Lets see your homemade cages!

Captive care and husbandry.

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jayder85
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Lets see your homemade cages!

Post by jayder85 »

I am looking for ideas and designs to make own own display cage or two for a couple large colubrids.
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beanie
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Re: Lets see your homemade cages!

Post by beanie »

We build custom display cages for a living. Here's a few of my favorite ones we have done.

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justinm
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Re: Lets see your homemade cages!

Post by justinm »

Beanie do you ever use any materials other than wood? Wood tends to have issues that I would rather avoid.
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beanie
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Re: Lets see your homemade cages!

Post by beanie »

I'm looking for a reasonable supplier of plastic. The local stuff is so expensive and the more affordable materials cost to much for shipping. We don't use wood most DIYers have access to, so most of the issues of wooden cages of the past aren't present. I have also wrapped the interior and/or interior with Formica. What issues were you speaking of?
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chris_mcmartin
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Re: Lets see your homemade cages!

Post by chris_mcmartin »

Very nice, beanie!
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umop apisdn
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Re: Lets see your homemade cages!

Post by umop apisdn »

Not for large colubrids, or anything other than smallish snakes for that matter, but I just started playing around with cutting glass and making Euro-style terrariums. It's rather fun, though there's a bit of a learning curve. First built a 1 foot cube with sliding glass front, in which I've placed a couple of small Nepenthes plants. I just put together a much larger Euro-style terrarium (18"x18"x25") from 1/4" glass I salvaged. Turned out pretty sweet. I'll have to get some photos soon.
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jayder85
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Re: Lets see your homemade cages!

Post by jayder85 »

Very nice Beani! Well when I say large colubrids I mean a Northern Pine and some large Cornsnakes. I think the Pine especially would look nice in a sandy bottom naturalistic enclosure with a Rhododendron and Piney look to it reminiscent of where they would be found in their old Eastern KY range.
Jimi
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Re: Lets see your homemade cages!

Post by Jimi »

Funny - I started life making my own because I was dirt poor. I built my first in 3rd grade. Eventually I switched to buying all my cages because I had more money ("some") than time ("none"). If you really value your time, and look at the whole exercise as a simple math problem, building your own makes no sense at all. But...it's not just a simple math problem, is it? Now I'm back to making cages, even though it costs plenty (often more) and it takes frigging forever. Especially if you want it to look nice too. But - it's the only way to get exactly what you want - all the features you want and none you don't - and that's not accounted for in the hours and dollars ledger. What's the time and money value of "it just doesn't bug me?" Priceless.

I'm working on a couple of pretty sizeable (~25 cu ft) builds right now, mounted on casters. I'm using hollow-core door slabs to fab up the hulls - I like their 1) size, 2) cost, 3) weight, 4) insulative properties, and 5) straight & square edges in standard lengths and widths. I get super-cheap ones from home-remodel jobs, and also used, or new, at the local Habitat For Humanity "ReStore". But new, full-retail ain't so bad either - roughly $30 a door.

Justin - I hear you. Wood has some serious potential downsides. It also has some upsides, like workability, versatility, and holding heat alright. The issues I think you're talking about (swelling, rot, fecal absorbtion etc yuck-ola) fade into nothingness if you seal - or cover - the wood well, with something you don't need to re-treat and which will stand up well to urates, UV, possibly some abrasion, etc.

I like sheet foam on the inside of my door hulls (laminated & carved into "fake rock"), covered in either 1) grout, 2) epoxy paint, 3) epoxy putty (e.g., MagicSculpt, PolyGem), or 4) Drylok paint. Many wood-based sheet materials weigh a ton, and also offgas some nasty stuff, which are what led me to light, fairly inert hollow doors. On the current builds, I'm going (outside-in) door - caulk & Drylok - carved foam - epoxy putty. Right now I'm about to Drylok. I've thought about doing a build log on these. We'll see...

cheers,
Jimi
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justinm
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Re: Lets see your homemade cages!

Post by justinm »

Beanie,

Jimi has outlined my past issues with wood. I used to keep and breed Tegu's and Bearded Dragons. I would typically just use full sheets of plywood to make large enclosures. The wood would warp over time, rot or just hold on to bad smells from animal waste. I was always too scared to try a sealant as I didn't know if that would have an effect on my animals. I think your enclosures are cool and if I decide to keep lizards or frogs again I'll contact you for sure.
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TeeJay
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Re: Lets see your homemade cages!

