Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I want to get into GTP's mainly as display.. Can anyone give me a few sites that deal extensivly in GTP's cages...Nothing thats going to cost more then the animal inside of it though.. I was thinking about just useing rubbermaids but they arent very nice looking and hard to find in the right dimmensions and clear.. Any help would be great.. I would build my own but im not to good at carpentry plus I want to get several identically cages for my wall of GTP's soon to come lol.. If anyone built there own or got a cage from one of the sites feel free to post pics love to see what everyone else is doing...
Jason

I use the Vision cage for mine. I love it, and you can stack future ones' right on top of the other. They are made to be able to do that.

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1.0~amel corn~C.S.
1.3~Aztec Okeetee corns~Coatl,Maya,Acatl,Tepin
0.1.1~Green tree python~Tempest, Whisper
0.2~Rhodesian Ridgebacks~Akilah, Ona
1.0~Black fat cat~Topper
3.0~Horses~Zaarah,Galliano,Achilles.....

We got ours at Herpcages

It's a 12 x 12 x 16 and I think it was like $50 shipped works great!

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Tosha

"Nihil facimus sed id bene facimus"

7.33.0 Ball Python (Harry and Fluffy and gang)
1.0.0 Angolan Python (Anakin Skywalker)
0.0.1 Green Tree Python (Verdi - yeah I know but my kids love the book)
0.2.0 Feline (Pippen and Pandora)
0.0.1 Desert Tortoise (Pope John Paul aka JP )
2.2.1 Fish (1,2,3,4)
0.0.2 frogs rescued from pool skimmer

I use herpcages also another name for them is BARRS. Dougs cool and he makes custom cages so any size you want he will make. Also he will make them with solid tops so you can use heat panels. You can't beat the price on these either!!!!

6 Foot female in her BARRS cage....

Tim Rash
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Tim Rash
www.nocturnal-creations.com

I just changed my heating over to this method. A friend of mine showed me his emerald set ups and has been doing it like this for a long time. My cages are not as tall as I would like for Chondros, but they seem ok. I drilled 3/4-inch holes in the sides, ran 3/4 inch pvc pipes through the cages for perches and ran heat cord through the pipes. The heat is connected to a thermostat set at 90 and keeps the cages warm enough for the snakes without getting too warm on the perches. Next thing I need is an auto misting system. I don't use a substrate because the snakes stay arboreal and substrate in a warm humid cage is the perfect medium for bacteria to grow. You can use Rubbermaid tubs. In fact the guy that showed me this type of set up has all of his emeralds and amazons in Rubbermaid tubs. Just remember to vent the cage.

Greg Maxwell said that he doesn't like to heat the perches because then the snake can't go to someplace cooler if it wants. It's always the same temp everywhere they lay. I know mine spends time in the front and the back of the enclosure and my new Jaya spends time right under the heat and all the way away from it, so the temps for it range from 85 to 80, depending on where it's perched.
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1.0~amel corn~C.S.
1.3~Aztec Okeetee corns~Coatl,Maya,Acatl,Tepin
0.1.1~Green tree python~Tempest, Whisper
0.2~Rhodesian Ridgebacks~Akilah, Ona
1.0~Black fat cat~Topper
3.0~Horses~Zaarah,Galliano,Achilles.....

There's a lip right above the doors that they sit on once in a while. For the most part they stay on the heat. I'm going to add an unheated pipe when I get my arboreal cages.
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Joe

to add on with what Meg said......... i believe that a heated perch might cause digestion problems... not to mention nothing is perfect and it would suck to have your thermostat mess up and cook the snake... much like a frog in a pot of water... i know these nice thermostats are supposed to shut down if their is a problem, but a few months ago my work had a fire protection pump burn up and it was supposed to shut off if their was a problem... now granted you are not going to have the NRC on your case if your thermostat burned up, but i believe your snakes will have better odds if they are heated with a "normal" heating source...
everyone does things different and different things work for different people... i'm just stating my opinion... no harm intended...

Shiloh
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Shiloh Hawkesworth
kansas
(Midwest Serpents)

