Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Here are some pics of the new cages we've been working on. They are in our living room and I find myself watching the snakes more than the TV now.

We knew cleaning the bottom cages would be a pain with the drop down doors, so we built brackets instead of using hinges on the bottom cages. This way we can lift the doors out of the way.

We put ventalation holes half way up the back on one side and in the top of the door glass on the other side to have good cross ventalation, thanks Mikie for that idea.

We used LED rope light mounted in the ceiling. We routed a groove 5/16 inch deep and 1/2 inch wide for the 1/2 inch rope light. It fits snug, but we still used some silicon to make sure it doesn't fall out. We tried using the incandescent rope light, but it heated the cages up too much, even on a dimmer.

The whole thing is heated using flexwatt. We routed a recess in the bottom of the floor about 3/8 inch deep. Then reinforced the floor with 3/4 inch square steel and used reflectix to keep from heating the cage below.

We used 2 Herpstat Pro's and 1 Herpstat II to control the heat. One Herpstat Pro controls all the hot spots and the other one controls all the ambient heat. The Herpstat II controls the top row of cages, hot spot and ambient. We also put the components for the TV on drawer slides so we could easily get to the back of them.

This took several months to complete, but was worth it in the end.
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Randy and Michelle
Art In Scales
(719) 439-4199
info@artinscales.com

Looks great for some pampered pets. They really become part of the family in that room! I didn’t marry a girl like that…
What kind of plywood is the interior? It looks like real nice cabinet grade stuff. I really like the inserts on your vent holes- I need to do that instead of trying to seal the wood in the holes with Q-Tips! I’d like to see a picture with the room dark and just your cage lights (and TV) on. Does the speakers freak the snakes out?
Thanks for the post.

The cages are built using maple melamine for the box and maple plywood for the front. The doors are solid maple and the floor is regular plywood with maple laminate glued to it.

The inserts for the vent holes are shelf pin grommets. You can get them from Rockler.com.

I'll try to get a picture with the room dark tonight.

The speakers are sitting on about 2 inches of foam. They don't seem to bother the snakes. I'm sure they wouldn't appreciate it if we cranked it up though. Haha
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Randy and Michelle
Art In Scales
(719) 439-4199
info@artinscales.com

Dont worry about the music or TV sound.They think its thunder,and cause breeding.The Rolling Stones work good for tree frogs.Snakes feel the "vibes" Not kidding! Vic

Here is a picture of the setup with no lights in the room.

The lights in the cage don't provide much light for the room, but still provide a nice ambient source.
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Randy and Michelle
Art In Scales
(719) 439-4199
info@artinscales.com

Nice Job, They are a joy to watch, I've had this set up for about 12-14 years now. and still find myself watching them instead of the T.V.
Bob

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R.Bichlers Colubrids
http://www.webspawner.com/users/rbichler/index.html

Thanks for the compliment, yours looks pretty good too. I do enjoy watching them now, we've had the four big cages on bottom in for a couple of months now. The big girls were up in one of the bedrooms, but we needed more room for the other snakes so we decided to move the burms into the living room.

We replaced the old burm cages with racks that will hold 38 41qt boxes and 22 28qt boxes. We have over 170 snakes and they were packed into two bedrooms, now we have some empty rack space for some future acquisitions.
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Randy and Michelle
Art In Scales
(719) 439-4199
info@artinscales.com

I like it and am a bit envious. My snake room is in my garage and I'm thinking the wife will not allow me to install a flat screen in there.

You do nice work. Hope you become a regular around here. That goes for Upscale as well.
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Currently keeping:

6.10 Gonyosoma oxycephalum (Javan, mixed colors)

0.0.4 Rhynchophis boulengeri

1.1 Philodryas baroni

1.1 Lampropeltis triangulum multistriata

0.0.1 Rhamphiophis rubropunctatus

0.0.2 Morelia viridis (Aru & Merauke locale types)

1.0 Rhodesian Ridgeback

Awesome work. That is a very nice setup.

You put a lot of planning into this project, and thought into the design and it shows.

I like the doors, the Maple is beautiful.

Someday I want to do another wood cage, these projects are very inspiring.
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Larry Stroud - Fort Pierce, Florida

Thanks. I'm lucky I have a wife that is understanding. In fact she gets to stay home all day and take care of all our snakes while I have to go to work.
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Randy and Michelle
Art In Scales
(719) 439-4199
info@artinscales.com

You guys ever build anything for small or baby tortoises? Anything for singles to large groups awaiting shipment.Something that can be very humid.Thanks,I can give you a lot of customers. Vic Morgan

Holly Hell that is insane! Nice craftsmanship!
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Cheers!
• Chelsea Lynn Gardiner
(and Frank M. Wood)