Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I was just curious to know what kind of cages does everybody uses. I made some racks to slide sweater boxes into but they are a bit flimsy. I plan to get some thicker, melamine coated wood and make some new ones. I would like to see some of the cages that other people use and hopefully get some good ideas on how to build some of my own. Here's some pics of my cages.

any tips or tricks would be appreciated. Thanks.
Pogona (Elliot)

oops, here are the pics.

here is the heat setup, I have flexwatt tape on the inside of the wood planks hooked up to a thermostat.

Any excuse to show off my home made cage. It's on casters, measures 4 ft. wide by 2 ft deep by 4 ft. tall. With dividers, the top cage is 4X2X2, bottom right is 2X2X3.5, bottom left is 2X2X1.5. Fun cage.

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1.0 Hypo Okeetee - Wesley (Princess Bride)
0.1 Ghost - Sydney (Scream)
2.0 Striped Amel - Jay and Aiden (Kevin Smith movies)
1.0 Snow - Silent Bob (Kevin Smith movies)
0.1 Anery - Columbia (Rocky Horror)
1.0 Creamcicle - Brandon (Mallrats)
0.1 Zig Zag Anery - Pepper (didn't name her)
0.1 Normal - Bindy (Croc. Hunter)
0.1 Motley - Craven (Underworld)

just another side shot of ventilation.

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1.0 Hypo Okeetee - Wesley (Princess Bride)
0.1 Ghost - Sydney (Scream)
2.0 Striped Amel - Jay and Aiden (Kevin Smith movies)
1.0 Snow - Silent Bob (Kevin Smith movies)
0.1 Anery - Columbia (Rocky Horror)
1.0 Creamcicle - Brandon (Mallrats)
0.1 Zig Zag Anery - Pepper (didn't name her)
0.1 Normal - Bindy (Croc. Hunter)
0.1 Motley - Craven (Underworld)

This is the rear of the cage, easy to get to because it rolls so easy.

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1.0 Hypo Okeetee - Wesley (Princess Bride)
0.1 Ghost - Sydney (Scream)
2.0 Striped Amel - Jay and Aiden (Kevin Smith movies)
1.0 Snow - Silent Bob (Kevin Smith movies)
0.1 Anery - Columbia (Rocky Horror)
1.0 Creamcicle - Brandon (Mallrats)
0.1 Zig Zag Anery - Pepper (didn't name her)
0.1 Normal - Bindy (Croc. Hunter)
0.1 Motley - Craven (Underworld)

very nice looking cage....how do you get to the snakes? are those doors i see on the back? That's an idea..i'm getting ready to build mine and i was planning on doing double sliding doors along the front.
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The reason mainstream thought is thought of as a stream is because it's so shallow. -George Carlin

A fool doesn't learn. A smart man learns from his mistakes. A wise man learns from the mistakes of others. Which one are you?

My Website
Rat/Corn snake care sheet I wrote

Current snakes:
0.1 Licorice Stick Black Rat (Lola)
1.0 Neonate Black Rat (het for Lic Stk's) (Frankie)
1.1 Texas Bairds (Jose and Rosa)
0.1 Blue Beauty (Brunhilde)

Piano hinges are used to hang the doors, with pretty simple locking mechinisms. Those all can be bought at Lowe's or Home Depot pretty cheap. Make sure you use a small jigsaw bit, that way there's no huge gaps for little ones to escape! Drill holes big enough for the power cord for the lights, keep the left over and reattach with wood glue. Pretty simple stuff.

AJ

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1.0 Hypo Okeetee - Wesley (Princess Bride)
0.1 Ghost - Sydney (Scream)
2.0 Striped Amel - Jay and Aiden (Kevin Smith movies)
1.0 Snow - Silent Bob (Kevin Smith movies)
0.1 Anery - Columbia (Rocky Horror)
1.0 Creamcicle - Brandon (Mallrats)
0.1 Zig Zag Anery - Pepper (didn't name her)
0.1 Normal - Bindy (Croc. Hunter)
0.1 Motley - Craven (Underworld)

You have too wide a span on your current shelves. That's why they are sagging. You will have the same problem if you use melemine. You will need to either make your shelves narrower or provide support in the middle of each shelf. You might want to think about making your shelves slightly wider and use 1X4 supports between your containers. Build a square frame the same dimension as the shelf then nail it in place. You should also use better bracing on the back. Your current unit will rack. (shift side to side). If you don't need to get to the shelves from the back, I would recommend a thin (1/4" sheet of plywood the same size as the shelf unit be nailed to the back. Nail it to all the shelves and sides. You will be surprised how much stronger the plywood back will make the whole thing.
Your current set-up could sag or rack to the point where gaps could form between the wood and your containers making escape routs for your snakes.
Thanks for the question and I hope I've helped.

also the 3/4 melamine will be a much stronger than that 5/8 mdf it looks like you have it built out of right now. but you do need to have additional supports.
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The reason mainstream thought is thought of as a stream is because it's so shallow. -George Carlin

A fool doesn't learn. A smart man learns from his mistakes. A wise man learns from the mistakes of others. Which one are you?

My Website
Rat/Corn snake care sheet I wrote

Current snakes:
0.1 Licorice Stick Black Rat (Lola)
1.0 Neonate Black Rat (het for Lic Stk's) (Frankie)
1.1 Texas Bairds (Jose and Rosa)
0.1 Blue Beauty (Brunhilde)

I use a rack system from Freedom Breeder. They are a bit expensive, but worth every penny in my opinion.
Freedom Breeder

glass goes the whole way up the front. it stands a little over 4 feet.

