Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hey Guys, just wondering if you could post up some pictures of your cage set ups??? So I can 1) get a better idea of how to go about building the sucker and 2) so I can see all the different set ups?

Would be extemely helpful!

If you have any fantastic ideas/thoughts/input/info/'helpful hints'/etc. FEEL FREE to broadcast them ALL to me! Im open to everything right now haha.

Thanks So Much!!

-Leigh

Here is a pic of one of our set-ups. These are about 7'x 2 1/2'x 18". We use melamine instead of plywood. Melamine doesn't soak up moisture and is easy to clean. We also caulk the inside so it doesn't leak. We use a router to recess an area about 3/8" on the outside of the bottom of the cage and use 4 11"x12" flexwatt stapled to the bottom so the heat doesn't have to go through the whole 3/4" melamine. We also staple reflectix (it's bubble wrap with aluminum foil on either side)to the bottom to make sure the heat goes up into the cage and not down into the cage below.

Hope this helps.

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Randy and Michelle
Art In Scales
(719) 439-4199
info@artinscales.com

Nice cages, Randy. Good job.

On a 7ft span with 3/4-inch melamine, do you have any supports in the middle for the top piece to avoid sagging?

It looks like the top piece sits between the front/back pieces instead of the top piece sitting ontop of them. (I hope that's not as confusing to everyone else as it is to me. Ha!) This is one area that I've been tossing back & forth in my mind because I'll be starting work on a few cages soon, myself.

Makes for a nicer finish with top piece sitting between front/back but I'v been thinking about trimming the whole cage out so I can set the top piece ontop of the front/back to get better support, avoiding sag.

Astin, can you see how those doors open, how they're made? They drop down, hang down when opened. You'll have to ask Randy what he uses to fasten them while they're closed.

Thanks Randy!

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

I know what you mean about confusing and I hope this doesn't get even more confusing. The top and bottom are attached to the side of the sides, which makes a box. The back is surrounded by the top, bottom and sides. The front is then attached. Basically, the top is on the back and into the side of the front. If you notice there is a center piece in the front to support the top. I hope this makes sense.

There is no frame inside the cage and no screws holding it together. We us a plate joiner (biscuit cutter) and biscuits with polyurathane glue (the only thing we have found that sticks to melamine) to hold it together. You have to understand, we also have a woodworking business. We have a full blown shop out back which makes building cages and racks a whole lot easier.

The doors do drop down and we use cam locks to hold the closed, so they are all behind lock and key. All our bigger snakes are in these cages. It keeps our 12 year old son and us from forgeting our two person rule.

Hope it wasn't too confusing,

Randy
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Randy and Michelle
Art In Scales
(719) 439-4199
info@artinscales.com

> > > I hope this makes sense.

Perfectly well! Good explanation as I understand exactly what you did.

Seeing the front brace made me wonder if there were any inside or on the backside, too. So you supported the front because the top wasn't resting on the face, like it does along the back wall. See, told ya I understood. By golly, you might be alright after all. Hahahahahaha!!!

> > > You have to understand, we also have a woodworking business. We have a full blown shop out back which makes building cages and racks a whole lot easier.

Ahh, so that's your dirty lil' secret. That's great! I've always enjoyed building things and wish I had more woodworking tools as I love woodwork. I used to be a machinist. Similar, but not quite the same.

Thanks a bunch, Randy for taking the time to fill me in on that.

Have a good one!
Mike
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Due to political correctness run amuck,
this ol' hillbilly is now referred to as an:
Appalachian American

Glad it made sense. It's hard to explain, especially when I can't draw pictures. Ha Ha.
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Randy and Michelle
Art In Scales
(719) 439-4199
info@artinscales.com

Haha, I'm not going to lie to you.... that was a tiddly bit confusing! thats okay, ill read through it about 10 more times while lookin at the pictures and Im sure I will figure it out! haha thanks a bunch Randy!

Next time I build a cage, which should be in a few weeks, I will get pics of the building process. I have a 4ft cage I need to build for one of my boas, so it won't be exactly like the burm cage but close. I'll post the pics when I'm done.

Thanks,
Randy
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Randy and Michelle
Art In Scales
(719) 439-4199
info@artinscales.com

I wasn't into building mine, so I ordered two cages from Animal Plastics. Pricey, but works for me. Here's a link just so that you can see the pictures. Click on terrestrial cages to the T25 model, and it's the one with the swing doors. If you click on the cage, you can get a closer view. It may not be what you want, but you can see how the doors are attached, etc.
Animal Plastics

Now that's just cheating. Haha.

