Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I am almost finished building my 6 level furniture quality housing for my snakes. I am wondering what the forum members think are the best doors? Should I go with sliding glass fronts or hinged fronts? All comments welcomed.

Thanks,
MIller
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1.1 Florida King ('02 Pit & '00 Pearl)
1.1 Eastern Kings (2004 Orca & Sugar Pie)
1.0 Black Milksnake (2005 Bubba)
1.0 Chow Chow (2003 Papi)
0.2 Cats (Stella and Shug)

I really recommend sliding doors for many reasons. The doors don't get in the way. No obstructed front view from door frames. It doesn't take much to secure a sliding door, but there is a tiny gap between the 2 pieces of glass. The gap isn't to big. I think only tiny babies could escape. Maybe a baby cornsnake, milk, or king could escape. You could put a strip of weather strip between the glasses. I think cleaning is a snap with sliders. Glass is pretty inexpensive. What are you keeping in your cages? Hope this helps. Derek

I only use racks at this time but when I did use larger caging, I preferred hinged doors with the hinge mounted on the bottom side. This way the door opens downward and does not have to be held up. Most important, it gives me a much larger opening to reach into and pull a larger snake out of. It also makes it easier to remove and replace newspaper or whatever substrate your using. Sliding doors only open up to half the size of the opening at max and that CAN make it harder to reach a snake that really does not want to come out.
Just my opinion from my past experience.

>>I only use racks at this time but when I did use larger caging, I preferred hinged doors with the hinge mounted on the bottom side. This way the door opens downward and does not have to be held up. Most important, it gives me a much larger opening to reach into and pull a larger snake out of. It also makes it easier to remove and replace newspaper or whatever substrate your using. Sliding doors only open up to half the size of the opening at max and that CAN make it harder to reach a snake that really does not want to come out.
>>Just my opinion from my past experience.

OR, only having to open half the cage keeps an extremely active or escape happy snake from launching itself out of the cage every time you open the entire front (fold down door). You have the option of opening whichever half of the cage you want, leaving your jumpy snake on the closed half. On a 4 foot cage, given the average person has close to or more than 3 feet of arm length, you should be able to reach every square inch of your cage with either side of a slider open.

Plus it's really hard for a sliding door to "fall" open if the latch is loose or forgotten, where as a door hinged from the top does have the potential to fall open (what goes up must come down, right?).
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"Colubrid-aphilia", adj; An inordinate love of Colubrids.

Like someone said, it's a matter of preference, some like Chevy over Ford because they had a bad experience with for in the past. Go with what looks good, or, mix it up, best of both worlds, you said it was a 6 different section enclosure right? well what about making the bottom three bottom hinged and the top three sliding glass, put your beafy snakes on the bottom, and your escape artist or tempermental snakes on the top.

Thanks for all the replies, I will spend the time the sealing is curing to figure out which option to choose. The project is really looking good, I will post pics when complete!

Thanks again
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1.1 Florida King ('02 Pit & '00 Pearl)
1.1 Eastern Kings (2004 Orca & Sugar Pie)
1.0 Black Milksnake (2005 Bubba)
1.0 Chow Chow (2003 Papi)
0.2 Cats (Stella and Shug)

I'm getting here kind of late, but wanted to add that I much prefer sliding doors. A full hinged door with the species I keep would be a nightmare, almost impossible to get a group back into the cage during breeding season.

Regarding the size of the opening for cleaning, I should add that a sliding door sometimes has a BIGGER opening than a hinged door, assuming the cage is the same size. The reason being that hinged doors often utilize a face frame of some sort, especially when security is at a premium. With a sliding door you only need upper and lower lips and it is super easy to to lift the panels of glass out during cleaning.

This is also a huge advantages during those occasional cleanings when you want to drag the cage outside and blast it with a hose. The door is completely gone. With a hinged door it is still attached.

Lastly, I love the look of a sliding bypass doors. It's just a more open and clean looks.

But hinged doors can be made more secure and many people prefer them for the species commonly kept in captivity.

Also, sliding bypass doors are no good for small cages and/or cages with a small front.

The only times I use hinged doors is for small cages where security is at a premium. My tree viper cages, for example. I don't like them on these cages, but they are the best choice.

Should say my former tree viper cages... I no longer keep venomous

>>The only times I use hinged doors is for small cages where security is at a premium. My tree viper cages, for example. I don't like them on these cages, but they are the best choice.

Try using a one piece sliding door. It is not hard to do