Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hello!

We're getting ready to move next week and I'm finally going to have room to build a bigger snake enclosure. Here's what I have in mind. It's going to be mostly wood with glass doors in front. I would like it to house at least 6 snakes, in different sections obviously. Two of the snakes are ball pythons and 2 will be Brazilian Rainbow Boa's and I'm not sure what the other two will be : ) The entire cage will be 4 feet wide and 2 feet deep, so each section will be 2x4 floorspace. Do you think that is okay? I think I'm going to make each section 12 inches tall, but I might make the two sections for the ball pythons 10 inches and make the other sections a little taller. What do you think of the size of each section? Any recommendations for heating? Are there heating pads that aren't sticky on one side that I could use? Should I rely on heating lights only? Any tips would be appreciated!

Depending on your skill level, making each enclosure the same size will probably simplify things a bit... you can make the same cuts, use all the same hardware, etc.

You might use 2x4's to build a frame, plywood for the floors/ceilings and sides. Make square cutouts on the side of each cage for screens. This will provide ventilation and a place for day and night lights, you can hook each side up to a timer to control day/night cycles.

You should be able to get several cages out of a single sheet of plexiglass, and drilling and hinging that is quite simple.

We're pretty handy so the construction part isn't the problem. I'm mostly not sure what type of heating elements to use as I've also used UTH that stick to the bottom of tanks and obviously that isn't going to work here : ) I don't really want to depend only on heating lights because they will decrease the humidity more won't they?

Also, one big suggestion would be to laminate a waterproof veneer on the plywood floor, and even the sides would be a good idea and caulk all seems with silicone. This will keep feces and urates from soaking into the wood and making a big stinky warped mess.

I did this with the large boa cage below thatt I built recently. It is made of wood, but I could even fill it with water like an aquarium, and it wouldn't leak any water. It's the ONLY way to go for a care-free cage.

~Doug

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"a snake in the grass is a GOOD thing"

Yea, forgot about flooring. Definitely don't want bare wood.

I've used linoleum tiles on several cages.

I was going to seal it with polyurethane sealant like I did for my water dragon and just make sure it's completely dry and aired out before moving anybody in.

I use barewood with 3 coats of waterbased sealer and it works fine. It's a snake cage, not a fish tank! For heat i us radient heat panels. They are a little more expensive but are water resistant, easy to install, don't take up much cage room, and won't burn your animals even if they lay against it. You will still need the screen for vents though.

"It's a snake cage, not a fish tank!"

Yeah, but when an eight foot boa deficates, you'd wish it was like a fish tank, it ain't exactly like a baby cornsnake dump, that was why I needed it like that. It wasn't a big deal to do either.

~Doug
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"a snake in the grass is a GOOD thing"