Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I've just recently received my BRB's new enclosure, I'd love your thoughts. It's 2.5' wide, 2' deep, 3' high. The frame, top, and back are made of oak, the windows/door are plexiglass and the floor is cypress due to its high humidity/wetness tolerance. An opening built into the floor allows for undertank heating. I've got some serious questions at this point, I think we might've neglected to think of a few things. (I should say first of all before you worry, I haven't made the move yet; she's still in her old 55 gallon tank)

1. There are no holes drilled for ventilation. Air gets in around the doorframe, which is tight but not at all airtight. Will this be enough? This is for a Brazilian rainbow boa, so it's got to be pretty tight to keep in humidity. How tight is too tight?

2. A light varnish was used on the wood, and even though it was put on last weekend you can still smell it. I'm quite sure there are no more 'fumes' coming off of it, but the smell is there. Will this be harmful to my snake?

Here's a picture:

I like to provide plenty of ventilation since it is easier to temporarily inhibit ventilation that it is to add it after the fact.

What type of varnish did you use and how was it applied? Number of coats, brushed, sprayed, wiped, etc.? Number of hours between coats? And were any of the coats thinned? By how much?

The odor should absolutely be gone before the snake is added to the cage.
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Currently keeping:

6.10 Gonyosoma oxycephala (Javan, mixed colors)

1.1 Philodryas baroni

1.0 Rhodesian Ridgeback

I can't believe that I come back to this forum nearly a decade after my last post, and it's still using the same forums software that was already outdated back in the late 90's. No quoting, hard to follow a thread - yee haw!

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I like to provide plenty of ventilation since it is easier to temporarily inhibit ventilation that it is to add it after the fact.

The odor should absolutely be gone before the snake is added to the cage.
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Yeah, I'm going to add some vents to keep the air a little cleaner. I wish I knew the answers to your varnish questions, but I don't; I've emailed my dad, he's the one that built it. I'm not putting her in there until the smell is gone; it's faint, shouldn't take long.

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Looks great just not what I would picture as a BRB cage. I have never kept the species so I don't know for sure. Our resident BRB expert is still on a little R&R but should be back soon.
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She's a bit of a climber so I went high, rather than wide. As for the appearance...reptile cages are usually very utilitarian looking and, in my opinion, dull. I wanted to have something functional, but nice, like what the guys at J Worlds make. This looks like a good piece of furniture to me, not a snake cage. And if you mean Jeff Clark as the resident expert, that's hilarious; he's been around long enough to have helped me raise my girl from the beginning.

>>She's a bit of a climber so I went high, rather than wide. As for the appearance...reptile cages are usually very utilitarian looking and, in my opinion, dull. I wanted to have something functional, but nice, like what the guys at J Worlds make. This looks like a good piece of furniture to me, not a snake cage. And if you mean Jeff Clark as the resident expert, that's hilarious; he's been around long enough to have helped me raise my girl from the beginning.

Please don't take offense to my post the cage looks great and in all honesty there is no defenition of what cage fits what animal best.

Nor do I know how Jeff Clark is...I was refering to Dave Colling he may not have been at the game as long as others but he has a unique prespective and has had great success in keeping BRB's. For more knowlegable than myself on species specific info.

Good Luck
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Jeremy Payne

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

1.0 Snow "Khal"
0.2 Triple Het Moonglow "Khal"
0.1 Orange Tail Hypo Het Leopard
1.1 Double Het "Sharp" Snow
1.0 Ghost **coming soon**
0.1 Possible Super Hypo
0.1 DH Ghost **coming soon**
1.1 Khal Albino
1.0 Hypomelenistic
1.3 Pastel Hypo
0.1 Suriname/Columbian cross
0.1 Anerthrystic
1.1 Cream Golden Retrieviers
1.0 Pomeriaian
0.3 Catus Terribilis
0.1 Spouse
2.0 Child

Post back when you hear back from your dad. For reasons I won't go into just yet, some varnishes don't cure as completely and as quickly as they did in years past. So if your dad applied the varnish like he always has you may have a long wait. One poster here made some plywood cages and sealed them with Minwax polyurethane. He finally gave up on them after a year, including many days sitting in 100* temperatures. They just never stopped outgassing.

