Reptile & Amphibian Forums

So I'm debating what type of doors I want to put on my new snake cage. The cage will be 4x2x6, so there will be six sections each being one foot tall and each section will have it's own door of course. Right now I'm considering two styles.

1) Have hinges on the bottom and the latch on top, so the door will swing down. Like these cages - http://www.customwoodreptilecages.com/gallery.html. I think this style looks great but I'm worried about the door slamming against the cage and breaking. It would also require a fairly large piece of plexi-glass because I would many go with this style for ascetics. Although it would be nice to have access to the entire cage so easily.

2) The other style I'm thinking about is having two doors that open like a cabinet. So I would have a strip of wood running down the middle of the cage for doors to latch to. This wouldn't provide as much viewing into the cage but I think it would still look nice and for some reason I'm thinking it would be sturdier since I'm going to be in and out of these cages a lot. I wouldn't have quite the same access to the cage as I would with the other style since I would have that piece of wood in the middle of the cage but I'm only housing Ball Pythons and Brazilian Rainbow Boa's so they're not the most difficult to handle snakes : )

So what do you think? I would appreciate any comments and would certainly love pictures of your setup's!

Style 2, with a wood support running vertically through the cage entrance, makes access troublesome for such a small cage. If I read this correctly, each compartment was only 1ft wide?

Style 1 is the way to go IMO. Just be deliberate when you open a cage door. If you use Lexan or good acrylic, even slamming the door will not hurt it.

Nice website you linked to, thanks for that. Neat cages.
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Mark

Of course I read it incorrectly, each cage is 4x2 and 1ft tall.

IMO I still like the single drop-down door best for access. I think unobstructed access is best.

If you employ style 2, I bet you will find yourself banging your elbows on the center support everytime you clean cages.

Style 1 allows for only one cage open at a time, whereas style 2 allows all cages to be opened at once, if that matters to you.
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Mark

I'm going to go with having the door fold down. I think having a piece of wood in the middle of the cage would drive me insane after a while! I scoped out a lot of custom cage website to see if I could get any ideas when I started thinking about the design of my cage. I think I have everything figured out now so I just have to put it together and order some radiant heat panels. I'm choosing between Reptile Basic's panels and Pro-Product's panels. Do you have any opinion on these two brands?

Is sliding bypass doors, have them on some 18" tall cages and love em. can open one side, or the other, or can lift them out for full access. Not sure how well they would work in a 1' cage though.

Mine are on older Sandmar industries cages, very cool with roller glides and aluminum track on all four sides with a odd looking poke through lock mechanism that works really well.

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Thanks,

Dave Colling

www.rainbows-r-us-reptiles.com

0.1 Wife (WC and still very fiesty)
0.2 kids (CBB, a big part of our selective breeding program)

LOL, to many snakes to list, last count (05/26/2009):
36.51 BRB
29.42 BCI
And those are only the breeders

lots.lots.lots feeder mice and rats

I've never put sliding doors on any of my cages out of some fear that it was extremely difficult and expensive. I have no facts to support this fear... I'm thinking of poking around in the hardware store and seeing how much it would cost to do sliding doors and how complicated it looks, maybe my fear is way off base : )

>>I've never put sliding doors on any of my cages out of some fear that it was extremely difficult and expensive. I have no facts to support this fear... I'm thinking of poking around in the hardware store and seeing how much it would cost to do sliding doors and how complicated it looks, maybe my fear is way off base : )

Sliding doors without rollers are very cheap, but are only good for windows up to a certain height. After that the glass is to big and heavy to slide easily. That's where roller sliders come in...

You can also use safety glass...
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Jeremy Payne
JB Reptile

1.0 Snow "Kahl"
0.2 Triple Het Moonglow "Kahl"
0.1 Orange Tail Hypo Het Leopard
0.1 Double Het "Sharp" Snow
1.0 Ghost
0.1 DH Ghost
1.1 "Kahl" Albino
1.0.2 Hypomelenistic
1.3 Pastel Hypo
0.1 Anerthrystic
0.0.2 Normal

1.1 Morelia Clastolepis

Both mfgrs offer a very good product.

I guarantee that you will be happy with either.

