Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I am thinking about endevering into plastic caging for ease of maintenance and a more asthetically pleasing look. I am interested to know what materials Boaphile uses especially on the designer colored cages. If anyone has experience with a certain kind of material I would also appreciate any kind of info. I am a do it yourself kind of guy so i would like to attempt this on my own before shelling out the 1000 bucks for the cages i would need. Thanks in advance for any info you can give me on plastic caging.

Chris

Also what thickness is recomended for a strong, durable, stackable cage? Thanks for any info.

Chris

..not the same as High Density polyethylene (aka Visions). Expanded foam PVC comes in thicknesses of 0.1 inch to .25 inches. Boaphile cages use roughly .25 inch thickness or close to that. The material has a smooth hard surface on each side with a somewhat soft and less dense core. If you push your fingernail into the center soft part on a cut piece you leave a dent. As a cage material, it flexes (which is a good thing = no cracking) and insulates nicely. It is also easily repaired if necessary. The material conducts heat very well when heated with Flexwatt.

I think this material is great for cages for tropical animals like boas. It is fairly light in weight as well. It holds in heat far better than HDPE (Vision cage material) but isn't as tough.

The color sheen is satin, not glossy, so don't think you're getting shiny black or shiny blue cages. No shine here. The blue color is quite bold though, and that is my favorite. The yellow isn't as bright as you'd think. The gray is very nice, as is the white. I don't care for the black - it looks like soot IMO.

The acrylic doors are really simple and functional - just what you'd want on a cage housing larger snakes.

One of the best features of his cages is the heating option where he laminates the Flexwatt under the cage. You save yourself alot of work and trouble by getting that option. Then, if you need more heat in the cage, just run Flexwatt along the back wall of the stack.

Thanks for the info. I will be using these cages to house Bearded dragons and ackies so their will have to be overhead heating from an incandescent bulb. Do you think expanded PVC will warp with high temps of 130? What is the best solvent for surface to edge bonds and what are these steel rods in the front of the boaphile to give it strength? Couldn't you just use an L shaped pieces of plastic and surface to surface bond it? Thanks for any replies.

First off, I don't know if expanded foam PVC and an acrylic door is the right choice for housing lizards with strong and sharp claws. I would imagine an ackie could damage the plastic, but I don't keep ackies so I don't know how destructive they are to cages. Neodesha cages will hold up much better, as the plastic is much harder and the doors are glass.

The material does not have a high tolerance to heat without melting or warping. 130 deg F is likely to cause warping. However, you can probably remedy this by simply using a particleboard panel covered with sheet metal to mount the utility box and ceramic fixture to, then bolt the whole thing to the inside ceiling of the cage. This will help shield the plastic from the higher temps. I've tested the plastic to 100 deg F with no ill effects.

The original Boaphile cages had a steel bar bolted to the inside front top of the cage for rigidity around the door area. I don't know if the newer Boaphile design has this. You don't need it necessarily. You can use additional plastic to strengthen areas that need strengthening.
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Mark

Sorry for sounding like an idiot here but why cover the particel board with sheet metal? WOuldn't the metal get as hot and cause warping as well? Thanks for your earlier responses Mark!

Chris

Sure the metal will get hot. Think of it this way, if the metal gets hot and radiates heat away from the cage top, that is that much energy not being transferred to the plastic. The metal acts as a heat sink: it gets hot so the cage top gets less hot.