Take care,
Randy
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Randy and Michelle
Art In Scales
(719) 439-4199
info@artinscales.com

You know, I was going to build. Well...have my husband build. We looked at plans and materials and then he decided he wasn't into it. Then he about fell over when he heard how much I paid for two cages with RHP's. Geez...hard to please!

our big cage is actually a set of 4 cages.
the total is 7x7x7.
two cages stacked ontop of 2 cages.
1 cage is 7long, 3 1/2 wide, 3 1/2 tall.
These cages were made to hold many kinds of animals- as the things here are constantly changing. I can put the big snakes in here, the iguanas, the monitors and in the winter our personal sulcata goes in one- he's not very big- only about 9-12 inches long...

anyway- they are made of plywood and 2x4's. we used plywood on the inside and outside of the cage (inside to cover the 2x4's) we used Drylock on the wood and then put down some slick plastic- like board...most ppl use it in bathrooms and stuff similar to a tub surround.... its on the bottom and then goes 6 inches up the side- caulked all the seams. We use flexwatt sitting on the floor with a peice of plexy-glass ontop to keep it from moving around... We also made light boxes- a plywood box with a locking door on the front with 2 heat lamps or heat emmitters inside- depending on the animal inside- keeps it nice and warm, as well as gives a basking spot... we used metal hardware mesh on the bottom of the box (where the lamps sit) to keep the critters out of the box (no burns!!) We used large storage totes and made a wood frame for the totes to sit inside of full of water- thus far not had a single one tip over- my husband has to lift the one out of the upper cages though...
The doors are just hinged to the front- has 2 slide locks and a hasp with a deadbolt (not that there are many people willing to break into a cage with that inside of it...)

we have huge driftwood peices we can put in for the iguanas, etc...

The only draw back to this cage is that the upper 2 cages require a stepstool and a person physically getting in the cage to remove the snake.... not always a fun thing to do 4 foot off hte ground.... thus far its not been a problem... just a bit of an adrenaline rush...

We have some pics of when we were building it- there are 4 larger size adults inside the cage with Shivvah (13 ft burm)... i'll dig up the picture and see if i can post it...

hope that helped... they do look pretty good but I would use MDF board if it was made to be a display cage... the plywood is pretty rough- even though we put a coat of paint on the outside... the inside is pretty shabby... the drylock smoothed it out a bit- used a thick coat to cover any possible splinters...
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The rescue site: www.freewebs.com/okreptilerescue

here is the best advise I can give. Unless you are great at woodworking and are as strong as an ox, don't build a cage; BUY ONE!!! So far the best available cage for the price is the expandable cages by boaphile plastics (NERD has some awesome cages but they are way over-priced for the average keeper). You can start out with an expandable 4'x 2' x 18" cage and when the snake outgrows that cage just buy the other side expandable of the same size and you just got a secure and practically waterproof cage that you never have to re-seal or that doesn't weigh 400lbs. Add the fact that they are stackable and never shift and you can't beat them for the money. If you think about it, if you don't already have the tools to build your wooden cage, buying these cages is actually alot cheaper than building one.

PS.... I have built my share of cages in the past and got tired of having to get a few friends over just to re-arrange my snake room.
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Josh & Krysty Hutto
J&K Reptiles

Various Ball Pythons:::

1.0 striped vanilla
1.0 spider
1.2 Citrus Ghost and hets
1.2 Albino and hets
2.3 het Pied
0.6 50% poss het pied
1.1 Pastel (male has additional gene going on with him)
a bunch of normal female breeders
a bunch of normal female holdbacks and several rescued normal males

0.1 columbian boa, she's a feeding monster, controls my
over production of rats, lol
0.1 brazilian rainbow boa, another rat eating monster
1.1 corns

a BAD dog is MADE not bred, support the American Pit Bull Terrier as the greatest breed of dogs on Earth!!!!!

There is a nice design on www.albinoburmese.com.I will post the link now.
http://www.albinoburmese.com/cageplans.htm
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1.0 albino Speckled king
0.1 speckled king
0.1 desert cali king
1.1 ball python
65 common rats
25 african soft hair rats
49 mice
7 degus
2.2.10 girbils
1.0 blue and gold macaw
1.1 orange wing amazons
0.1 tin african grey
1.0 sugar glider
.1 beagle
1.0 pink toe tarantula
1.1 borneo bloods (comming soon)
0.1 hell spouse
3.2 children (kids)
myspace.com/midknight_fantasy