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does any one have a GOOD cage design with atleast 5 ten OR 20 gallon tall tanks i need to make one for some phelsuma but i'm not good at this kinda stuff so if someone will let me use there design i promice to give you all credit and not give the design to anybody unless you say so pleeeeeeeez reply here or e-mail me jamesmeyerhoff@sbcglobal.net or xxtile@aol.com whatever you preffer

thanks!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I've kept several species of Phelsuma in the past. I never felt like I had the truely perfect cage design for them. I wanted something with front access but also that had a small access door that allowed for feeding without opening up the entire front. Many of the species I worked with were very flighty and I always had to deal with specimens jumping or running out. A small access door slightly bigger than my fist would have been perfect.

At any rate, I've since played around with a design for tree vipers that would be perfect for Phelsuma. It consists of mounting plastic storage boxes on a plywood or real-wood face frame. The back of the wood is sealed with epoxy or strips of plastic.

I'll post two pictures. If you care to read more about this design you can look up a thread names "Cage idea I've been toying with" or something like that. It's probably on page two or three by now. If you use the edit/find function in your browser with chris_harper2 typed in you should find it.

Here's the first picture.

Here you can see two plastic garbage cans coming off of the face frame. You can also see the mist head inside of the cage.

Another advantage of this design is it allows for easy mounting of mist heads and for flood drains to be mounted underneath. I have a simple and cheap floor drain that I'll have to take a picture of at another time.

For some species of Phelsuma I found that I preferred to mist them with a fairly large water droplets and fairly often. A floor drain is nice, although not absolutely necessary (as it is for tree vipers).

In the previous photos there was one 20 gallon tote and two 8 gallon garbage cans mounted onto a piece of plywood approximately 2'x3'. That face frame is now installed in a free standing cabinet.

In this photo I have a single 50 gallon tote mounted onto a face frame made from 1x3's (sides) and 1x6's (top and bottom lips).

Depending on what Phelsuma you keep, you'll probably want the 20 gallon totes turned upright. Whether you make individual cages or mount all of them on one big piece of wood is up to you.

Cutting holes out of plywood will be easier for the novice than making face frames. If you use a hinged door the hole will not need to be perfectly square as the door will cover it.

At any rate, here's the picture.

This shows the face frame. The acrylic door is mounted within a smaller frame made from 1/4" thick pine. The 1/4" acrylic rests within that frame. Having this smaller frame allows for the hinges to be mounted flush and for the thumb tabs that hold the door shut.

Chris, How do you have the tubs attached to the wood? I am assuming you use wood screws through the tub lip and then silicone the tub around the edges?

It was actually sheet metal screws and polyurethane caulk. There is more about this and the strength of the bond in the previously mentioned thread. Should be easy to find.

In a nutshell, the bond was extremely strong. I was able to carry my 40 lb. nephew around in this cage. Not something I would try with any of the other commericially produced plastic cages on the market.

Nice...I was looking for something to contain my nephew in also...that should hold him!!!

Ironically my nephew was originally put in the cage to see how secure the thumb tabs were. I placed him in there and told him to push on the acrylic. Tabs were quite secure, btw, so they should work fine for your nephew

He's a smart little kid and bartered for some $$ to do this favor for me. He said $2 and I agreed. When I paid him he said he wanted an actualy $2 bill (no longer printed) and refused my two singles. So now I need to keep my eye open for one of those. Not that he still remembers I owe him.

At any rate, I carried the cage around by the face frame with him in it. He seemed to enjoy that and the cage held up well.

See some dark colored tubs i think of your ideas. They are perfect,cheap and easy to build.

>>Ironically my nephew was originally put in the cage to see how secure the thumb tabs were. I placed him in there and told him to push on the acrylic. Tabs were quite secure, btw, so they should work fine for your nephew
>>
>>He's a smart little kid and bartered for some $$ to do this favor for me. He said $2 and I agreed. When I paid him he said he wanted an actualy $2 bill (no longer printed) and refused my two singles. So now I need to keep my eye open for one of those. Not that he still remembers I owe him.
>>
>>At any rate, I carried the cage around by the face frame with him in it. He seemed to enjoy that and the cage held up well.
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Thomas Jones
aligatorhunter@earthlink.net

No one is to be trusted

Actually, I think they still print the $2 bill, or at least you can still get them at the bank. (in case you need bribery money for future tanks)