Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hey,
This is one of the latest cages that I finished working on a few weeks ago. It works great and maintains heat and humidity just swell. Borneo short-tail in the rear of the photo for space comparison. The cage is 45"x18"x16 1/2", and made of 3/4" melamine. The cage is lit from the right rear wall, with a GE 16" florescent under cabinet light, and will be heated using an 18"x12" Pro-Product 65watt heat panel, and controled using a Helix Basic Thermostat.

-----
In the theater of my life, this pickle has no goal!!

Not too bad, actually really nice. I went with a full door swing with hinges instead of the slide doors.I'm currently going to shorten up my cages from 18" tall to 12" tall to try to save on heating and humidity, as blood don't really need this extra tall space.I'm trying to get a stack system going on here really soon as my red blood is getting bigger.Thanks for sharing the cage

Hey,
Thanks for the compliment. The cage is actually 16 1/2" tall, and 18" deep. I like the added height of the cages for lighting and heating, as I don't like to have the heat panels and lights sitting too close to the animals and prefer to give them a little extra head room. The glass panes are actually cut a lot smaller than the height to allow for the spill guard width and tracking etc; so the glass is actually cut to 12 7/8" high. As for the humidity and heat, these cages hold heat and more humidity better than I thought they would and have had to modify the cages and retro-fit them with added vents to allow for better air flow. The humidity was reaching levels of 80% plus at times, so by adding butterfly vents to the out-side of the cages I can control the air flow by closing or opening the vents to what ever degree I need to regulate the RH. Post a picture of yours some time, I'd like to see your handy work. Later- Angel
-----
In the theater of my life, this pickle has no goal!!

Butterfly vents, good idea, now why didn't I think of that.My holds good humidity, its just that heat emitter at night drops it, so I have to spray heavy everynight now.How many cages do you have now that you've built?

I have 5 total and working on a 6th and several others to follow shortly as the colony grows in numbers and size and weight. I also, work with 2 rack systems that I also built for the chondros and Bloods and Short-tails. Presently I am cooling a pair of adult bloods in the rack system and plan on pairing them up next week. I'll post pictures of the pair soon.

The vents (butterfly) work great, and if you are using melamine you can get them at austinhardware.com. Item: No. 7501-1 (butterfly vent)/ 7502-1 SS VENT

They are a little bit pricy, but they are worth it for controlling the airflow of the cages. They also, sell other types of vents. I use the 4" and 5 inch louvers for the inside of the cages; the 4 inch louver for the side walls and the 5inch for the rear wall. Item: No. 7504-1(round louvered vents)/ VNT-001 SS(round louvered vents)
Angel
Link

-----
In the theater of my life, this pickle has no goal!!