Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Thank you all for the help provided! This has 5 seperate cages, each is 4'x2' & each varies from 10-12" high. They are heated w/ human heating pads, duct-taped to the bottom/ceiling of each cage. Hardware wire covers the gap in the back, held in place by 'u' shaped nails & heavy-duty staples. A shop light holds a UV light for all units. Plexiglass covers the fronts, with simple slide locks on the sides to keep the plexiglass in place. It's made w/ 3/4" & 3/16" (I think, this one wasn't labeled) melamine, joined w/ drywall screws.
Thanks for looking!

-----
1.1 Corn snakes Snake Plissken & Abby
1.1 Hog Island Boas Harley & Isaboa
1.3 leos, Yoda, Geo, Tang, Ginger
1.0 Blue Tongue Skink Indigo (Indy)
0.1.1 frogs Buffy the Cricket Slayer, Butrose Butrose Froggy
1.1.5 firebelly newts Wayne Newton, Isaac Newton, Fig Newton, Juice Newton, Olivia Newton John, Helmut Newton & Thandie Newton
1.1 cats Gus & Mena

Nice work. I'd love to see some closeups of the door area/slides.

Are the slides on top of the melamine lips or are they built out in front of the cage?
-----
Current snakes:

1.1 Gonyosoma oxycephala - (Silver/Yellow)

3.4 Gonyosoma oxycephala - (Green)

2.1 Gonyosoma janseni - (Black)

Thanks. The slides are made of 2 pieces of moulding, one nailed on top of the other (smaller on bottom, larger on top). They are nailed to the ouside of the cages.
There is a 2" litter dam installed flush w/ the edge of the cage bottom.
I'll try to get some close-ups soon. I'm having all sorts of internet problems right now, so it's a struggle, but I was so happy w/ the cage, I just had to post
-----
1.1 Corn snakes Snake Plissken & Abby
1.1 Hog Island Boas Harley & Isaboa
1.3 leos, Yoda, Geo, Tang, Ginger
1.0 Blue Tongue Skink Indigo (Indy)
0.1.1 frogs Buffy the Cricket Slayer, Butrose Butrose Froggy
1.1.5 firebelly newts Wayne Newton, Isaac Newton, Fig Newton, Juice Newton, Olivia Newton John, Helmut Newton & Thandie Newton
1.1 cats Gus & Mena

aprox how much did it cost all together? nice cages

Your description was good enough, no need to take more pictures unless you feel like it.

From the picture it looks like your attention to detail was very good. Was this your first cage building experience?
-----
Current snakes:

1.1 Gonyosoma oxycephala - (Silver/Yellow)

3.4 Gonyosoma oxycephala - (Green)

2.1 Gonyosoma janseni - (Black)

It cost about $300 total.
This is my first wood cage. I built a plexiglass cage for my frogs, which I'm now looking to rebuild, now that I've found better adhesive for Plexiglass & a place to make better cuts for me.
I really wanted to move my animals into larger cages & the cost for 5 cages from someone else was $1,000. So I started looking at people's designs & combined one from Shawn Morelan & one from Rochell Hill. I'm thrilled with the results!

Here's the frog cage.

-----
1.1 Corn snakes Snake Plissken & Abby
1.1 Hog Island Boas Harley & Isaboa
1.3 leos, Yoda, Geo, Tang, Ginger
1.0 Blue Tongue Skink Indigo (Indy)
0.1.1 frogs Buffy the Cricket Slayer, Butrose Butrose Froggy
1.1.5 firebelly newts Wayne Newton, Isaac Newton, Fig Newton, Juice Newton, Olivia Newton John, Helmut Newton & Thandie Newton
1.1 cats Gus & Mena

if you could/want closer pics would be great.

also, can you just screw the melamine together without a frame? what did you seal the inside with?

great looking unit! a job well done.i was wondering about your heating set up,how much higher is the cage temp than the room temp? do the heat pads have any trouble bringing the cages up to the desired temp? your having fun!!

