Reptile & Amphibian Forums

So I thought that a good summer project would be to build my own cages for my corn snakes. I was wanting to do something that was like a display cage where it had 4 cages on top of each other. So I guess something that was sort of like a book case but for snakes. I was wondering if there were any available plans or recommended materials on the web or in a book or whatever...basically any info would extremely helpful.

Also I was wanting to do a DIY snake rack as I decided to breed my snakes this year and will need something to house all the hatchlings. Any info for this would be helpful too. Thanks!!
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1.2 Normal Cornsnakes
1.0 Snow Cornsnake
0.0.14 Normal Hatchlings
0.0.14 Anerythristic A Hatchlings

What size are you looking to make your cages? For a full grown corn, I would do at minimum 36" long, 18" deep, 18" tall. Prefered would be 48" long, 24" deep, 24" tall. That's what all of mine are. When you give them a large cage, you will see a lot of increased activity. My whole thing is when making a display cage, you want it to be large so that they can be seen.

Corns also love to climb, so you give them stuff to climb on and you won't be dissapointed.

I just started by making individual boxes and stacking them on each other. Here's a picture mid-construction.

The bottom one has a solid plywood bottom, however you can see the hollow frame bottom on the one on top. The two I have sitting on top both have a hollow frame bottom, it is just as sturdy yet it won't be quite as heavy, I was covering the inside with FRP (fiberglass reinforced plastic paneling) anyway. This is 1/8" thick and very similar in consistancy to plastic.

I finished by putting a strip of wood trim around the front, then on the interior i primed and painted the wood with a satin enamel interior latex paint. The exterior I stained and coated with Minwax Polycrylic, satin. This is a water based polyurethane, doesn't smell anywhere near as long as oil based does.

If you get more detailed questions let me know.

Here's the finished product


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-Chris

0.1 Licorice Stick Black Rat
1.0 Black Rat
0.1 Vietnamese Blue Beauty
1.0 Green Tree Python
0.1 Texas Bairds Rat

The educated are the few. The uneducated are the masses.

North American Rat / Corn Snake Care Sheet

Chris,

Those are really awesome tanks. How are you heating them, is that radiant heat panels I see on the ceiling?

Just curious, if you cut out the bottoms of the top tanks to lighten the load, could you have just removed the bottom completely and made the top the bottom tank the bottom of the top tank? Wow, that didn't seem to come out right did it? LOL.

How easy is it to work with FRP? What would you say total cost was for one set (top and btm tank)? Finally, are those glass doors or plexi?

Thanks, in advance.
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Ken Roshak
BlackSwampSerpents@toast.net

Those are really awesome tanks. How are you heating them, is that radiant heat panels I see on the ceiling?

Thanks. Yes, they're radiant heat panels. on the top right i have a pro panel and the other 3 are helix panels (i got a good deal on them.) I like the pro panel much better for many reasons, look down for the helix vs pro panel discussion for the pros and cons of each.

Just curious, if you cut out the bottoms of the top tanks to lighten the load, could you have just removed the bottom completely and made the top the bottom tank the bottom of the top tank? Wow, that didn't seem to come out right did it? LOL.

No, for a couple reasons
*to keep the structure sond, you would need to put the sides straight up. you need some bottom for the cage or it wiill get off center, it could get knocked to the side a bit and then the snake could escape also.

*you wouldn't have a sealed floor, and any moisture could creep underneath and rot the end of the wood on the side

*you would be getting the heat from the bottom cage to your upper cage, and make it a huge pain to control the heating. I'm actually going to take some trim, stain and poly it, then put this along the edge along the front and sides so the back is open to vent out. Just to provide a bit of a buffer inbetween the cages.

How easy is it to work with FRP? What would you say total cost was for one set (top and btm tank)? Finally, are those glass doors or plexi?

FRP is not the easiest thing in the world to work with, however it's not the hardest. You NEED 2 things. one is a dust mask. you dont want to inhale those particles. The second is a laminate blade, about $15 from home depot. It's kinda tricky to cut...make sure you have some push sticks, and a friend to help feed it across your table saw.

The slidnig doors are 1/4" glass, the swinging doors are 1/8" plexiglass. I like the sliding doors soooooo much better, I wish I had made them all sliding! They're also a LOT easier to make.
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-Chris

0.1 Licorice Stick Black Rat
1.0 Black Rat
0.1 Vietnamese Blue Beauty
1.0 Green Tree Python
0.1 Texas Bairds Rat

The educated are the few. The uneducated are the masses.

