my first cage revised

[scottyy]

this is my first cage with some substrate in it. in my opinion it does look better and the aspen was really cheap it took like 10 bucks to fill the entire cage. but thats because i didnt use zoomed i bought some big bag of aspen shaving for like 10 bucks for a huge bag and i bought 3 huge bags and it took less that one bag to fill the whole cage. so i should be good on substrate for a while, but here are a few pics with the substrate in it. hopefully this will help heat the cage as well.

[SkYyaMe1623]

nice retic :)

[scottyy]

thank you. shes a sunfire.

[RegenerationRep]

Cool cage. And snake :P Did you build these? I need something like this for my anaconda and carpets. My bull snake could use a big tank like this too lol

[scottyy]

yea i built the cage. i highly recommend doing it yourself if you have a saw a drill and a caulk gun and wire strippers and the time to do it. the whole cage cost me maybe 250 dollars to about 300. its a lot cheaper than buying one off line and its fairly simple to do. what isnt shown in the pics is the switch on the outside of the cage that controls the light on the inside of the cage. its a pretty nice feature that i would recommend putting in your cages. If you have any questions about building a cage just ask :P

[UwabamiReptiles]

Real nice cage Scottyy and your retic is smokin. How big is the cage? It looks like it has some good size to it.

[RegenerationRep]

I have all of that :) my dads a plumber so I get a lot of stuff for free. We have this plastic board stuff Im going to see if he will let me use it. Thanks!

[scottyy]

well some people may argue here or have a different opinion but the cage is only 6'x3'x2' (it probably looks big because she is only 6 1/2 feet but i just wanted to get her permanent cage built while i had the money to) but before anybody says too much in my defense bob clark keeps his retics in the same size cage and some of his are 20 plus feet long. and regeneration if you go with melamine i would say go to menards because i paid 27 dollars for a 3/4 inch thick 8'x4' piece of melamine and it was 38 dollars a sheet at lowes!!! i spent only about 110 on the wood and screws are fairly cheap i think i used like 1 1/4 inch drywall screws. also you will want to buy some melamine edging and u will need a clothing iron to properly put that on.

[millertime89]

mainland?
I love me some retic

[scottyy]

idk lol all i know is that she is a sunfire and most of the people i been talking with say she wont reach much past 16 of 17 feet, but she is kind of growing differently than what people say that retics grow. instead of putting on serious length and then girth she is kind of doing both at the same time. i have had her for around 6 months now and she grew 3 feet and then put on some girth so she is growing a little bit slower than what i've read online about retics.

[RegenerationRep]

The stuff I plan to use is like 1/4 inch thick and probably like 7 or 8 feet long. Deff. have enough to make a cage with. I haven't thought of the dimensions yet though. I will have to build a wood frame first and then screw the plastic onto it, so it shouldn't be to hard. I also plan on putting in some shelves for the carpets to get up onto and bask.

[scottyy]

sounds like a plan to start with but and 8'x4' sheet will go fast idk much bout carpet pythons but i would imagine they would need maybe a 4'x4'x4' cage or something like that.

[RegenerationRep]

Yeah probably will have to get another sheet. 2 sides will be plexi, the top and front.

[DeesBalls]

very nice looking cage. i just got done building one and started another one, im addicted to snakes, and building cages. lol. how did you get your doors? sliding, opening ect...????

[spots]

very nice looking cage. i just got done building one and started another one, im addicted to snakes, and building cages. lol. how did you get your doors? sliding, opening ect...????
This is where I got mine. Type in show case hardware in the search at the top of the page.
Same here, as a carpenter i very much enjoy building these Viv's, I also have one the very same as this one for my daughter bearded dragon.


http://i549.photobucket.com/albums/ii396/Jlangan1/IMG_8846.jpg

[scottyy]

very nice looking cage. i just got done building one and started another one, im addicted to snakes, and building cages. lol. how did you get your doors? sliding, opening ect...????

i used a wooden track made from extra pieces of melamine. and use l brackets to hold it in there and for extra support. i tried aluminum track but found out that glass did not slide very well on it and then decided a wooden track would be about the only thing i could do. i found a place that had sliding tracks but it was 10 bucks a foot for top and bottom and didnt want to spent 60 bucks on a track. and when i came to ask questions on here nobody knew where to get such a thing. but i see now that spots knows where to get it lol

[Jenn_06]

Nice cage scottyy , we got done with a cage about 2 weeks ago for my sav and now planing out 4 more cages for my big girls(well soon to to be big) they are going to be 8x3x20in and will be taking up my one side of my snake room.

[scottyy]

yea i hate that the cages take so much room but i love having a big snake around

[DeesBalls]

i used a wooden track made from extra pieces of melamine. and use l brackets to hold it in there and for extra support. i tried aluminum track but found out that glass did not slide very well on it and then decided a wooden track would be about the only thing i could do. i found a place that had sliding tracks but it was 10 bucks a foot for top and bottom and didnt want to spent 60 bucks on a track. and when i came to ask questions on here nobody knew where to get such a thing. but i see now that spots knows where to get it lol

did you make this track?

im going to try something i have been reading about for my small cages, i hope it works.. lol

[scottyy]

yea i made the track myself it isnt really complex or anything. would u like come close up pics of the track?

[mattlawdi]

i really would like to see those look up track pics !! cause i planning on building another viv :) thx matt

[scottyy]

basically the top and bottom just sandwiches the glass into place. not very hard to do. if i can do it anybody can. the pieces of wood just run the length of the cage and are about 2 inches tall. except the inside bottom piece is 4 inches tall so i can hold the substrate in the cage.