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Corns 0.0.3
0.0.1 03' Amel
0.0.1 03' Normal
0.0.1 04' Ghost
Rats
Yellow Rat 0.0.1

my lil sisters under my supervision
0.0.1 Green water dragon ---- "Dragon"

>>well,
I haven't updated my site lately but if you check this link you will see my habitats.
some decent pics, most not.

Habitats
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Corn snakes and rat snakes..No one can have just one.
"resistance is futile"
Jimmy (draybar)

It is made out of 3/4" plywood and it is sturdy!! Just isnt pretty looking, but it serves its purpose very well.

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RATS
1.0 Corn snake "Warpath" (KY locale)
1.0 Black rat snake "Havok" (KY locale)
1.1 Black rat snakes "Reaper and Mystique" (MO locale)
1.0 Albino Black rat snake "Malakai" (Dwight Good stock)
1.0 Everglades rat snake "Deadpool" (Dwight Good stock)
0.1 Greenish rat snake "Rogue" (Dwight Good stock)
1.0 Yellow rat snake "Wolverine" (Dwight Good stock)
1.0 Grey rat snake "Punisher" (White oak phase)(Dwight Good stock)

MILKS
0.0.1 Eastern Milk snake "Cable" (KY locale)
0.0.1 Eastern/Red milk intergrade "Omega Red" (KY locale)
Good luck and Happy Herping
Brian

cool, thanks you guys for all the replies. I appreciate the advice cornbrewer and will incorporate some of your ideas into my next cage designs. I will post some pics of the new cages when they are built. Thanks again to everyone.

...... I used in the past. This is when I was at a large scale. These were built by myself, using the old 22" x 16" x 5 1/2" Sterilite boxes.

Walter

........ I use now. These were built by myself using the 33" x 17 1/2" x 5 1/2" Iris CB70 boxes.
I find my Corn Snakes are more active in a larger box !!!

Walter

for these?........

.........nice ....

where do you get these Iris boxes?.......

rough price each..?

am I a pain?.....LOL

Thanx........JY
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.........12 days and so much hasstle........
.........can I borrow your orange ghosts for a week?.......
wasssup people?......

I don't use a wire mesh, I used peg board with the smooth side down. It gives great ventalation all across the enclosure.

Here is a web site that you can purchase the CB70's.
Reptiletubs.com

Walter

Can you give us some dimensions for the individual compartments and for the overall rack system? I would very much like to build something like that for myself.

I have melamine racks that I built in the past, and though they are very functional, I find them to be too restrive as far as the sixe of tubs that can be used. If you build them for too big a set of tubs, they tend to sag from their own weight.

At any rate, I'll be very interested to see what you can offer in relation to specifications... thanks in advance!
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Darin Chappell
Hillbilly Herps
PO Box 254
Rogersville, MO 65742

Which racks are you talking about, the old or the new?

Walter

...
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Darin Chappell
Hillbilly Herps
PO Box 254
Rogersville, MO 65742

The overall measurments of my rack is:

33 1/2" Deep x 17" wide x 60" tall.

As you can see from the pic. my racks are only 7 boxes tall, so they can be built taller to accomidate more boxes per rack. I just perfer not to have to deal with boxes above eye level.

I use a 4' x 8' sheet of peg board for the tops. This gives great ventalation in my opinion. I am able to get and cut 5 pieces ( measured at 33 1/2" x 17" ) from one 4' x 8' sheet.

I then make a frame from 2x2's the same dementions
( 33 1/2" x 17" ) and screw the peg board to the frame making sure the smooth side will be out ( meaning, screw the frame to the rough side of the peg board ), using drywall screws.

Once I have all of the tops put together, I cut the 4 legs. These are 60" tall.
( but they can be made as tall as you would like )
These are made from 1" x 3" boards.

To attach the tops to the 4 legs I lay one top upside down on a flat surface, stand each leg against the frame on the oustide corners of the longest side and screw them on. Then I screw on the bottom braces to the other end of the legs.

I actually put this rack together upside down.

I then use a spacer ( which is 5/8 in. ) placed on the first top, then put the slide rail on top of the spacer and screw the slide rail on. Once the slide rail is screwed on, I just remove the spacer. This gives you the space neede for the box to slide in. It also gives you a 1/8 in. space between the top of the box and the top on the rack.

After that step, I take another spacer ( which is 6 in. ) and set it on top of the slide rail. Then I put in another top and screw it to the legs. This spacer gives you the distance you want between the boxes, so it can be made to what ever measurement you want your boxes apart for each other.

That's about it. I just keep building them up, alternating spacers for the slide rails and the tops until I've reached the amount of boxes I want per rack. Then just turn it over and it's done.

These measurments are for the Iris CB70 boxes ONLY !!!
A rack can be biult like this for just about any size box, you just have to figure out the measurement need for the box you are using. The actual assembly can be done basically the same.

I hope this helps you and you understand the procedure. I know it's a little odd that I assemble these up side down, but when you put one together you will see it's way easy doing it like this.

Later and good luck,
Walter

I put my melamine racts together in the same way (upside down) so I know what you mean about it being easier. The top is level and dictates the spacing for eveything else that way. It comes out "square" and pleasing from an asthetic perspective.

I appreciate all the measurements you've included. Given the gaps inherent to such a rach, what size animals are you comfortable placing in these tubs? Is there a limit below which you cannot use them?

Thanks again!
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Darin Chappell
Hillbilly Herps
PO Box 254
Rogersville, MO 65742

I'm glad you understand the reason for assembling them upside down.

As far as what size animals to these tubs, I only have Corn Snakes ( My addiction, LOL ), but these are the tubs used by many of the large scale Ball Python breeders, so that should give you an idea.

Later, Walter

np

n/p

I recently designed & built this for my snakes & my BTS.

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2.1 Corn snakes Snake Plissken, Jack Skellington & 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