I had a little trouble getting each cage DOWN to the temp I wanted. Each cage contains the heat pad for the cage above it (each critter's ceiling is another critter's floor), so they essentially have 2 heat sources in nearly every cage (except the top one). I've ended up w/ the human heating pads (the heat source, Rochell) on their lowest setting AND plugged into a rheostat to lower it further. The boa cage is sitting around 88 on the hot side & 77 on the cool. The corn cage around 88 on hot & 76 on cool & the skink around 88 hot & 76 cool (no rheostat on that cage as he can tolerate higher temps). I'm still working to get them a bit closer to ideal, but still... It's pretty good.
Thanks for all the interest! I'm quite proud of the cage & thrilled w/ how it turned out. Now if I can just get the damn skink to calm down from his move & stop hissing at me!

-----
1.1 Corn snakes Snake Plissken & Abby
1.1 Hog Island Boas Harley & Isaboa
1.3 leos, Yoda, Geo, Tang, Ginger
1.0 Blue Tongue Skink Indigo (Indy)
0.1.1 frogs Buffy the Cricket Slayer, Butrose Butrose Froggy
1.1.5 firebelly newts Wayne Newton, Isaac Newton, Fig Newton, Juice Newton, Olivia Newton John, Helmut Newton & Thandie Newton
1.1 cats Gus & Mena

I'm going to answer each post individually, 'cause I can't remember all the questions
Yes, we just screwed the melamine together, no additional frame. It's 3/4" melamine, so it was plenty sturdy. The addition of casters on the bottom has made this sooo much easier to maneuver, as it's quite heavy.
I sealed the inside w/ simple silicone caulk. I actually only sealed around the bottom of each cage & up about 5 inches in the corners. None of the cages are "wet", & I was pretty tired by the caulking point!
-----
1.1 Corn snakes Snake Plissken & Abby
1.1 Hog Island Boas Harley & Isaboa
1.3 leos, Yoda, Geo, Tang, Ginger
1.0 Blue Tongue Skink Indigo (Indy)
0.1.1 frogs Buffy the Cricket Slayer, Butrose Butrose Froggy
1.1.5 firebelly newts Wayne Newton, Isaac Newton, Fig Newton, Juice Newton, Olivia Newton John, Helmut Newton & Thandie Newton
1.1 cats Gus & Mena

what are you using to slide the plexi back and forth? and how big is the gap in the middle? im asking because i did a cage with sliding glass doors and the gap in the middle is huge and my corn/rats got out. i had to modify this cage with wooden runners to get the glass somewhat close. it would be nice if there was an easier way to do it. let me know. thanks.

It's held in place by wooden tracks, made of a piece of 1/2 inch molding, nailed to the front of the cages w/ a 3/4 inch molding nailed onto that. The plexi runs flush against the cage front. The one problem I encountered was that I had them make sheets of plexi, exactly the length of the front of the cages, then had them cut them in 1/2. I then put slide locks on the ends of each cage. I didn't figure in that the locks are a tiny bit further out than the edge of the cage, so it's left about a 1/4 inch gap, if I let the glass slide all the way out to the locks. This is too small a gap to be a problem for my critters & is actually providing additional ventilation now, so it's been OK. But I wish I'd watched for that...
-----
1.1 Corn snakes Snake Plissken & Abby
1.1 Hog Island Boas Harley & Isaboa
1.3 leos, Yoda, Geo, Tang, Ginger
1.0 Blue Tongue Skink Indigo (Indy)
0.1.1 frogs Buffy the Cricket Slayer, Butrose Butrose Froggy
1.1.5 firebelly newts Wayne Newton, Isaac Newton, Fig Newton, Juice Newton, Olivia Newton John, Helmut Newton & Thandie Newton
1.1 cats Gus & Mena

I hope you got the email...it looks great! I noticed in the pics (this one is big enough for me to see the details better) that you went with heat tape. I built another one for my balls and put heat tape on the bottom, seems to work fine as far as getting a gradient. Anyone wanting plans on this cage can use www.freewebs.com/herptips/
-----
www.hullabalooherps.com