hey meg,,just curious.where did you hear about greg maxwell not supporting heated perches??? im almost positive on his site,he supports them and even describes instructions on how to make them.i have been using them for years and swear by them.i have both heated and non heated perches in my enclosures and after every meal,i can find my snakes on the heated ones and i would say about 50 percent of the overall time(post feed or not) they can be found enjoying the heat.i just have noticed my snakes enjoying them too much to give them up based on little factual information saying they are not good.id imagine the belly heat would be great for digestion and such.im not concerened about thermostat failure considering the safty shutoff feature of helix and also considering that my snake has plenty of non heated places to go should they get too hot.i think the vast majority of reptile(hotrock type)of thermal burns,are caused by the rock being the only source of heat and aside from the very hot temps the rocks can get,the cage itself is very cold,this forcing the animal to stay on the hotrock rather than face a cold cage.in my setup the overall airtemps are more than comfortable(by use of other heat source) and the heated perches are just a way of providing a little more heat should my snake choose to accept it(usually after feeding to aid in digestion)i also did notice that after i installed my first one a few years ago,my snake would digest his meal quite a bit faster and would prowl around looking to feed again a couple days sooner that he was before i began using them.to me,this hints that it allows for faster digestion.i do remeber seeing a suggestion for using heated perches on gregs site,but even if i am wrong ,hes not the only authority on keeping chondros and i do believe i have seen more pros than cons for using them.any decent thermostat(not cheap ones) should eliminate any fear of injuring your animal,and if you do still think it can happen,then the idea of heating neonates in small tubs with ceramics connected to thermostates(isnt that what you use??) would be even more dangerous considering,should there be a malfunction,your snake cannont simple choose another perch but is basically trapped in a tiny enclosure with rapidly rising overall temps.im not saying that type of setup is dangerous(i think its very safe with a proper thermostat)im just saying that the risk is even greater should you choose to look at it from that point of view.

also on chondroweb.com there are instructions for making heated perches that they state are safe when made properly and are a prefered source or heat when combined with another source to heat the overall air.i really have not heard an argument against them that holds any water but have heard and witnessed myself many reasons for using them.the most convicing for me is the fact that my snakes choose them,and not because the cage is cold (temps are perfect)but just because my snakes feel they need the belly heat.i also feel that many people who are against them never have tried them and if they have,they will notice how safe they are and how much their snakes would benifit from them.

well as i said before things work for one person sometimes that dont work for others.... but here is what i do know...

no matter how much you pay for a thermostat it can mess up and cause the temp to sky rocket... now i'm not going to sit here and tell you it happens alot, because if that were the case no one would use them...
the pump that we had burn up here at work was a 4 million doller piece of eqipment and it has the same basic sensors to shut it off in the case of a problem as any thermostat, but it burned up...

if you are going to use heated perches then i assume they are hooked up to a seperate thermostat to control the temp... and then you are going to have another thermostat for your other heating source... so now you are looking at 2 thermostats per cage... assuming that you are using a seperate thermostat for each cage... and if you are doing things correct you will, just to be safe...
then you also have to keep in mind that it it ALWAYS best to check the maximum temp on all heat sources used in a cage... for example... plug the heater into the wall (not the thermostat) then put a sensor on the panel and see what the temp get up to... and depending on that you should check the max temp it can get to in a cage... and if using 2 heat sources you should check both maxxed out at the same time in the cage to see...
if you do that you should have a farily good idea as to how much danger you are in... "fire bad"
i have checked my temps and my panels max out at 95 degree and thats with the sensor on the pannel and the max temp in the enclosure is 85-87 with it maxxed...

so with all that in mind, if you do your checks and set it up proper then as Icey said you should be fine...

Shiloh
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Shiloh Hawkesworth
kansas
(Midwest Serpents)

yea,like you said,there is a lot to think about when setting up something like these and its not like a "hotrock"where you plug it in and forget about it.there are a lot of considerations and all the precautions need to be met.ill be the first to tell you that they are probably one of the least things needed for a successful chondro setup and im sure my snakes would do fine without them.its just that im a bit of an obsessive compulsive when it comes to my snakes and i do tend to go out of my way to complicate my setups in an effort to make chondro keeping seem like rocket science..lol....but seriously,youre hearing from someone that has to stop at home depot today on the way home from work to pick up a new garden mister because i destroyed my old one in an attempt to build a totally unnecessary automated mister,not because i was too lazy or didnt have the time to mist,but only because i had an extra outlet available.lol.

"its just that im a bit of an obsessive compulsive when it comes to my snakes and i do tend to go out of my way to complicate my setups"

Ya, i have noticed that... LMAO!!!

i know i dident have to bring out the big crayons on this topic, but i just wanted to make sure that anyone reading the post dident get the wrong idea on how easy it is to get everything right... lol... you would be supprised at some of the "intresting" questions i have been asked through email by new people... lol... for example... " i have a Tokay Gecko and i am going to sell him, but can i keep him with my new chondro for a few months???"

