DOORS - and a poll to help all.

[BOAS_N_PYTHONS]

Hi there folks:

I decided to start thos post and poll to figure out what everyone uses and prefers.

Simply image your normal looking cage "wood built or bought plastic" with either a sliding or hinged in place "glass or plastic" door system.

Basically the main question is what do you use, prefer and why.

1. Do you have sliding doors on a track system where its a 2 piece system with 1 glass piece over lapping the other to secure your snakes in there cages?

2. Do you have a full door system on hinges, where the door opens by lowering or lifting it in 1 direction?

I myself use sliding doors but have been thinking 1 piece lowered doors would be a better method. Basically I notice some of my boas checking out the space between both glass pieces. There is no hard and no major concern with the design or the boas, but I always think especially with strikers that if they hit with teeth, jaws, face into this un-smooth edge that this may harm them compared to 1 piece door systems.

So I' m hoping everyone can contribute to this thread with useful information on this topic.

Below are my own design cages I built a few years back.

http://www.ssnakess.com/photopost/data/500/2330BNP_cages_008-med.jpg

http://www.ssnakess.com/photopost/data/500/2330BNP_cages_010.jpg

Thank you for ready, and adding some contribution to this topic.

Cya...

Tony

[Tim_Cranwill]

1 piece, swing down doors... but I only have 2 custom enclosures at the moment. :)

[Invictus]

I use sliding at the moment. Once I get a router I'm switching to hinged doors for sure.

[MouseKilla]

Man, those are some sweet looking cages! I am simply incapable of such things, as my latest cage clearly shows. lol! It's not pretty but it was easy.

http://www.ssnakess.com/photopost/data/500/2511Im000086-med.jpg

I tried the sliding doors thing once and well... I don't want to talk about it but lets just say it resulted in some emergency midnight carpentry that resulted in that cage having a drop down door in the end also.

[vanderkm]

Our few custom enclosures use hinged doors that lift up to open - each door hooks to the cage above it to hold it up when it is open. We like this system because it leaves the full front of the cage open - easier to manipulate large hondurans and easier to clean. Have been considering going to sliding doors if purchasing some custom cages,

mary v.

[GORDO]

I use the hinged single flip up door system myself.I find it gives you better access to the cage,and when it comes time to clean you don't have the door in your way.I haven't had a snake get out yet,and none of yhem have been harmed useing this system.

Gord L.

[Edwin]

I prefer sliding glass myself. It is more space efficient, as there are no doors to swing out, which may catch on something. Depending on the depth of the cage, with the door on the floor, it is hindrance during cleaning. I also have a concern with the door hinges on the bottom; I would be worried that I may accidentally pinch my snakes when opening or closing. Also the door system doesnt really promote stacking.

The benefits of the door system that I can think of is that you have full access to the cage, but this can be easily duplicated by simply removing the sliding glass. Another benefit is that there is no track for substrate and poo to get caught in.

For me, I think the choice of method would boil down to the type of caging. For bigger caging or stackable cages, I would definitely go for sliding glass, but I can see the benefits of using the door for narrow, tall cages using sliding glass would not make sense.

Just my thoughts.

[Linds]

I use double drop down down doors (with dual barrel-bolt locks) on most of my cages. I like the safety of being able to keep one side of the cage closed, instead of opening the whole front, especially for feeding.

I don't like sliding doors. Sometimes they 'stick' in the tracks when they try to open, and I've had some bad experiences with the tracks coming loose before. I was unable to silicone them back in place either, as I had a gravid boa inside that couldn't be moved. I just don't trust that type of security with larger animals. The last thing I need is something getting out and eating my cat :rolleyes:

Below is a pic of 4 of my 4' cages stacked.
<img src="http://www.ssnakess.com/photopost/data/504/22cages-finished.jpg">

Edwin,
Curious as to why you say they don't promote stacking? Everything I have is stacked along aisles in my room, quite tightly I might add (actually I had to stand outside my room to take the pic above, and the aisle behind I usually shimmy sideways down). In fact, I remember a major problem with larger vision cages was when they were stacked, the weight eventually caused the slightest (invisible to the eye) bows in the caging and the sliding doors wouldn't open. This can easily happen with any large, stacked cages, since wood does change slightly over time.

[joey]

Very impressive set-ups.

Tony-- Very nice work. Your enclosures are beautiful!

Linds--I really like your housing too. Were they easy/difficult to build? hmmm...you guys are making my head spin with ideas.

Thank you again for such excellent information!

[CHRISANDBOIDS14]

I prefer 1 piece doors for all the afformentioned reasons, also, when dealing with bloods and most large boids, you have better access and maneuverability with a big entrance. With sliding glass, normally there is half of the entrance covered, and you have a smaller access area. Just my thoughts.

C.

[Linds]

Joey,
They were quite simple to build, and worked out to cost around $85 CDN each :cool:

[blackmatch]

For this cage i feel that a door would be to big and awkward ( top is 78x24x24)so i used sliding glass. Stuff gets in the tracks but i never find it makes a problem with the doors opening. I like the sliding glass but when i make more cages i will go with full door for instant full access of cleaning and maintenance.
http://members.shaw.ca/blackmatch1/IMGP0407.JPG

[Stav.T]

My point of view.....

I've had both types and both types are good it all depends on your own taste.

