Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I have 4 BCI right now, 2 housed in 4 by 2 by 2 wood enclosures, 1 housed in a 55 gallon, and then my smallest in a 10 gallon.

Well, my boa in the 55 gallon is getting too big for it, so I was wondering which cage I should get for him.

It is between a boaphile plastic cage and the wooden cages made at East bay vivarium(www.easybayvivarium.com). The cost would be relatively the same with lighting and all that jazz. Which is better? Are boaphile cages really good cages?

And to those who think I should have put this in the caging forum, I have a boa question too... This is a baby bci born in august, His mum and pa produced some far out striped body snakes, and partial striped. He is het, but does he have a circle back too? (sorry for the crummy pic) Thanks in advance.

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Starkey
Mystic Eye

First I must say I have neither of these cages, but I have lookied into cages a lot. I would definitely recommend plastic over wood, which narrows down the field some. Now your left with Vision, Neodesha Boaphile, Barrs, Moonstruck, Animal Plastics, Habitat sytems, and Precision. Vision and Neo have sliding glass doors which I hate. Habitat is very expensive so cut them out, unless you can afford it. Precision is made of very thin plastic so I'd cut them out. Boaphile and Moonstruck are pretty much the same with the same thickness, but Boaphile has been around longer so I would go with them between those two. Barrs is very good and inexpensive and I would reccomend them. So I'd say it comes down to Boaphile, Barrs, and my personal favorite: Animal Plastics. All other cages are made of 1/4 and thiner plastic, AP's is all 1/2" plastic! The hinges are big and unapealing to the eye, but very effective versus the other companies little hinges. I like the door opening to the side versus down. I also like the fact that I put it together myself. Some would see this as a disadvantage, I can't fix a plastic weld, but I can tighten a screw. The people at AP are very nice and very easy to work with. There customer service outdoes all others which counts a lot in my book. Your lookin at about a 10-14 day wait. This is my opinion, but you should at least check them out and consider them. here is the link
Animal Plastics Inc

neodesha, and boaphile is what I'd go with. I used to live near EBV, and their facilities are great, but I was never really a big fan of their cages. I'd go with neo/boaphile.
Greg
Link

Just recently I bought a 321 boaphile cage almost on a whim at a snake show for a neonate bcc. It's weird-seems like it's not warm enough, but when ever I pick up the animal (if he's in the warm side) he feels warmer than me. I got me one of those infared lazer guided flux capaciter digital thermometers at Sears for 50 bucks and even though it doesn't feel hot to the touch, the heat pad on the boaphile cage read 99 degrees! Remember-our body temp is 98.6, so that would feel like nothing to us! When you heat the air from above, a lot is lost in 23". Two really cool things about the boaphile cage system is that low wattage dramatically reduces overheating in the event of air conditioning failure, and if you have dogs or children, almost zero fire risk from the cage tipping over. My only wish is that Jeff would start making 6' cages.

I have a couple Boaphile cages and a couple Vision cages. Though the Visions were a bit more expensive for comparable sizes, I prefer them to the Boaphile cage because they're easier to heat (if you have a light shroud built into them).

Neodesha are also nice cages and easy to heat / light.

I have to use suplemental heating sources w/ my Boaphile cages because they do no get at all warm enough (to my liking) with just the built-in heating. There is nowhere to mount lighting like there is with the Vision and Neodesha, so I have to shine a spot bulb onto the outside of the Boaphile cage...especially after feeding.

Hope that helps.

-Brandon

I use and recommend Boaphile Plastics. They have all that I look for in a cage. Heating isn't a problem (I live in FL) lighting is super easy. An under cabinet flourescent works perfectly and they're cheap too. Customer service has always been stellar plus I know they'll be around tomorrow. They hold humidity better than anything I've tried and are easy to clean. The seams are all glued so NO LEAKS around the edges. Cost is comparable or better than most as prices INCLUDE shipping. Mostly though, I like them because they seem very well suited to my boas. All of them.
Good luck!

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I have 2 of the 321 Boaphile cages with the heating and lighting options and I love them.

#1 they're light, take the snake and water bowl out and they weight nothing (well after having all MDF cages and racks I'm used to cages that can bow a floor haha).

#2 easy to clean

#3 look good (not as important to some but these snakes are in my family room so they need to have a nice cage

I liked the fact that other than bedding, a water bowl, hide box and a snake, everything else is there (heat, light). I got the cages with the expansion ends on them so later I can order expansions for the cages as the snakes grow (they're 03 snakes so right now they get lost in those 3 foot cages haha).

In short I love these cages. I'm probably gonna order another 321 non expandable for my geckos or a smaller one but a boaphile regardless.
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Gary Harris - gary@mydixiesys.com
http://www.dixiesys.com/
http://www.8-95.com/

Plastic is so much better than wood it's not even a comparison. I use only boaphile cages and racks. They are the nicest cages of any I have seen. Heating is not a problem at all, you just have to get the double heat option in a 4' cage. Weight is also a factor, my 4' cages weigh 25 lbs. They also retain humidity way better than wood cages.