Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Well I finally did it....but I think The Tim Taylor in me took over and I built an enclosure that is WAY bigger than I need for my 4.5 - 5 foot Dumerils. My final product is 24 wide, 24 high, and 48 long. Might take him a bit to grow into this one My biggest question is for the enclosure builders in the crowd, how did/do you vent your enclosures? I have tossed around a few ideas, and would like to avoid just going at it with a hole saw and slapping some hardware cloth over the hole. Are there any good pre-made plastic or metal vents? I played with the idea of just taking my jig saw, and cutting a series of slits along each end and across the back. But I figured slits will only leave an exposed wood surface, where humidity and condensation will settle, thus ending the usefulness of the enclosure ( I made it out of melamine). On the pro side, slits would allow me to control the temps fairly easily with a small application of duct tape (The handy man's secret weapon). Any tips or pointers would be much appreciated.

Thanks in advance,

-Matt

I personally when making an enclosure out of melamine (not sure what you made yours out of, since I didn't notice it mentioned) I use the 1/4" coated peg board as the back section. I then will cover up sections with a sheet of either .100" expanded pvc or solid 1/4" board to allow for humidity adjustment.

Later
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Randall L Turner Jr.

You never experience life until you have kids..then you realize what you should have done rather then what you did do

Hey there welcome to the club of homemade tanks... Steve and I are always trying new things and we made some nice tanks last summer for our Hogg Island Boas, the exact same size as yours are, anyways what we did was we purchased some drain vents from Home Depot for like a buck each and just jigsawed the hole and pushed them in and mounted with a little wood glue and done... it was actually the easiest part of the whole adventure... anyways i would love to see some pics of your new tanks.... ours are all on the website but i through one on of the brown tanks im talking about here... hope this helps if you want exact measurements for the drains you can email me and ill measure them for you.... Great job, doesnt it feel good to be done with it all..!

Sincerley,
Rose Hipskind

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www.srsnakes.com

in materials did each one of those cost? How many hours? How difficult would you say it was?

Thanks,

Mike

In my homemade melamine enclosure (2' X 2' X 8'...for a burm), I used a slotted 12" X 12" metal vent sold for covering the intake/exaust for central air duct work (the smaller metal register vents would also work for your purposes though). The fins of the vent I purchased are slightly raised on the back, so the hole in the melamine needed to be the size of the raised area of the vent on the back for it to fit flush - leaving about a half inch lip around the metal vent where there are holes for screwing them into the wall. If applied from the inside of the cage, the snake can't push it through, providing more security IMO. In my case, I used it on the top of the cage because I was placing the heat lamp over it and I also lined the area between the light and the vent with small mesh screen to keep my big girl from sticking her tongue through the vent and touching the ceramic heat emitter (she likes to poke her tongue through any small openings - to see what's on the other side, I guess). In the case of the register vents, I don't believe there is any raised fins on the back and you could simply cut a hole in the walls of the cage smaller than the vent and screw the register vent over those holes (some of them even have decorative scroll type cuts to make them more attractive when used in the home if you'd like something more attractive than just utilitarian). Hope this gives you some ideas.

Raven

It's a bit large, 7'L X 2.5'D X 4'T. I used a jig saw to cut out the square holes, then put fiberglass mesh in front of hardware cloth (because it is less abrasive) then put molding around it.
Paul

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