I use sliding doors for 2 reasons :

1) when i feed a 8 foot hungry and fast boa in a cage that the door opens right in my face I prefer having a sliding door. That way i can open one side and stick the roden in the cage with tongues on the other side. I had some really awfull close calls with some fast & crazy boas.

2) with full doors you expose yourself much more than sliding doors ( only my taste....) I dont like it when the door of the cage opens and hits the other glass door of the cage below. I broke a cpl doors like that way with some nasty boas. This shouldent happen with plexiglass doors thought. ( i never had plexiglass doors )

Both ways are great. Again its only a matter of taste.

Stav

[Jeff_Favelle]

I'm with Stav. I have a few dozen of both kinds in use.

[spiderlovebites]

This thread is really helpful, and I think it should be made into a sticky. Its nice to see all the different cages so that a newbie like me can see what works and what doesn't. I don't have any snakes yet, but when I do have them I'm glad to see what all is available and what works. :)

[Cake]

Personally i use a full door that is hinged to open up. I have it on a 48x24x24 enclosure right now for my coastal and do not have a problem. the second phase to my enclosure is a 48x24x24 section that will form an L shape when attached. Its door to the left and is also a single pane. this L design allows you to stack cages on top of one another, and gives your semi arboreal species a place to climb as well as hide out on the ground, while maximizing space use.

I do not however use glass. I use lucite. The lucite i find has a little more give to it than glass. It is a litte more flexable however around the edges, but if you mount a 1/2inch moulding to the outer edge of the pane it gives it the rigidity neccessary. It is much easier to work with and is extremely light.

[wetlander]

I use double hinged doors since I'm not worried about space and I wanted the cage to look more like furniture. The first photo shows the 3 cage unit, and the second shows one of the doors open. I like having 2 doors/cage as it allows me to get into the cage frome the side the snake is not in. The unit used to have 2 cages, but I decided to install a third unit.

http://www.ssnakess.com/photopost/data/504/625Cage_1-med.jpg

http://www.ssnakess.com/photopost/data/504/625cage_2-med.jpg

Doug

[wetlander]

Oh BTW check out the cat in the bottom left hand side of the photo....thinking about going into the cage?... 7.5 foot boa... not a good idea

[MouseKilla]

On the next episode of "ANIMAL FACE-OFF"!

Oh, and if you want that cat to get eaten it's much easier if you put rat urine on it first. That's how I do it anyway. LOL

[McCarthy Boas]

I like sliding doors over hinged doors.

1: Sliding doors give a cleaner look in my opinion.
2: I like having the option to have half the door open or if need be the glass is very easy to remove and you have full access to the cage.
3: With cages that are stacked on top of each other the doors don't get in the way if you have more than one cage open.

http://www.mccarthyboas.com/3cagepicHighRes.JPG

http://www.mccarthyboas.com/TomInCage01.JPG

http://www.mccarthyboas.com/ShannonCage04_28_2003_03.JPG

http://www.mccarthyboas.com/ArborealCage06.JPG

http://www.mccarthyboas.com/07_2003AcyrilcSnakeCage02Black.JPG

http://www.mccarthyboas.com/BetsyAcyrilcSnakeCage02.JPG

Take care
Tom

[CDN-Cresties]

That BP enclosure is SWEET but the other enclosures are great too. I would go with sliding doors.

[BOAS_N_PYTHONS]

TOM:

Love those cages alot, nice work indeed put into them.

The one your laying perfect place to hide when in trouble with the wife, lol.

Thanks for posts the photos.

Cya...

Tony

[MouseKilla]

Wow! Those plastic cages are sweet!!! I like the look of the wooden ones too but those bulbs look a little scary to me.

I think I agree that sliding glass is a little nicer to look at, it's a little more open I guess but I still find them less convenient. I don't want to take the glass out, try to put it somewhere I won't break it then have to put it back in later. I don't get along with glass very well so maybe that's just me. lol!

Double doors will also allow you to only open half the cage if you are feeding a nutty snake. I would much rather move a crazy, bitey snake in and out of a cage with doors I can shut quickly than to be fumbling with two pieces of glass while trying to find the tracks and hopefully not getting bitten. The alternative to taking the glass out is trying to force the same snake through an opening half as wide... I don't know.

I'm not sure how doors get in the way either because I don't have more than one cage open at a time. It's a habit I made after forgetting to close a couple of cages. I don't think it's a great idea to have more than one big snake's cage open at the same time when there is the scent of food in the air either and I can't think of any other time when it would make sense to get into several cages at the same time.

[nguyen_inc]

McCarthy Boas: the picture with you im guessing in the cage is so funnny! I was laughing for some reason for a minute....

[McCarthy Boas]

Hi Tony & John

I should have made a way to get out from the inside for when the wife locks me in the cage. LOL :)
I should have never gave her a set of keys for the cages. ;)

Take care
Tom

[rwg]

I like my glass sliders for many reasons, but I may be switching to hinges with the next batch. The reason is, one of my cages has a little friction between the glass plates. Three times I have had escapes from that cage. The first two times it was because the display case lock (between the panes) caused enough friction to drag the other plate an inch or so when closing the cage without me noticing. The third time after I removed the lock, I have no idea why there should have been any friction between the plates, but my wife pointed out the 1 inch gap, and the search was on for Phoebe. Maybe some aspen chips between the panes. Dunno.

rg