Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I am planing on starting up a ball python breeding colony and I am going to attempt to breed a pair of BRB I have plans for the caging that I want but I am totally open to suggestions. it will be setup as one unit on casters it will have 8 seperate cages for balls and 2 seperate cages for the rainbows. on the exterior It can be no wider than 63"Lx18"Wx80"H. each ball python cage would be roughly 31"Lx18"Wx13"H. the 2 for the rainbows would be arround 62"Lx18"Wx13"H. I am looking for suggestions on building materials and heating. I am looking for the safest and most cost effective the front of it would probably have plexiglass and doors would swing to the side. I am just curious as to what everyone thinks.

>>I am planing on starting up a ball python breeding colony and I am going to attempt to breed a pair of BRB I have plans for the caging that I want but I am totally open to suggestions. it will be setup as one unit on casters it will have 8 seperate cages for balls and 2 seperate cages for the rainbows. on the exterior It can be no wider than 63"Lx18"Wx80"H. each ball python cage would be roughly 31"Lx18"Wx13"H. the 2 for the rainbows would be arround 62"Lx18"Wx13"H. I am looking for suggestions on building materials and heating. I am looking for the safest and most cost effective the front of it would probably have plexiglass and doors would swing to the side. I am just curious as to what everyone thinks.

Nit pick: dimensions are usually given in width, depth, and height. Technically, length and width are the same thing...

Building materials depend greatly on what sort of look you want, what tools you have available, and how much money you want to spend. In general, I suggest building with plywood. It's more expensive than melamine, but it's also stronger and I worry about formaldehyde out-gassing when you have a heat source in contact with melamine (e.g. heat tape against a melamine rack). If you don't want to pay for furniture-grade ply, you can always buy the cheaper stuff, fill the voids and knots with wood putty, then paint it. Or, if you're not going to have your heat source heating the wood (e.g. radiant heat panels), go ahead and use melamine (though in the sizes you want, it will start to get extremely heavy).

For ball pythons, I really like Markus Jayne's rack design, but it sounds like you're looking for something that looks a bit better? For the BRBs, you might check Greg Maxwell's Caging Page. Construction techniques are a bit more complex than they need to be (I'd use pocket holes and avoid all the clamping), but the idea of sealing the sides with waterproof contact paper is interesting.

Tell us more about what tools you have available and how much you're willing to spend and we can probably give you a better idea of how to build stuff...
Markus Jayne's Ball Python Rack

I have access to any tool I need you name it I can use it and as for budget I wanna try to keep it arround $500 for the setup meaning I want something that has heat and is safe for the animal don't need to worry about bedding, animals, decorations.
so now that u know I can get ahold of any tool I need, I think I wil probably go with flexwatt heat tape due to cost limitations, but if there is a way to go with heat panels I am all ears.

>>I have access to any tool I need you name it I can use it and as for budget I wanna try to keep it arround $500 for the setup meaning I want something that has heat and is safe for the animal don't need to worry about bedding, animals, decorations.
>>so now that u know I can get ahold of any tool I need, I think I wil probably go with flexwatt heat tape due to cost limitations, but if there is a way to go with heat panels I am all ears.

Not sure believe you on the tool front... If you had access to any tool I can imagine, you wouldn't be asking for design help! Are you talking hand tools (drill, circular saw, jigsaw, sander)? Or large, stationary power tools like you'd find in a cabinet-making shop? Be realistic! I don't want to give you advice that requires $10,000 in expensive cabinet-making tools if you only have access to hand tools...

Unfortunately, the $500 budget really limits your options heating-wise. I like radiant heat panels, but I don't think you could do them on your budget. That leaves heat tape. You could also go with light bulbs or a ceramit emitter, but I'm not a big fan of either.

Soooo, my suggestion would be to build a Markus Jayne-style rack out of plywood for the ball pythons and heat it with heat tape. Use those big under-bed storage boxes and they should have plenty of room for the snakes. For the BRBs, I'd build eparate box-type enclosures a la Greg Maxwll. Rather than doing all of the clamping he recommends, buy yourself a Kreg pocket hole jig and use it. Much quicker and the results are still prenty strong. If you decide to make it 60" wide, make sure the face frame has multiple stiles. You can attach the face frame to the carcass using pocket hole screws or biscuits. Use biscuits if you want the cage to look like furniture, pocket holes screws if you're not as concerned about looks.

as for u not beliving me thats too bad because yes I have access to large machines including those in a cabinet shop I have friends everywhre but I like doing it myself and know how to operate the majority so if you have some great ideas throw them out there I don't want to do it rack style because I also want to be able to"show off" the animals that I am breeding because it is sort of a big attraction at the family gatherings and a nice wood setup would realy grab their attention I also like to observe their behavior. Yes it is cheaper to go with heat tape I know I also would rather have panels but I can always upgrade later. and now that u know I do have acess to this equipent I would like suggestions cause I have never tried something on this type of scale that is why I am asking so I know the best way of going about it. anyone can build a single cage I want to build 10 into one solid unit. so if it's possible let me know how to go about with it.
thank you for the advice so far though also would I be able to use a single thermostat for the balls if I was using heat tape for all of them?