Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hey i'm picking up my first burm in about three days after wanting one for a few years. I've done alot of research and i know about the size possibility because one of my old neighbors used to have a burm that was about 17 feet full grown so the size isn't going to surprise me.

I've been thinking about building my own cage out of wood but i'm not sure what kind of wood to use. Is there any kind that would work best? And any ideas on how it should be built? Thanks alot.

Ive built all the cages that i house my pythons in. I just used waferboard for the main parts of mine with 2x2 for the frame. I would definitely design it so that its front opening, and make sure you think about heating it and keeping the humidity up also. I would keep the top enclosed, and use soffit vents on the sides for ventilation. the nice thing about building your own is you can make it fit wherever you are going to keep it. But just make sure you can get it in and out of the room its going to be kept in. Make sure you have a way to see inside before you open it. That way you dont get a surprise mouthful of teeth when you lift pull open the lid. If you have access to a construction site, you may be able to pick up some scrap materials as well. This saves a ton on the overall cost. just make sure its ok with the job super.

Good luck
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1.0 Albino Green Burm
0.2 Normal Burm
1.1 Java Retic

Yea man building your own cage is the best way to go for the above reasons. This is the one I recently built for my normal male. It cost me about $125 and took about a month to build in my spare time and I took a lot of time to just sit back, look at it and think things out before I started cutting and drilling you know. I used 1"X 3" and the rest pretty much the same as onebigred did. I also second making the door on the front rather the top. They do not like to be reached down on.

Good luck with you new burm. Post a pic if you can when you get him. Oh yea welcome to the board!

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1.0 Ball Python
1.0 Burmese Python

Thanks alot for the tips. I'll be sure to post a pic after i pick it up on friday.

one thing I didnt mention, but found out after mine was built, and rich may have found this with his too. I built mine somewhat tall, and rich's looks the same. One problem with this is heat and humidity, you are heating and humidifying much more volume than you really need. 2 ft is really more than enough height. If your animal really takes to climbing you may want to go higher, but most of the big ones will stay on the ground the great majority of the time anyways. Floorspace is really the most important thing. If all your heating and lighting is outside of the cage, you would probably even be ok with just 18-20 in. tall for the cage. Hope it helps
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1.0 Albino Green Burm
0.2 Normal Burm
1.1 Java Retic

Yea definitly. My original idea for the cage was to give him an upper deck to bask on if he so pleased. I then realized mid-build that supporting the weight of a 50 - 100 pounder was not going to work. I do have a problem with my humidity as it always hovers around 50%. When it comes shed time I give him and extra water dish and a pile of wet laundry and it always comes off in one piece.
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1.0 Ball Python
1.0 Burmese Python

hey could you give me some plans for that cage i like. it if its possible
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Lee

1.0 Burmese Python (Caesar)
0.1 Ball Python (Kadin)
1.0 Bearded Dragon (Zoey)
0.0.3 Green Iguana (Bart)(iggy)(spaz)
0.0.1 Rose Hair Tarantula
0.0.1 Parakeet (Petey)
0.1 German Shepard (Missy)
0.1 Doberman (Tanner)
0.1 Cat (whatever)
1.1 Mice ( )

I'm personally a big fan of melamine for homemade cages which I've built two of. You don't have to worry about sealing the surface area, just the seams (silicone caulking does the trick nicely). The larger of the two is for my 13' adult female burm (cage dimensions 8'L X 2'H X 2'D). The multi-cage unit I built houses some of my boas and my juvenile burm (4'T overall X 4'W with each unit being 11"H and the top unit being split into two smaller 2' X 2' cages). For the average burm, the dimensions of the cage in the multi-cage unit won't work for long (4'L X 2'D X 11"H) but my albino girl has got to be the only finicky eating burm and is only about 5' at almost two years of age (I can't stress enough that by no means expect this with the average burm - this one is just an odd duck in the burm world).

As for the cages, the large one has a vent which is what her CHE rests on and that provides enough air flow around it. With the new multi-cage unit, I am having to go back in and add some small vents as the plexi doors fog over from the humidity (will probably be doing that tonight). Those are heated using Ultratherm heat mats, which I am really pleased with. Do keep in mind that if you go with the Ultratherm heat mats (which are placed INSIDE wooden cages), you will need a thermostat to prevent overheating because the wood insulated it well and causes the temperatures to reach a 100F or just over.

Here's a pic of the multi-unit cage:

For some reason I can't get the large cage pic to load right now - I'll post a pic of it, too, when I get it to work.

Raven