Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Anyone tell me about these? Pros and cons? Right now, I have most of my collection in glass cages with screen tops. I recently took the hobby back up and would rather deal with something other than the aquariums.

Help?

Vision cages are nice but I perfer the boaphile plastic cage do to one reason. Jeff's cages have a fold down front window as apposed to sliding glass fronts like the vision cages. To me that in itself is reason enough to justify Jeff's cages. I mean try getting an eight foot boa out of cage with only half the front open to me its a pain. Thats my opinion, both otherwise heat an clean up the same. Both need to be in a heated room to be electrically economical. And Jeff's come in different colors vision are only gray. Your collection will ultimatly determine the cage.
Jeremy

I would suggest you buy one of each of whichever ones interest you.

I use all visions and wouldn't use anything else, but some of the other cage brands have good attributes to them.

Buy one of each and then make your own decision and then sell the cage that you don't like as much.

Can you tell me the pros and cons to visions?

The only bad thing I can think of for Visions is that they are not escape proof. Small snakes can squeeze through the tiny space between the glass doors - my year old sinaloan did it, even though he's a fatty and looks like he couldn't even get his head through. There is a simple solution though, just buy weatherstripping wide enough to fill the gap. You may also want to buy a "showcase lock" to secure the glass doors if you are keeping any large type of snake (like a boa).

Other than that, Visions are nice enclosures.
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visions are the only plastic cages on the market that are molded in one single piece of plastic. There are no seams. All other plastic cages are glued or screwed together. The durability is unreal. I had two cages fly out of my truck on the freeway at 65 miles an hour. I watched in my rear view mirror as the two cages did cart wheels down the freeway.

I expected to come back and pick up the pieces. When I got back to the cages, I was shocked to find that they were still in almost perfect shape. There were a few scratches and a couple of rivets had popped. Other than that they were perfectly usable.

Since then I tie my cages down better and I only use vision cages.

Do you keep, or plan to keep, any venomous species? If so, Visions are an extremely poor choice due to the molded-in lip that runs around the entire circumference of the front. Someone here called it the “ambush shelf.” Even quite heavy bodied snakes can balance on top or wedge themselves underneath it, and you can reach in the cage unaware that the snake is hidden there.

I'm just not stupid enough to stick my hand into the cage if I can't see where the animal is.

My crotalids do very nicely in my vision cages and have for years.

They are so durable, they look like they will last decades. I have some that are 8 years old and look almost new.

Not keeping any "hot" snakes unless you are talking about those womas I stole (kidding)...(looks around for the feds)..Whew!

Okay, I am interested in keeping rainbow boas and bearded dragons in something that won't bust all to hell when I try to clean it. Now about keeping the critters in.....someone said weather stripping and some sort of lock...

Wha.....?

Whats a better choice for hots? Id like to find something stackable like vision.

I've got a few Visions and I like them well enough, but they could probably be improved on. One issue is they can be a PITA to clean; sometimes the urate sticks to the plastic in the corners and becomes difficult to scrape off. The bigger and deeper the cage the more of a PITA it is to clean also, but that's the case with any brand, I suppose. There's nothing like climbing inside a deep dark box filled with clorox fumes.

Another thing is you have to be careful if you want to use a UTH for heat. There is virtually no gap between stacked cages providing for any electrical features; and it's difficult getting just a cord between stacked cages for the lamp that they're designed to have.

Pros: stackable/efficient, aesthetically pleasing, lightweight (one person can carry a medium-sized cage in one hand with the glass tucked under the other arm)