Boaphile Plastics?

[SerpentLust]

Has anyone ever dealt with the Boaphile? http://www.boaphileplastics.com/

If so, can you please tell me what the cages are like and if you think they were worth it.

If no one has, would you mind taking a look at the entire site (I already have) and inform me of any flaws you notice?

Honestly, I'm VERY impressed, but I don't want to buy from him until I get some opinions from you guys because I still consider myself a novice (with only 3.5 lowly years in herp keeping) and you may notice things I haven't.

Thanks
Jenn

[enso]

I have a two of their racks (one 18 shoe box, one 10 sweater box), and a 48" x 24" x 11.5" cage for my Woma. Super light weight, excellent construction. Well worth the money. These things last virtually forever! You won't be disappointed. Great customer service. Jeff Ronne is "the man". :) Go for it! What cage are you looking at, and what will you be keeping in it?

[SerpentLust]

Actually I'm looking for future endeavours. Like I'll be moving out in January and I'm kind of sick of having aquariums.

But at the moment, I'm looking at the 48L, 24D, 17.5H black enclosures with inbuilt heating and lighting and locks. I'm also VERY intrigued by the expandable enclosures.

When I get into my breeding I'm also looking to him for the racks. And I'm even contemplating grabbing an Albino BCI from him if he has any. lol

What can I say, I found his site and I know what I like...he's it.

Jenn

[SerpentLust]

Enso, do you have any pics of your rack systems and enclosure? I'd love to see them :)

Jenn

[enso]

Well you can't go wrong with Boaphile products or Jeff's snakes. I live about an hour away from their facility. Still want to take a tour. You have great taste in enclosures. About the photos: Lack of a digi cam prohibits this. My apologies. :( Maybe for Christmas... Digi cam or more serpents... Hmm...

[SerpentLust]

Hahaha I'll have to send you a digi cam! lol J/K Consider a webcam or scanner! lmao

Jenn

[enso]

Please do send a digi cam. Cannon, Nikon, or Sony will do fine. I'll send you my address. Before I joined this forum I never had need to share pictures of snakes with people. It seems taboo not to have one here. :D

[SerpentLust]

Hehehe, actually I have a question about his cages now. Did you get the inbuilt heating? If so, how's it working for you? What are you using to keep track of the temperature?

Jenn

[enso]

Yes I did. Excellent. I have a Raytek MT4 and a Ranco thermostat (one for the cage and one for the racks) which I also got from them. The racks run at almost the same maximum temps so you only really need one thermostat for both. I keep the probe in the sweater box rack, this keeps the shoe box rack 3-5 degrees warmer due to the smaller size of the boxes.

[SerpentLust]

Awesome. Hehehe this is turning into our personal thread. Well then I'll definately keep in contact with these people and definately choose them when I decide to purchase my new enclosures. :)

Now all he needs is to move to Canada and I'll be happy! lmao

Jenn

[enso]

You can always just move to Minnesota... Now I need to start getting a commission from them.

[Linds]

I researched these cages extensively before I made the decision to go with something else. They may not be your best option if you wish to put climbing branches and other decorations that will lean aginst any part of the cage, or is you have a cat with front claws, or one that can jump on top of the cages. The material (expanded PVC foam) can easily be cut with an exacto blade. PVC also has associated health risks you may be interested in...

http://www.turnertoys.com/pvc7Dioxin.htm
http://www.turnertoys.com/pvc3Stabilizers.htm
http://www.turnertoys.com/pvc4Plasticizers.htm

*Note: research is relevant to mammals, however no studies have been done on its effect on reptiles.

[SerpentLust]

Wow thanks Linds, I'll be sure to read up on all that as well.

Jenn

[SerpentLust]

ENSO...You got the thermostat from him right? I don't really understand how it works. Could you explain it to me?

Jenn

[enso]

You plug your cage, rack, or any other heat source (human heating pad, lights, ect...) into the power strip, set the thermostat to the temp you want, and put the probe on or in the substrate where you want the set temperature. Thermostat turns the flexwatt, ect, on and off. Hope this helps.

[Yness]

i am gonna do that when i build my new enclosure
boy its gonna cost me a lot
:)
well worth it tho...then i will put fish or crabs or something in my aquarium

[SerpentLust]

ENSO Yeah that helped. I was so confused! lmao Have you ever encountered any problems? Like it got TOO hot or cold or something?

Jenn

[enso]

No, these Ranco themostats are right on the money.
Edit: The probe must stay in the correct location though, if it's moved to a different area (say the cool side) and you don't adjust the thermostat you can have problems.

[SerpentLust]

Awesome!!!! Now I'm all excited. I talked to shane about the whole PVC Plastic thing and being able to withstand my cat sitting on it and the toxicity and stuff and judging from the fact that I assume YOUR Woma is healthy and doing fine I'm definately keeping them #1 on my list when I move out :D

Jenn

[enso]

Jenn, I added an edit to the previous post, and yes the Woma is "happy" as happy as a captive snake can be. :)

[lolaophidia]

I've got a 322D with the built in heat on a Ranco thermostat as well as a shoebox rack that I haven't used yet (only a matter of time and it will be full I'm sure). I'm keeping a Taiwanese Beauty Snake in the 322D and I do really like the cage. I looked at Visons and a few other brands but I really wanted a display cage I could move about by myself (I'm 5'3 so it needed to be light weight). The Ranco thermostat works well but it clicks on and off every couple of minutes which can be a little annoying. I also have an Animal Plastics Rack running on a Helix DBS 1000 thermostat with the heat cable option that I'm very happy with. Finding tubs for it was a pain in my area and I ended up ordering them on-line and paying shipping. Animal Plastics also makes stand alone cages. They didn't have the UTH available when I was shopping or I might have opted for that vs the Boaphile. They look pretty good and are a thicker, tougher (and heavier) material. I don't think the hardware is as nice as on the Boaphile . I wouldn't worry about the cats jumping on it or the Boaphile cage as I have an 18 pound Bengal cat who's destroyed my leather sofa and most of the wood trim in my house but hasn't scratched the Boaphile cage by sleeping on it every day for the past 4 months.
Link for Animal Plastics...
http://animalshare.wantapet.com/animalplastics/index.html
Good luck!
Lora