Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Ok I was hoping to build an enclosure to house a ball python and a bearded dragon.I was wondering what kind of wood should I use.What's the best way to heat both enclosures I was thinking about using a heat pad and puting a piece of plexi glass over it then putting the bulbs above screen so the snake wont get burnt.I would also like to know where I can find plexi glass. Any help would be very appreciated.
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0.1 Ball python(Raven)

Well, acrylic (plexiglass is one brand of acrylic) over a heat pad may not be a good idea.

Although wood cages can be very good and last quite a while, there are drawbacks. If you have the tools and some know-how, it can be rewarding.

With exotic snakes like boas and pythons that require some amount of humidity (like BPs), at least consider plastics. There are a number of manufacturers with cages that won't make you broke.

Here is a pic of a stack of 3 cages, each 36x12x12. These cages are only $90 each and are completely functional for boas/pythons.

Mfgrs: Herpcages.com, precisioncaging.com, Vision, theboaphile.com, Moonstruck Exotics, Neodesha, Animal Plastics, etc.

You're on the right track. I'm in the process of making a very large, very operational, very user friendly cage for my burm. I'm using Calorique sub-floor heating panels attached to a line voltage thermostat. I routed out the grooves for the wiring and laid it down soldered side down so it fits flat. Then mounted plex-glass of the top. To seal the cage floor I'm using vinyl flooring remnants found for about $5 for 6X9 feet at any DIYS store. I'm only putting that about 6 inches up the side because that's plenty of room to cover the areas where moisture, urine, water, crap etc, would lay. Anything above that I use an outdoor latex water based primer for about 3 coats. Then I use a forth coat of light green. Then I use a fifth coat on a textured roller to make it look like leaves. I would use 3/4" plywood for the cage. The plywood grain is alternated to make it strong. It won't crack from the heat or moisture as opposed to lamintaed wood.
I also used the same lighting idea. I made a in tank hood to mount to the back of the cage. All angles are 130 degrees making a triangle tube so to speak. One side is completely open to allow you acess to the light and prevent overheating. This side is mounted to the back of the cage. The bottom side has large holes cut out to fit the light fixture. I used wire mesh to keep the animal from touching the bulbs. The top is soild. It also acts as a nice warm perch for my snake.

Attached is the current cage my snake has outgrown. Hopefully you can get some ideas from it. You can't see the sides but they are both cracked from the heat. Plywood won't do that. Then, you can dress up the ply edge with some simple molding. You can barely see the bottom edge of the triangle tube, where the light shines through, as I mentioned earlier.

I hope you dont want to keep them in the same cage. If so thats really not nice for either one of them. Dont be surprised if you wake up to find one of them dead.

With that aside you can check the link below in my sig to check out how I made my custom BD cage.

If you want alot of plastic you can call around locally to find a dealer that has it. Otherwise menards or homedepot will do.
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0.0.1 Aru GTP (Trogdor The Burninator)
2.0 Ball Pythons (Kurt the Snake ~ Frosty McFry)
0.1 Leucistic Texas Rat (OogieBoogie)
0.1 Kenyan Sand Boa (NoFingers McGee)
1.1 Bearded Dragons (Saku ~ GracieJ)
0.0.1 Albino Ornate Pacman Frog (Jabba the Frog)
0.0.1 Ornate Pacman Frog (Hooter)
0.0.2 Emperor Scorpion (Cecil ~ Peoples)
0.1.1 Usambara Tarantulas - (FireBallofDeath/Still In Debate)
0.0.1 Indian Ornametal Tarantula - (Still in Debate)
0.0.1 Ornamental Baboon - (Still in Debate
2.0 House Cats (Bill ~ Ted)

And a partrige in a pear tree...

~!Bearded Dragon Custom Cage Design!~

I dont plan to keep them together i was planing on building somthing like captin hook 2 only in two seperated levels.
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0.1 Ball python(Raven)

I have been attemtping to locate how to make fake rock so that I can construct two home-made hide caves for my bearded dragon cage. Your site was very informative, but do you think it would work to use the material you used for the caves but not the background itself? Would it stick to a traditional wallpaper background? Thanks and I hope to hear from you.

Im not sure what you mean here.

You can use the polystyrene to make your fake cave, then cover it with grout and seal it. That way it can be removable.
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0.0.1 Aru GTP (Trogdor The Burninator)
2.0 Ball Pythons (Kurt the Snake ~ Frosty McFry)
0.1 Leucistic Texas Rat (OogieBoogie)
0.1 Kenyan Sand Boa (NoFingers McGee)
1.1 Bearded Dragons (Saku ~ GracieJ)
0.0.1 Albino Pacman Frog (Jabba the Frog)
0.0.1 Green Pacman Frog (Hooter)
0.0.2 Emperor Scorpion (Cecil ~ Peoples)
0.1.1 Usambara Tarantulas - (FireBallofDeath/Still In Debate)
0.0.1 Indian Ornametal Tarantula - (Still in Debate)
0.0.1 Ornamental Baboon - (Still in Debate
2.0 House Cats (Bill ~ Ted)

And a partrige in a pear tree...

~!Bearded Dragon Custom Cage Design!~

Thx for the help everyone
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0.1 Ball python(Raven)