Post by TeeJay »

Hey...Thanks for the reminder. I just realized I never posted the pics of the big Fox snake cage I made last year. This was an ongoing project connected to a home-made Fox snake hibernation den I made here 2 years ago:

viewtopic.php?f=35&t=11515

Here's the latest upgrade on the big cage:
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Half inch plywood. 4' x 2' x 18" high.

Image

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Below you can see the hole that connects to the underground hibernation box.

Image

The interior is lined with pexi-glass.

Image

The bottom pieces are sealed with duct tape and clear rubber caulk to make the floor water proof.

Image

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The big cage was done in time for the snakes to emerge in late April. In the pic below there were 2 males and 1 female, which induced a 'combat dance' between the males, and this year they finally mated and the female laid 12 eggs under the water bowl. The eggs were incubated in an ice cream bucket under the red light. (All hatched too!)

Image

The 2 original couple plus another smaller female (another road rescue from last year) are currently sleeping peacefully in the underground chamber. I'll try and post a recent pic later.
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jayder85
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Re: Lets see your homemade cages!

Post by jayder85 »

TeeJay wrote:Hey...Thanks for the reminder. I just realized I never posted the pics of the big Fox snake cage I made last year. This was an ongoing project connected to a home-made Fox snake hibernation den I made here 2 years ago:

viewtopic.php?f=35&t=11515

Here's the latest upgrade on the big cage:
Image

Half inch plywood. 4' x 2' x 18" high.

Image

Image

Below you can see the hole that connects to the underground hibernation box.

Image

The interior is lined with pexi-glass.

Image

The bottom pieces are sealed with duct tape and clear rubber caulk to make the floor water proof.

Image

Image

The big cage was done in time for the snakes to emerge in late April. In the pic below there were 2 males and 1 female, which induced a 'combat dance' between the males, and this year they finally mated and the female laid 12 eggs under the water bowl. The eggs were incubated in an ice cream bucket under the red light. (All hatched too!)

Image

The 2 original couple plus another smaller female (another road rescue from last year) are currently sleeping peacefully in the underground chamber. I'll try and post a recent pic later.
TeeJay,
I remembered the post about the hibernating enclosure for your Fox Snakes. Cool stuff for sure! You enthusiasm and hard work sure pay off!
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justinm
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Re: Lets see your homemade cages!

Post by justinm »

TeeJay, you're making me miss my big old Fox snakes. I had one that got to be really old and his eyes turned gold and then refused to eat. It was an elderly animal. The other I raised from a baby that was found at a dry cleaners on a glue board. I gave him to a nature center to be an educational animal. They're a really awesome captive snake.
Kfen
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Re: Lets see your homemade cages!

Post by Kfen »

I don't have any pics, but I have made some big enclosures for tortoises- both fully enclosed and open top. I've only used wood for the builds. If you keep the overall humidity low, you don't have to seal the sides or top and it will last years. You do still however have to do something to the bottom. One cheap solution that I found is to use linoleum to line the cages with. You can buy leftovers or cheap rolls from big box stores. Then just seal the edges with caulk/silicone.

Other tried and true methods are drylock which was already mentioned. Lots of people use it in dart frog tanks to seal cages and cage furniture. Check out dendroboard.com for some amazing tanks.

Here is link to some safe epoxy paint. It is expensive but I know a few fish people that swear by it (so you know its safe) and it will actually totally waterproof a wooden box.
http://www.aquaticeco.com/subcategories ... s-1-Gallon

Good luck and post some pics of your process.
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regalringneck
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Re: Lets see your homemade cages!

Post by regalringneck »

... and sometimes these projects can get completely outtahand ...

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Kerby Ross
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TeeJay.........

Post by Kerby Ross »

I see you like sawdust in your coffee!

As a taxidermist I quit taking coffee out to the shop. Too much bondo dust and foam dust and paint fumes, etc....

lol

:)

Kerby...
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Kent VanSooy
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Re: Lets see your homemade cages!

Post by Kent VanSooy »

Love the outdoor enclosure! I've dreamed about something like that many times. I'm guessing the top has to be screened, otherwise cats and raptors would have their way with the inhabitants?
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