Reptile & Amphibian Forums

It seems like most of the commercial plastic cages use plexi or acrylic doors. I'm worried that after a few years of use, the acrylic will be scratched up and cloudy. I know Vision cages have glass doors, I assume the new Neodesha cages will have glass doors also. Are there any other manufacturers using glass doors in their cages? Are my concerns about the acrylic unfounded?
Thanks.
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-audri
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audri –

I think your concerns are well-founded. Obviously if you are keeping lizards with claws, or using a particularly abrasive substrate with active animals, or cleaning the acrylic with heavy-duty scrubber sponges, it would be a no-brainer to go with glass. But even taking reasonable precautions, I’ve found that acrylic used as a front access to a cage becomes unacceptably marred over time. I had the worst problems with acrylic sheets which had to be slid in and out of the tracks (like for the Neodesha 2 and 3 footers). Those which could be lifted in and out of their tracks fared better. Particularly on the 3 footers which warped more, a band of scratches was left dead center across the front of the doors.

Here’s another discussion of this topic: link

-Joan

Neodesha will have glass doors.

Acrylic doors are fine if not used as sliding doors. Boaphile for example uses 1/4" thk acrylic hinged doors, and they work very well. Glass makes cages very heavy, and so many stacking cages fair better with acrylic doors. I have one of the early Boaphile cages from 2 or more years ago, and the acrylic door still looks great.

Active lizards can and will scratch acrylic. Even some snakes can scratch acrylic if it is a nose-rubber on a sandy substrate. Therefore, it depends on what you are housing. A boa on newspaper substrate for example will not damage an acrylic door. A monitor lizard probably will make scratch marks.
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Mark

The Glass doors on my vision cages have a protective plastic cap glued to the top edge and bottom edge of the glass.

This makes the glass doors slide smoothly in the aluminum track and makes the glass doors much more impact resistant. I take the doors out for cage cleaning all the time and have never broken a door.