Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I am trying to find a supplier that sells either Expanded PVC or something like that in sheets kinda like plywood sheets. I am not sure the exact material I want or maybe it has a name I am not use to. I have seen rigid PVC foam board and I am not sure if that is the stuff I want. I want a material kinda like what BARRS cages are made out of. I hope someone knows what I am talking about and can help me.
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1.1 Motley het butter corns
0.1 Snow corn
0.1 Okeetee corn
1.0 Anery mutt corn
0.1 Stripe Ghost corn
0.1 Amelanistic corn het carmel
2.1 Colombian Redtails
1.0 Hypo Colombian redtail
1.0 Brazilian Rainbow Boa
1.0 Anery Kenyan sand boa
0.1 Normal Kenyan sand boa

Barrs cages are made from high impact polystyrene sheet, which is readily available and usually fairly affordable. It is a decent plastic to work with. Spend some time on google and do a lot of price comparisons as it can vary quite a bit. Also, it often comes in unorthodox sheet sizes so figure out if you can use those sizes and not waste a lot of material.

My only precaution about the material is that it takes a bit more skill to work with than expanded PVC. You will need good tools and the skill to use them to make cuts good enough for solvent welded edge bonds. If have an expensive table saw yet if I were to construct with this material I would probably join it with styrene corner angle.
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Currently keeping a small collection of various Gonyosoma. Both G. janseni and G. oxycephala.

so how hard is expanded PVC to come by? Also what type of weight can it hold? I am wondering what type of thickness would an adult female boa need if I wanted to build larger stackable cages for my boas.
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1.1 Motley het butter corns
0.1 Snow corn
0.1 Okeetee corn
1.0 Anery mutt corn
0.1 Stripe Ghost corn
0.1 Amelanistic corn het carmel
2.1 Colombian Redtails
1.0 Hypo Colombian redtail
1.0 Brazilian Rainbow Boa
1.0 Anery Kenyan sand boa
0.1 Normal Kenyan sand boa

Expanded PVC is readily available but the price seems to have skyrocketed in the past year or so. But it is still a great material as it is usually light, fairly easy to work with and still not horribly priced. I also really like the colors that expanded PVC comes in, especially the black. I'm not a fan of the color of high impact polystyrene but this alone would not prevent me from working with it or buying a product made from it.

Stackable boa cages are made by several companies from 6mm expanded PVC. Boaphile is probably the most common. If you need enough cages to justify 10 full sheets of material then I'd probably recommend 10mm material as it's a bit easier to work with than 6mm.

One further comment about PVC and other plastics for DIY applications. Since these are not items like plywood that are brought in by the truckload, there tends to be a high price and markup for DIY applications. This combined with the learning curve associated with working with these materials often means that the cost savings of DIY are not as great as when working with melamine or plywood.

I still encourage DIY cages made from these materials but warn not to expect major cost savings over commercial unless building several cages at once. And of course when building your own cages you can get the exact specifications, doors, etc. that you want. There is reason to do it even if you save little money.
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Currently keeping a small collection of various Gonyosoma. Both G. janseni and G. oxycephala.

Do as search for "Sintra" expanded PVC.

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Later,
Paul E. Turley