Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I have built a cage for my Cali king and was pricing tempered glass for a sliding front. Wow! The glass will cost more than the whole cage. My question is should I still go with the tempered glass or is annealed(sp) ok? The glass demensions will be 36 1/2 by 12 7/16.
Thanks for the help.
Paul

You either built the cage REALLY CHEAPLY, or your glass is very expensive. I just ordered Tempered Glass for my Tegu cage, 2 pieces each over 2 x 2 1/2 feet - 1/4 inch, tempered with polished edges for only $60. Big advantage to tempered is that it won't scratch or break as easily. And if it ever does break, it goes into little pebbles, instead of shards which will shred you and your reptiles. To me, the added cost is worth it, but budget dictates everything.

Michael

For a snake, I would say it would depend on how the door is constructed, where the terrarium is located and what is being housed. If it is sliding, then I would expect you could get away with non-tempered, for your kingsnake.

Tempering doubles the breaking strength, and certainly makes it more scratch resistant, amking tempered glass very important for:
1- active lizards
2- large lizards
3- busy locations (where you could accidentally bump something and/or knock something over into the glass)
4- doors where dropping is a possibility (one of our terraria has doors with hinges along the top, so, if we drop that door, instead of gently closing it, we rish breakage with non-tempered glass)

Tempering also increases weight of the glass.
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