Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hi everyone,

I'm wondering if there is any sort of formula to determine what would be an appropriate amount of ventilation to build into a cage?

I'm going to be building this:

http://redtailboa.net/forums/how-tos-tutorials/28742-how-build-4x2-enclosure-100-a.html

to house a red tail boa. One thing noted in the instructions is to base the ventilation on the snake's needs, the temp in the room, etc ....

It's going to be in my bedroom, so ambient air would be around 70 degrees, but I'm in the northeast, and it's an old farm house, so there's some variability.

This is my first foray into building my own cage ... I've relied on aquaria and purchases of other people's cages off of craigslist in the past, and been less than thrilled with those results .... so this time, I'm trying it myself

thank you in advance for your guidance

patti

There is no one answer, except that less is more when you are keeping a boa in a non-tropical climate.

If you are keeping a boa in a room that is 70 degrees, you will want less to almost no vantilation so the cage will keep the heat and humidity at proper levels.

If the ambient room temp is 80 deg, you can have lots of ventilation or little - doesn't matter.

Ventilation is over-rated. Just open the door a few times a day. Or build in some ventilation and cover it up when you need to (during cool temps or times of low humidity). You will never find a one-size-fits-all answer. There will be days when you wish you had more (hot and humid) and days you wish you had less (cool and dry). So either do rather small vents or do larger but adjustable vents.
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Mark

I completly agree with one addition.

When building cages I always find its best to over ventilate and cover up what isn't needed vs having to add ventilation at a later date.

In addition while adjustable vents seam wise often they aren't herp friendly and certainly not escape proof.

Consider the example a CB-70 tub in an open rack with 1/8" gap around the entire perimeter has between 10-12 sq inches of ventilation, compliled with frequent checks that is more than sufficiant for a single 4' animal.

Best of Luck
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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
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

0.0.2 Morelia Viridis
1.1 Morelia Clastolepis