Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hello,
I am currently looking for new cages for my arboreal vipers and boids. I have had acrylic cages made, but they get stress fratures with heat tape/pads, and after time the door warp. They really dont hold the humidity that well.
I was thinking about using birch plywood, with glass front doors. I need to make it water proof. I want to put in my auto misting system, and a drain in the bottom. I will have a full screen top. And , live plants, plastic perches and hocky puck spot heat lamps.
I want the door to be glass, and open from left to right.
Can this be done-
each cage is going to be 18x18x24 inches tall.
Thank you,
TQ

I'm quite the tree viper fan even though I no longer keep venomous. I have experimented with different ways to keep them, though.

Birch plywood is certainly a possibility. I'm sure you've read John Hollisters recent article on Eyelash. He used an acrylic latex paint to seal the interior of his wooden cages. Personally I'd go with something a bit more durable.

At the zoo I worked at I sealed plywood exhibits with a two-part epoxy pool paint. It worked very well but was expensive and a nusance to work with. But not a bad choice if you have a lot of cages to seal.

Fiberglass resin is equally durable, very cheap, but even more difficult to work with.

Then there are a variety of thin plastic sheets than can be laminated onto the interior of a plywood cage.

I have a way to keep tree vipers/boas that I like much better. I'm running out to dinner so I'll have to post more later.

Chris,
Thanks for the info. I saw John's cages in reptiles as well as his sight. I like the resin idea. All, I know is I need to figure out soon. I have some rare arboreal comming in, and need to have them set up like mentioned. I also want to inclug a cold fogging system ans well as the mister. Some of the arboreal are from high elevation, and need the cold fogg in the morning and at night.
TQ

I would also like to hear your idea on arboreal cages too-

You might contact John and ask him specifically how long those cages have been in use and how well the acrylic latex is holding up.

But I would still encourage you to try my idea. Here goes.

Below is a small display unit I build for 2.1 T. wagleri. During the middle of the construction I hurt my back badly (on another project, though) and when I finally resumed building I rushed through it pretty quickly. Normally I would have done a better job on the detail work.

What you see here is a piece of oak-laminated plywood that is approximately 3' tall by 2' wide. I used a scroll saw to cut three rectangles out of the wood.

The lower cage is one of those 20 gallon storage totes you buy at WalMart, etc. The upper two cages are 8 gallon garbage cans for the smaller males. They are all permanently attached to the back of the plywood.

The back of the oak plywood was sealed with epoxy paint. With hindsight I would have sealed it with the acrylic latex and then glued a piece of thin plastic over just the bottom part of the plywood that is exposed to the interior of the cage. This would have saved a lot of time on the drying.

The junction where the boxes/garbage cans attach to the plywood is very strong. I used a polyurethane caulk and many small sheet metal screws. Again, with hindsight I would have just used regular old silicone over the polyurethane based caulk to save drying time.

These cages are still going strong and that junction is holding up great. A friend of mine now has them and uses a lot of rocks and heavy water bowls. No sagging of the cages and the boxes have not pulled away from the plywood at all.

I'll include more info in the next post.

Here is the top view of the display. You can better see the garbage cans coming off the back of the plywood.

I cut the tops of the garbage cans and storage tote out and then used rivets and hot glue to attach screen mesh over these holes.

I like to use a lot of ventilation for tree vipers and maintain humidity via more fequent mistings.

If you look closely you can see mistheads in the garbage cans.

I also have a floor drain system that worked very well. I'll have to take separate pictures of that.

For doors I used 1/4" acrylic. I attached some 1/4" thick oak to the front of the unit and the acrylic doors nest inbetween there. I believe you can see the acrylic hinges I used as well as the cam-locks.

This unit is now built into a cabinet. In other words it is free-standing, has a top, sides, etc.

Now that I'm out of venomous I'm only keeping Gonyosoma oxycephala & G. janseni. This was the first cage I built for them.

The tote is a discontinued 50 gallon (yes gallons, not quarts) model from Sterilite. I have since found a better box available at Lowes that I will use if I ever actually buy a house.

Instead of a piece of plywood I built a face frame from clear yellow pine. Again, I used epoxy to seal the back of the face frame and again I wish I had used acrylic latex paint and additional protection on the bottom interior of the cage in the way of a thin piece of sign board or other plastic.

Doors, ventilation, etc. are same as the other unit save for thumb tabs in place of the cam locks.

To give you an idea of how strong these cages are, I placed my 5 year old nephew in the cage and proceeded to carry it around by the face frame. I also stood him on top of the screen top and it held very well.

This cage has the same floor drain system as the one I built for the T. wagleri. I will take pictures later today.

Sorry for the condition of the cage. This one was underwater for a day when I went through a flood last September. When this picture was taken I had lent the cage to a friend of mine who had had a Corucia zebrata born and needed to separte mother and hatchling from the rest of the group. They trashed the cage pretty good during their initial explorations.

This size would be great for your Tree boas provided you're not keeping Amazon Basin Emeralds or Sanzinia. It might be better in a horizontal orientation for some species. That's what I'll be doing for my Gonyosoma collection.

Here's the side view of the same cage.

For your collection it will just be a matter of finding the right sized boxes and then deciding how you want to do the face material.

If you want individual cages you can take outside for cleaning then you might build individual face frames or cut several pieces from a sheet of plywood. Then you can simply place them on a utility shelf or whatever.

If you don't mind having the cages more permanent you can cut several openings out of a single sheet of plywood and have that free standing in your herp room. For thorough cleaning you would then just take advantage of the floor drains and/or use a wet/dry vac.

The advantages of these cages are that they are very cheap, easy to build, and fairly easy to clean. Due to the tapered nature of the boxes it is easy to leave space for lights, floor drains, misting systems, etc.

Also, there is minimal use of sealants so one can start construction and have the cages safe for animals in a very short time.

The only downfall to this design is not being able to find boxes in the sizes you want. Not an issue for Tree Vipers and Boas (again, provided you're not keeping the large tree Boas).

I have shared this design with many people in the venomous community and have received positive comments.

Here's the side view.

Wow,
I like the ideas. I also like cheap. I will look into a tub size cage. We have a store that cariies pretty much the standard size tubs year round. I would alo like to see the drain system for the bottom. That is the main thing.
I wont be keeping basin, just the new local emeralds. I do need the sides to be opaque. I dont want the animals to see each other. I will draw some plans up tonight.
Thanks for the info Chris.
I Keep mainly atheris, but I have decided to branch out and collect south american and asian arboreal hots and boids.
TQ

Honestly, I'd keep arboreals this way if I won the lottery. It really works that well.

Regarding solid colored sides, if you find a clear box that is the right size otherwise you can always paint the exterior of the box with that new plastic bonding spray paint.

When you look at a given box hold it up the way you'll have it oriented for the species in question. Then look at what will effectively become the floor of the cage and see how convoluted the bottom is. The fewer ridges, etc., the easier the cage will be to clean.

You really should go to a Lowes and look at the 55 gallon storage box they carry. Don't be fooled by the 55 gallon part, much of the volume is in the domed lid which won't be part of this design.

If this box were oriented vertically the cage would be about 17" x 23" x 24".

If the box were oriented horizontally the dimensions would be about 24"x23"x18".

Pretty close to what you mentioned. Note that the dimensions are not straight-forward due to the tapered design of these boxes.

The box is a nice black color which I like. It is also a very durable design.