North American Rat / Corn Snake Care Sheet

That's totally sweet! That's pretty much in the ball park of what I had in mind. A couple of questions though:

Would it be possible to make it more than two cages high? Could it support it if it were 3 cages high? Also what about ventilation? From the pics it looks like there would be minimal ventilation. And I also see that you have sliding doors and hinged doors? Any benefit to one over the other? Sorry for all the questions...
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1.2 Normal Cornsnakes
1.0 Snow Cornsnake

Would it be possible to make it more than two cages high? Could it support it if it were 3 cages high? Also what about ventilation? From the pics it looks like there would be minimal ventilation. And I also see that you have sliding doors and hinged doors? Any benefit to one over the other? Sorry for all the questions...

I would forsee no problem in making the cages 3 high. Unless you have trouble getting to the top one. Get a step stool would be my answer to that

I have minimal ventilaion for a few reasons. First, it is plenty for the snakes. It is a single 4 inch vent on the cool side of the tank. There are also the sides of the doors air can get through. So there's plenty of ventilation. The reason I don't do more is because.. well first off it was kinda hard to figure out what kinda vents to use and by the time i found good ones that was it and so i was happy. i put them at the bottom so heat wouldn't rise and escape. i also put them on the cool side so the heat wouldn't escape as easy.

hinged doors were cheaper for me, but only because i had a large free supply of oak trim. the 1/4" glass doors were $40 for the glass and $15 for the track. The swinging doors cost me $55 for all the plexiglass. If you don't have pretty good woodworking knowledge, as on how to make mortise and tenion joints, and how to make mortises for hinges, along with chisels and such to make them, then i wouldn't bother with it. I like the sliding doors better anyway.
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-Chris

0.1 Licorice Stick Black Rat
1.0 Black Rat
0.1 Vietnamese Blue Beauty
1.0 Green Tree Python
0.1 Texas Bairds Rat

The educated are the few. The uneducated are the masses.

North American Rat / Corn Snake Care Sheet

So I thought that a good summer project would be to build my own cages for my corn snakes.

If something with the same floor area as a 40 gallon breeder tank is okay for you then consider the storage tote design I have used.

In this first picture you can see a 50 gallon storage tote I mounted onto an epoxy-sealed face frame.

You could easily build a ladder-style face frame and then mount several boxes onto the back. In your case you'd want them horizontal.

Here is a picture of a 9-unit cage a contact of mine built. I did not design or build this cage. He asked about it, I sent pictures which he showed to a carpenter friend, and this is what they came up with:

Again, you would want to use the boxes horizontal, not vertical as in the above pictures.

The black box from Lowes would be about 27"x23"x18". The sides slope due to the stack & nest design so the measurements vary throughout the volume of the box.

This is much more space than any box you'll find for a rack system and gives a bit of climbing space.

Also I was wanting to do a DIY snake rack as I decided to breed my snakes this year and will need something to house all the hatchlings.

There are a couple of hatchling racks plans at:

http://arbreptiles.com/cages/cages.shtml

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Current snakes:

0.1 Gonyosoma oxycephala - (Silver/Yellow)

1.2 Gonyosoma oxycephala - (Green)

7.6 Gonyosoma janseni - (Black)

0.1 Gonyosoma janseni - (Black & Tan)

Thanks for some mroe ideas and the link to the snake rack plans. Exactly what I was looking for.
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1.2 Normal Cornsnakes
1.0 Snow Cornsnake

Snake racks

Rack number 1: 10- 27 qt sterile boxes…shelves are cut 17” wide by 24” deep. The material is ¾” melamine (27.95 a sheet) from home depot. The sides are made out of 1/8” bath board (9.95 per sheet) the sides are cut 24” by 67.5” the back is cut 17” by 67.5” (this gives a small shelf on top to keep things) you eleven pieces for 10 boxes. You will get 10 out of one sheet you have to buy a 4’ by 2’ piece (9.95 each).

Put the first piece on the floor and place a box on it UPSIDE DOWN and use playing card about 4 per corner to separate the box from the next shelf for easy movement. Repeat this for all 10 boxes.

You must PRE-DRILL all the holes for the back and sides. Put the bottom screws in first and work you way up! After you do the sides you need to get ready for heat tape!

I used 11” flex watt and used 12” pieces. Run all in parallel and run them up to the top for your dimmer or thermostat. Cut holes in the back to run the wires through and seal the rack. (This is a hard to do by yourself so four hands work better!)

I used these same plans for the other racks for balls. You need to pick you boxes and just use those dimensions. As this works the best.

Rat racks

Use the small size boxes from home depot for mixing concrete 27 x 19.75 x 6 and cut 2 x 4’s and use hardware cloth to make the tops. Then use 1x1 for the rails and 2x4’s for the legs.

Four box rack cost me 64.00 total.

I will get more pics some time this week. Let me know if this helps

Paul and Jason
HTDesigns