Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I was going to build a boa cage and was wondering what to seal the wood with. And what kind of glue would be OK to use to on the wood. I dont want to poison or sicken it.

Tim

Wood glues or silicone will be fine from a toxicity standpoint.

You have several choices for sealing your cage. What type of wood will you be using? Sealers won't stick to materials like melamine so you need to consider that first.

You'll also want to avoid water-based products for a boa. That pretty much leaves oil-based paints or polyurethane and epoxies. Epoxies can be expensive and/or difficult to work with. Oil-based products can take weeks to offgas completely. The tradeoff is up to you.

Other choices for a boa would be to line the cage with formica, FRP board, expanded PVC, etc.

If I am reading you right, you don't recomend staining a cage with a minwax and clearcoating it with a polturethane, if the cage is built out of a plywood.

Not at all. Sorry if I wrote that in a confusing manner.

I was simply trying to explain the tradeoffs when it came to choosing a sealer specifically for a Boa's cage.

For a boa I would not use a water-based polyurethane on the inside of the cage. For other species water-based polys are great. I used Polycrylic in my bearded dragon cage and it has held up well (except for the floor which is now covered with linoleum).

An oil-based poly for a Boa should be fine provide one applies several thin coats and allows plenty of time for the product to offgas.