Shiloh
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Shiloh Hawkesworth
kansas
(Midwest Serpents)

In his Complete Chondro book (the old one) it says "Some keepers of aroboreal snakes use heated perches, running a length of heat tape inside PVC pipe, but I do not recommend this. It provides no gradient and forces the animal to coil on a heated surface, which is neither necessary nor even desirable." That's where I got the idea
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1.0~amel corn~C.S.
1.3~Aztec Okeetee corns~Coatl,Maya,Acatl,Tepin
0.1.1~Green tree python~Tempest, Whisper
0.2~Rhodesian Ridgebacks~Akilah, Ona
1.0~Black fat cat~Topper
3.0~Horses~Zaarah,Galliano,Achilles.....

yea meg,i had a feeling thats where you got it.i think thats weird because im sure i found a reccomondation somewhere on his site(im gonna have to look)but based on what greg said,i have to agree with him.the original poster of this topic,when describing his setup,provided the heated perches in such a way that if the snake wanted to be perched(and chondros always want to be)he would have to accept the heated perch because there were no other options available.setups like this i think are what greg had in mind when he made that statement and im sure you as well,but the type im in favor of are a combination of both heated and non heated.its also good to have the heated perch the highest one as in nature chondros usually seek out the higher perches when looking for heat.the idea is that under the forrest canopy,there is little heat but once you go higher and break through some of the shade,you will find more heat.besides that,heat rises so its just natural for them to go up to seek warmth and go down to seek cool.i think if used incorrectly,they may be no better or safer than the infamous hotrocks responsible for cooking many iguanas and monitor lizards,but used as an option,and not as a primary source of heat,they work well.i think the best way to tell is give as many options to your snake as possible in regards to temps,perch placement,ect.if your snake has many options you can judge for yourself exactly what your snake wants and needs.after all,we can only guess what our snakes want,its them that know best.without providing a mix,its very misleading.lets supposed you have only 2 perches and both are heated.one can say,my snake loves the heated perches because i never see him not being perched.well,that could mean several things.it can mean that he just likes to be perched regardless of the temp,or maybe there is no other heat source and hes accepting heated perches because its the only way of being warm.if you supply a few options,its a lot easier to tell what your snakes like.my perches dont get very warm at all.its the airinside the tube that heats up and that heats the pipe.i have heard of people running heat cable through pvc,sealing it one end with silicon and filling the pipe with water,then plugging the other end.this is supposed to heat the perch very evenly and prevent "hot spots".this may work but i wont go through the extra trouble as mine seem to be heated evenly enough.besides,im sure heat cable is waterproof,but im not 100 percent sure how the water may effect the insulation in the long run.

Actually, I think in his book, he also stated that at treetop it was coolest, as the air circulated there. Yes, direct sunlight will warm, but as far as ambient air temps, the air at the tree tops was far cooler than lower down. I can find that page if you want too I think I've read the book about a dozen times
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1.0~amel corn~C.S.
1.3~Aztec Okeetee corns~Coatl,Maya,Acatl,Tepin
0.1.1~Green tree python~Tempest, Whisper
0.2~Rhodesian Ridgebacks~Akilah, Ona
1.0~Black fat cat~Topper
3.0~Horses~Zaarah,Galliano,Achilles.....

yea that i dont understand how being exposed to the sun is cooler than in the shade.i spent a summer in ecuador in the amazon.its in the morning that you see the tops of the trees full of iguanas,then in the heat of the day,they begin to climb down and seek shade.when we would climb the rope and break through the canopy,it was brutal up there.i really find that one hard to believe.that is unless light and heat follow different laws in indonesia,lol.you know what they say,cant believe everything you read and thats one thing im not gonna believe.it would be an impossibility for it to be hotter in the shade.

I can see direct sunlight as being hot, but if you were at treetop level where a breeze could blow and you were just covered by shade, it would feel much cooler than unmoving humid air. Humidity makes everything warmer feeling, that's why air conditioners work. A breeze on the face in the shade is cooler than stagnet unmoving air in the shade.
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1.0~amel corn~C.S.
1.3~Aztec Okeetee corns~Coatl,Maya,Acatl,Tepin
0.1.1~Green tree python~Tempest, Whisper
0.2~Rhodesian Ridgebacks~Akilah, Ona
1.0~Black fat cat~Topper
3.0~Horses~Zaarah,Galliano,Achilles.....

yea i guess but thats assuming a lot,one that there is always a breeze when there just isnt,and 2,thats chondros are usually found in the top of the canopy,in very tall trees,and they arnt.they are usually found near the ground when hunting.lets say said chondro is in a large bush or small tree,to seek heat he would go to the top to break through the shade,maybe yes,in a very large tree,on a breezy day you may cool off on the top,but in most circumstances shade provides cool and sun provides heat.

Could be, but I'd be willing to bet that any human being would feel far more comfortable in open moving air than down on the floor in a rain forest. It's hot and muggy, muggy, muggy! Any breeze would feel good! Ambient air temps are ambient air temps and when you're talking about them hunting, that would be at night and the temps would be warmer on the floor or lower down than the treetops.
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1.0~amel corn~C.S.
1.3~Aztec Okeetee corns~Coatl,Maya,Acatl,Tepin
0.1.1~Green tree python~Tempest, Whisper
0.2~Rhodesian Ridgebacks~Akilah, Ona
1.0~Black fat cat~Topper
3.0~Horses~Zaarah,Galliano,Achilles.....