.

so lets say you have a small room space? heck put a door with a window in it and a good door lock. I would actually use astroturf for most of the floor, a livestock tub with the drain on the bottom, i think there made by rubber maid, and a kane heat mat on a thermostat. screw a few logs against a wall and a ceiling mounted flood/ heat buld. zoomed I think makes one that really puts the heat out.

I guess the pros are you have the space to work with, and the few cons I can think of are 1. keeping that larger space heated consistently and safely, and 2.easy of cleaning. good luck

Ian

Hey Captain!
I've never built a walk-in cage but have seen a few in person. Before I can come up with any ideas I need to know what the area that you intend to build the cage in is like. Example: Will yo be using a corner of a large room and just adding 2 walls that will butt up to the other 2 walls? OR Do you have a decent size covey hole that you're planning on just putting a face wall on? OR will you be building a complete room (4-wall cage) within a room?

Catch ya later!
HH
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Due to political correctness run amuck,
this ol' hillbilly is now referred to as an:
Appalachian American

It's actually half of an octogan shaped room. 11.5' across and bout 5' deep, 9' high. It's all concrete in a basement in Michigan so insulation will be plenty.
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DZ

"People sleep peaceably in their beds at night only because rough men stand ready to do violence on their behalf." -- George Orwell

Well, I just finished cleaning burm cages (puuueeeeeee!!!) so my first thought goes to the flooring and splash/smear area of the lower walls.

Concrete basement floors stay fairly cool year-round. Ideally, an insulated plywood subfloor would be best. Jeremy (bighurt) or Chris Harper has either done one or had good plans for one. I remember one of them talking about it here awhile back.

Other than that I think your best options are either painting the concrete floor or using vinyl. I think a patternless sheet vinyl would be your best bet (other than the subfloor). I say patternless because the ones with patterns have indentations that will make it harder to clean.

Since vinyl comes in 12ft widths you could just get the length you need (5ft or so) for the floor. An additional 2ft of vinyl (12 x 7) should give you enough to go 1ft up each wall. They make a plastic or vinyl rubber cap that can be used to cap off the top, bare edge for a cleaner, better look. You'll have to get that from a floorcovering store, but it's inexpensive.

For insulation, I'd probably use insulation boards for the concrete (exterior) walls, probably one of the ones with foil backing. For the 11.5 wall that you're gonna have to build by anchoring it to the concrete floor I'd use the thick, heavy rated rolls and maybe even refletix.

I'd slap a few picture windows in there. I'm kinda hung up on door placement. Just about every walk-in cage I've seen failed to start out with safety concern. What I mean is, you don't want the door in an area where your snake may be sleeping. I believe I'd put it on one end or the other and make the inside of the cage in that area an unlikely place for the snake to rest, if there's such a thing. Ha!

Is this anything close to what you had in mind? Close to the type of suggestions you're lookin' for?

Catch ya later!
HH
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Due to political correctness run amuck,
this ol' hillbilly is now referred to as an:
Appalachian American

I goofed on calculating the extra vinyl needed to do around the walls. I left out the 11.5ft wall that you're gonna have to build, so that would put you needing aprox. a 12ft x 8ft piece of vinyl.

Sorry!

HH
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Due to political correctness run amuck,
this ol' hillbilly is now referred to as an:
Appalachian American