I tend to prefer the plainest panel possible, meaning not alot of plastic shroud on there. Some folks prefer the plastic shroud and all of the bells and whistles. All up to you. As far as heating goes (and probably longevity), you won't see any difference.

Below is a Bean Farm panel, which is the same as a Helix, same as the Boaphile, and probably the same heating element and lense as the Reptile Basics. Pro Products uses a different lense material and possibly a different heater element. Its all good.

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Mark

I've always been a fan of sliding bypass doors. Of course with some species they don't work, some they are better suited to control. Even with your set up of 6 individulas you can have bypass doors, its just harder and can be impractical.

I have plans for a trio of semi aboreal displaies, the intent is that they still share the same two bypass doors. My Moluccan displaies, will also share bypass doors.

Some people favor drop down I favor bypass.
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Jeremy Payne
JB Reptile

1.0 Snow "Kahl"
0.2 Triple Het Moonglow "Kahl"
0.1 Orange Tail Hypo Het Leopard
0.1 Double Het "Sharp" Snow
1.0 Ghost
0.1 DH Ghost
1.1 "Kahl" Albino
1.0.2 Hypomelenistic
1.3 Pastel Hypo
0.1 Anerthrystic
0.0.2 Normal

1.1 Morelia Clastolepis

Sliding glass panes like on Visions?

I mostly have used the Vision set up even on cages I've made. I'm curious, How do you like the plastic drop down doors for those of you that use them like the Boaphiles, pro-line etc.?

From an outsider look in, it looks like they might make access much easier for cleaning but I've also worried about scratching and them looking junky after a while.

The center down the middle of some of the larger Visions looks like an aggravation to me, even with my larger ones I've chosen models without the black support in the middle.

Any opinions?

Hola Bob,
I've been using cages with acrylic drop-down doors for awhile now. While certainly acrylic does scratch, and you will get scratches over time, my cages still look very nice. I very much like the access afforded by the drop down door.

I bought some rubbing compound for acrylic (got it at a sign shop), and it helps make scratches much less visible.

I also have some Visions. What I like about the glass by-pass doors is that they are easily lifted out when I need to really get in there.

I suppose the benefit of glass bypass doors is, besides not scratching, they can be quickly lifted out for complete access. Perhaps that door style is the best of both worlds.

One last comment: for colubrids, which is pretty much what I have now, the glass door cages stay a bit cooler. As you know, having a cooler ambient temp is a benefit when keeping kingsnakes and such. My cages with acrylic drop-down doors hold heat better, which would be a benefit if keeping boas and pythons in unheated rooms.
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Mark

I appreciate the insights. It's nice to benefit from others experiences without having to spend the bucks doing something your going to regret. This hobby always has you trying something......

I have also been reluctant to go for the narrow height Drop Fronts like Boaphile, Pro-line etc. too because of coming in at the animals at prey level, head on. I hate getting nailed, especially in the face. I'm already working on a deficit in the looks dept. LOL I've been more comfotable coming in from on top like with my Neodeshas and taller Visions and the like as well as Racks. Got rid of all my narrow Vision #400s because of the narrowness and especially the blinding backlighting.Any insights?

Lol.

Can't argue that, Bob. I know I get tired anymore of having to maneuver in 12 inches of clearance. Never ends, does it? Always tweaking and re-evaluating what we have. Oh, I love it.
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Mark

Interesting to see you have no issues with strikes when coming in over top and animal vs straight on. I would have suspected the latter would be less.

However I don't have narrow cages, other than my rack all my cages have 4' of front resulting in nearly 2' of open space through which I can manuver.

My Issue is always the top cage...PITA to get the animal back in as the top cage as its against the ceiling.
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Jeremy Payne
JB Reptile

1.0 Snow "Kahl"
0.2 Triple Het Moonglow "Kahl"
0.1 Orange Tail Hypo Het Leopard
0.1 Double Het "Sharp" Snow
1.0 Ghost
0.1 DH Ghost
1.1 "Kahl" Albino
1.0.2 Hypomelenistic
1.3 Pastel Hypo
0.1 Anerthrystic
0.0.2 Normal

1.1 Morelia Clastolepis

Thanks Guys.

To be fair Jeremey, I'm mostly dealing with Colubrids these days. That may have much to do with it.