Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I was looking at upgrading some cage options and a big one i was looking at was like buying furniture used and changing them into reptile cages like display cabinets to multilevel caging. Does anyone have any advice, directions or better yet pictures to give me some ideas would be great?

Thanx

Tom

Hey Tom!
I had the same idea about a year or so ago. I still like the idea but what I ran up against was finding the right piece of furniture at the right price.

I found a few display cases with cracked glass or some other kind repairable damage but the people still wanted top dollar for 'em. I'd find that perfect antique dresser or hutch that needed so much work that it could never cost efficiently be revived as an antique, but yet they still wanted an arm & leg for it. And I did most of my shopping at a charitable thrift store. Yard sales were even worse.

What it came down to was I could start from scratch and build a brand new, nice cage for less money & half the hassle. I still keep an eye out for stuff like that but I've stopped looking for it.

I hope you have better luck than I did!

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

yeah I have seen some nice like display cases for nicknakcs and stuff that i think would work well and they are only like $50 but was just looking for some ideas or things i may have to watch out for or worry and heating and lighting and designs and all lol...

Personally, I think the trick to converting furniture into a cage is keeping modifications of the main carcass to a minimum so that you don't loose the "furniture" effect.

Each piece of furniture will present it's own set of circumstances/modifications that will vary from one piece to the next. You most likely wouldn't mount heat/light in a display case the same as you would in a chest of drawers, etc...

It takes some creativity to meet cage building basics for furniture without changing the appearance too much. When I say "cage building basics" I mean: Heat retention, waterproofing, thermal gradient, ventilation, humidity control, and maybe a few others that I can't think of at the moment.

I've only seen a few pieces of furniture converted into decent looking cages. There are so many factors that most people don't fool with it. You have to find a piece of furniture that will somewhat match what you already have in the room, then there's the size factor (whether or not is big enough for the intended species), and on and on. But it can be done.

I hope I understood your question right and helped you in some way or another. If I'm way off base, just realize that it's me, HH. Hahaha!!!

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

I don't have much experience with this but have helped talk people through it. I agree that it can easily become more trouble than it is worth, depending totally on the project and piece. But I also think it's pretty darn cool.

The upshot is that suggestions, plans etc. are nearly impossible to provide. But if you find a piece of furniture that you like and post a picture and tell us what species is going in it I bet we all can help you get a desirable final product.
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Currently keeping a small collection of various Gonyosoma. Both G. janseni and G. oxycephala.

I agree with Chis, While a prefabed armoir or China cabinet would make an awesome cage, in order to make it into the cage requires a good amount of knowledge in cabinetry not to mention previous cage building experience. My suggestion would be to find the most basic constructed piece of furniture and start from there.

Keep us posted if you decide to expand on this project and I'm sure everyone can brainstorm on what would work best.
Nate