Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I am trying to design my new cage for my Burm. I am getting assisted by Chris Harper from the caging forum, but he felt that I should check here for a couple confirmations. First of all, would sliding glass doors be suitable for a burm? I am also considering two other options:

1.) Doors open from the top and drop down- However, I dont mind those type doors when the cage will be on top of something, but since this cage will be primarily in the floor, my fear is that I could possibly loose balance while trying to pull her out and possibly drop my knee through the glass or something.

2.) Doors opening from the bottom and raise up- To a point, I kinda like this idea, however, I am not too sure how it would work out. Basically, where would the door go once it is pulled up?

So, basically it narrows it down to two options that are feasible. Sliding doors or drop down doors. Of you long time keepers here, what are your preferences and/or experiences with these types of doors?

I appreciate your thoughts and ideas,

Chris
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Chris Law
U.A.P.P.E.A.L. (Uniting a Proactive Primate and Exotic Animal League)
Herpetoculture Element Representative

Go with doors hinged on the bottom, and drop down. If you are trying to get a big burm back into a cage, and the door keeps dropping down, you'll appreciate the door already being open.
Having to open a door is one more awkward step.
make sure you have two doors.
And you're using glass doors? Not acrylic?
I am a major klutz, and I've yet to fall through a cage door.
I will tell you this...smooth down the edges of the doors.
I should have done that when mine were built.
Acrylic edges are very sharp.
If using acrylic, use 1/4". and if the doors are over 2ft long, use three locks. The one drawback is, acrylic bends easily.
At least in my experience.
One lock on each end of the door, one in the middle.
I use barrel bolts. If you;re really fussy, go to West Marine and get stainless locks.
But my brass ones seem to be holding up.
Make sure you post pics of the finished product

For my burm i have an animal plastics T25 with sliding glass doors, and i have been very happy with the sliding glass. It has made things a lot easier. A friend of mine built a cage that had a door that opened in the front from top-down. It works well if the door has someplace to go other than the floor. But I guess it is all in personal preference. The sliding glass, i believe, keeps the cage looking nice even with the doors open.

I will certainly agree with the looks factor. Have you ever had any problems with them striking the glass and knocking them off track or anything?

Thanks,

Chris
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Chris Law
U.A.P.P.E.A.L. (Uniting a Proactive Primate and Exotic Animal League)
Herpetoculture Element Representative

Ive never had a problem with him knocking it off track..the doors are set into the track at around half inch or more

I agree, I think drop down cage doors will be my best option. I like Chris Harpers idea below. It actually looks clean and sturdy.

Thanks for your help!

Chris
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Chris Law
U.A.P.P.E.A.L. (Uniting a Proactive Primate and Exotic Animal League)
Herpetoculture Element Representative

Chris,

One of the things I wanted you to ask over here was if frameless acrylic doors were sufficiently strong for adult Burmese Pythons.

I did find this picture over on albinoburmese.com. You can see that door hanging down in the bottom of the picture and tell that it's 1/4" acrylic with no frame. It fits into a groove around the door opening. You can even see the metal tab that holds the door shut on the cage below.

This is what I was referring to with frameless doors, and evidently it works. I was pretty sure it would but I wanted confirmation from burmese keepers.

This is what I would go with for your cage. And as you know, I prefer flip down doors for large cages.

np

Chris,

Actually, I like that design. Are they hard to install? I certainly like that design and it could possibly save some time and work if I do it right. Thanks for showing me that pic that definitely gave me some ideas.

Chris
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Chris Law
U.A.P.P.E.A.L. (Uniting a Proactive Primate and Exotic Animal League)
Herpetoculture Element Representative

Chris,

These are not difficult doors to build or install. I use an acrylic hinge for this style of door simply because I like the clean look. I screw it to the wood and solvent-weld it to the acrylic door. It does cost more but looks great and is super strong.

But I agree, the picture posted above also looks very nice. Whoever built that cage did a good job.

I think the key is to the clean look is to avoid framing the door. That means either like the picture from albinoburmese.com or sliding doors. I have built several of both designs, but never for a burm, retic, or rock python so I'm glad you have some confirmation that it will work.

For the medium sized cage you are getting ready to build, you could really go either way, sliding or frameless acrylic. But for the large cage consisting of two smaller cages bolted together, you definately will prefer the hinged doors.

I have used doors very simular as to those in the pics in my homemade cages. The only down fall I have experienced with a frameless door is that if the door is too big the acrylic gets flimsy. On my 6' cages I had two doors 30" long. They were on the verge of being to flimsy for my liking. I used four of the same kind of locking bars as in the pic which aided in the rigidity of the doors when they were closed so it can work but I would not go any bigger then 30" with out a frame.
I also would recommend using doors that open from the side. Just as you would with top or bottom opening doors just put the hinges on the outer side. This will allow you to fully open the door with out having to worry about falling on it or it falling on you, cause acrylic will break when you fall on it. And you must remember things like how deep is the cage going to be. If the cage is 3' or deeper you almost half to crawl halfway into it to clean out the back corners. This is very hard to do with a cage that rests on teh floor with doors that open downward. Hope this helps a little, Todd

The only down fall I have experienced with a frameless door is that if the door is too big the acrylic gets flimsy. On my 6' cages I had two doors 30" long. They were on the verge of being to flimsy for my liking.

How thick was the acrylic and what brand was it? I have seen some pretty large frameless acrylic doors that held up great. Thickness plays a role as well as the quality of the acrylic, which varies greatly.

I also would recommend using doors that open from the side. Just as you would with top or bottom opening doors just put the hinges on the outer side. This will allow you to fully open the door with out having to worry about falling on it or it falling on you, cause acrylic will break when you fall on it. And you must remember things like how deep is the cage going to be. If the cage is 3' or deeper you almost half to crawl halfway into it to clean out the back corners. This is very hard to do with a cage that rests on teh floor with doors that open downward.

Good point about crawling in with the doors open to the floor. But for a large cage like Chris is planning having doors that long opening to the side is not always practical. And that puts a lot of stress on the acrylic. I would avoid that unless absolutely necessary.

Instead, I would say elevate the cage just enough so the doors can flip all the way down. This will make grabbing the snake and cleanding the cage safer/easier. It will also help with heating since Chris will have this cage in his basement.