Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I'm planning to build a cage for my bp. any suggestions ? side glass doors ? or top screen ? type of wood to use ? will an UTH work even if the bottom is wood ? anything else i should know ... ?

he's a few month shy of a year old, currently he's in a 20 gal aquarium. I feel he's getting too big for a 20 gal.

thanks in advance !

For reasons of humidity control and security, I would go for a wooden viv with sliding glass doors every time - admittedly it does not offer the same range of viewing angles for looking at your snake, but a wooden viv is also easiest to secure light fittings to, and it's very easy to secure shelves and climbing branches. The doors themselves can be secured against escape and prying hands with cabinet locks.

I have a two-storey, glass-fronted viv housing my corn snake and my ball python. The UTHs are inside the vivs, but you can only do this if you use a thermostat and thermometer to accurately control the temperature of the UTH. They are covered with substrate and I have not had any problems. It's easy enough to drill a small hole for the cord and thermostat sensor, and remove the plug from the UTH to thread it through.

As regards material, most commercially available vivs (at least over here in the UK) seem to be made out of melamine-coated chipboard; I know a guy who builds his own and he uses either Medium Density Fibreboard (MDF) or thick plywood (the viv I now use is one of his). You can also get moulded plastic units, which are generally used for species with higher humidity requirements where a wooden viv would rot.

In your case, I would go with a melamine viv long enough to accomodate your snake for the rest of its life, as you don't want to be upgrading again in the future.

Hope that helps...

Simon
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0.1.0 normal corn - "Slinky" | 0.0.1 normal ball python - "Humbug"

"experts" keep theirs in racks.............
hope this helps .|..

I would say that breeders typically use racks since they have numerous snakes and there is a space concern.
IMHO I like racks and my snakes do well in mine, but they are not essential.
I think Rob Carmichael mentioned he was reconsidering the space a snake has in a rack system and he is as expert as I could imagine.
Rob if I’m mis-quoting you my sincere apologies, but I think I recall you saying this in a thread a few months back.

TomChambers

talk to chrisharper2 at the cage and design forum. also check out the caging section at arbreptiles.com
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0.1 Albino Leopard gecko
Coming Soon
1.0 ball python

thx for your help !!!

I have made some cages recently that work well for my ball pythons. They are wood with sliding door. This is nice, as mentioned previously, to allow stacking of cages. I have rack-type shelves below the cage that are connected via holes in the main cage floor for subterrainian level hides. I use a light fixture for the main cage and UTHs for the hide areas. There are moist hide areas in the hide areas as well. It works great, and they are breeding well.
Justin J

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