In fact many varnishes are not recommended for the insides of clothes drawers, cabinets, etc. because they basically offgas forever in a semi-enclosed environment. It goes without saying that if a varnish should not be used on something that will hold your socks it should not be using on something that will hold a snake.

But all is not lost as you could always topcoat with something else which should inhibit the offgassing.

The cage looks great.
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Currently keeping:

6.10 Gonyosoma oxycephala (Javan, mixed colors)

1.1 Philodryas baroni

1.0 Rhodesian Ridgeback

My first though was that the BRB was a typo for GTP but alas it was not.

I would add vents top and bottom potential....3" soffet vents should be perfect and can be adjusted assuming you buy adjustable vents.

Looks great just not what I would picture as a BRB cage. I have never kept the species so I don't know for sure. Our resident BRB expert is still on a little R&R but should be back soon.

As for the off-gas Chirs Harper would no more than I.

Looks good!

Cheers
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Jeremy Payne

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

1.0 Snow "Khal"
0.2 Triple Het Moonglow "Khal"
0.1 Orange Tail Hypo Het Leopard
1.1 Double Het "Sharp" Snow
1.0 Ghost **coming soon**
0.1 Possible Super Hypo
0.1 DH Ghost **coming soon**
1.1 Khal Albino
1.0 Hypomelenistic
1.3 Pastel Hypo
0.1 Suriname/Columbian cross
0.1 Anerthrystic
1.1 Cream Golden Retrieviers
1.0 Pomeriaian
0.3 Catus Terribilis
0.1 Spouse
2.0 Child

Here’s an idea for vents.

I have been using the aluminum ventilated soffet stuff you can buy at Home Depot. They have two different sizes. It has about a half inch lip that I nail gun right through when I mount it. I tin snip the ends so I can fold down a small flap for the ends and caulk the $%!# out of it. It’s pretty secure. The holes are very small, I don’t think a carrion fly could get through it. I cut a hole through the cage wall where I’m installing these and make one of these for the inside and outside.

This was an early version when I was lazy and didn’t miter the corners. You could easily make this very nice with staining and doing the wood like the rest of your cage, which I think is very nice. This stuff comes in a dark brown color too, might be perfect. It comes in eight foot lengths so you can make it any size you want.

You came to the right place. The regulars here will get you through the offgassing and venting issues.

I have no expertise in BRB husbandry or finishing requirements, but just wanted to say that your dad did a great job.
I hope you follow the advise given here so you can put that fine looking enclosure to use.

Thanks for all the help, everyone. I found out he used a light coat of oil stain on the wood, and a very thin coat of polyurethane on top of that. This was about 10 days ago, and I can smell it a lot less now, it's barely there; in fact I think it's just that "new cut wood" smell I'm getting at this point, because it's the same smell I'm getting from inside the cabinet, which didn't have any finishing done to it. Still haven't moved her in, I'm gonna give it a little while longer, and work on the vent issue after a trip to Lowes tonight.

Well there is good news and bad news. The bad news is that oil based polyurethane is about the worst product when it comes to extended offgassing and is exactly what can and has caused so many herpers to not use cages they built or strip them and start over. It is also one of the products that one should not use for drawer or cabinet interiors due to extended offgassing.

The good news is when you write a "thin coat" I take it to mean a "thinned" coat, or one where your dad added solvent to the product before application. That and the fact that there is only one coat greatly increases the chances that the product will offgas down to safe levels.

... it's the same smell I'm getting from inside the cabinet, which didn't have any finishing done to it.

And this is the best news of all and something either I overlooked originally or you just did not mention it. Either way this should make everything fine.

Even though your dad used a water resistant wood in the bottom you should absolutely seal it with something. And it looks to me like there is a small amount of oak exposed inside the cage and this should be sealed as well. And the back panel of the cage should absolutely be sealed.

I can give some recommendations later but have to run for now.
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Currently keeping:

6.10 Gonyosoma oxycephala (Javan, mixed colors)

1.1 Philodryas baroni

1.0 Rhodesian Ridgeback