Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hey folks...

Kinda strange on here... I know its halloween and all too.

But a buddy of mine who works at a casket company just gave me a glass top coffin... (you know, the ones you used to see a long time ago with the glass top)

I was wondering if any of you know of anyone who has used a coffin for a snake enclosure...

The dimensions are slightly off for a snake cage (6' 5" long x 20" wide x only 14" deep) I envision cutting the bottom out and making it slightly deeper and using it as a 6 foot wide cage... Though I suppose I could make an arboreal cage out of it by standing it up and making a larger base for it...

Just wondering if any of you had any thoughts on how you would proceed,,, I will post a pic later of the coffin...

The really cool thing is is that he has plenty of slightly damaged coffins and I can get as many as I want...

Yay me..

P.S.> My wife is slightly pissed off again... My friend and I snuck it into the snake room today... When she went in and saw it... you should have seen the look on her face...Needless to say, she wasnt too happy.

Scott

Here is a pic of the coffin as it is now... Soon it will be a cage.... I luv this!!

Scott

Why the He*L did he give that to you? Where did it come from? It's all rusty and stuff like it spent some time in the GROUND!!! Thats to wierd, hope all was legal in this deal, especially since you can get as many as you want..........

Those are "fresh" coffins... Just slightly damaged and therefor cannot be used... The one in the pic sat around too long and got some surface rust.... Cleaning that off now.

He did have 2 coffins that had been used... one was dug up due to the fact that the state wanted to examine the body... Another one of the coffins floated up during some heavy rain and had to be replaced... Those are sittin outside and from what he says, they are nasty enough inside that he doesnt want to open them. So I aint gonna ask for them.

The other ones are just cool boxes as far as Im concerned...

Scott

Give me a little time and Im sure you will like how it turns out....

Scott

Floated up due to heavy rains? When? What year?
Here in CT, a vault must be used in a grave to prevent the float up thing from happening. Thats been the law for over 50 years.
Hmmm...a vault.
Now there's an idea!

Man I dont know...

I'm not a crypt keeper (well I guess I am now...LOL)

Thats just what my friend said....ANd he oughta know.. They hae like 800-1000 caskets over there. (very very creeeeepy... especially on Halloween loading one of those jokers in the back of a pickup truck and then goin to McDonalds on the way home!)

I do know that here in the South that happens from time to time... I dont know if there are many people checking whether a casket has a vault or not... I know I wouldnt want to have theat job.

Scott

P.S. My neighbors are still trying to figure this whole thing out!

Dude! You are so lucky. I would try to make the bottom part of the cage look like a stand for the coffin with doors on the front that when open, reveal a glass front for viewing. The only problem is the cage could get to tall. Or not but it sure would look neat. I personally am not into anything resembling evil or the death but if I was here's what I'd do.

Get a regular coffin with a lid. The lids are usually humped making a perfect spot for the light. Remove any linen from the inside and seal it for humidity. Open the coffin and screen the top of the open part so when the lid is closed the light will shine through the screen onto the snake. Get some creepy skulls or gargoyles and decorate the outside of the coffin. Make a stand that when all is closed looks like a regular wicked coffin on a stand waiting for funeral. When open, it reveals the coolest cage ever with faux rock and everything. To much to suggest and this is long. Good luck!
-----
DZ
1.0.0 Burm, Moses
0.0.2 Ball, Chico & Chewy (rescue, many scars)
0.2.0 Cats, Merideth & Hannah
1.0.0 Black Chow, Pivo RIP Oct 23
Lotsa fish
1.4.0 Rats
0.2.0 Humans (a little obnoxious though)

Just for a moment, let's forget the coffin thing.
Where did you get those great plastic cages?
They look like the ones I saw at NERD that they are going to put into production.
Great Cages!
I'm envious, not only do you have a coffin, but some great cages, and an awesome snakeroom too!

Thanks for the snake room comments.

The plastic cages on the left are from herpcages.com. (Barrs) I really really like those cages.. VERY secure door, super easy to clean, stack great and DO NOT SAG... (price is right too)

I also have a bunch of plastic cages from precisoncaging.... They are good cages too. very lightweight and you can get lighting installed from the manufacturer... The big wood cage in the background is custom built by myself and houses one very cranky Cribo... (I'll post a pic of the entire room soon)

Cages are all heated with flexwatt and GCS digital heat controllers. I have the room separated from the rest of the home A/C unit and have installed its own AC/Heat just for that room.

I have a 2500 sq foot building in my backyard that could be another house but soon will be totally dedicated to my snakes... Its gonna take a lot of planning and money to complete... But I have time.

I actually am serious about the coffin thing... Just that glass top is big $$$. Somehow someway I am going to figure a way to make some really nice cages out of those things.

Scott

Here is a fairly recent pic of the snake room...

Im lucky in the fact that floorspace is not and should never be a problem.. Once I fill this room up I basically have another 2500 sq. Ft unfinished house in the backyard to flow into)

Thanks for lookin,

Scott

I love it! The idea is not so strange... people turn old "furniture" into enclosures all the time.

i think they would work very well for aboreal cages but in order to make them work for six foot long cages you could turn them on the side. my best thoughts would be to make a light box in the back so that you could protect the animals from coming in contact with the box, you wouldnt see the accual light when looking down in to the cage and it wouldnt look to bad especially if you did a faux rock covering to it all. i dont think the 14 depth is too much of a problem as most snakes that need that much space dont really need the height. but if you wanted to add height i wuold say to cut the bottom and add it on there because i would suggest that you face the outer sides of it anyway because from the picture it looks a bit unfinished or something and i would deffinely think some nice stained wood facing would make it look better and would hide the cut out bottom if you were to do so.

I am in the process of making a pine box type coffin cage. It was a project I have been doing in my spare time for 6 months or so. My wife said "that thing gives me the creeps, you aren't bringing that in the house." Therefore, I may sell it when I get it finished. I will post it in the classifieds soon.