Delusions of doing it myself.

[rdrock]

My wife just adopted our first Boa, a 4 year old, 8 foot female, and quite friendly creature. In brief I have a fantasy of building a cage for our new family member as the one she came with is only a 55 gal. terrarium. The question I have is can anyone advise me on the best/economical materials for a L60xD24xH18 inch.
Would anyone have advise for or against building such a thing? Would I really be better off buying something painfully expensive rather than a do it myself project?

The goal of course is to provide the best possible home for our Boa at the least expense.

Any suggestions?
Thank you.

[surfimp]

Hey now! First of all, congratulations to you for caring enough about your new "baby" to want to provide her with the very best!

That said, it's my personal opinion that a 60" long x 24" deep by 18" tall cage is too small for an 8' boa. It may be considered minimally sufficient depending upon who you talk to, but I'm sure she'd be happier in a bigger space, if you can provide one for her. Remember, we don't just want them to survive, we want them to thrive! :) I'd recommend 72" - 96" long x 24" - 30" deep x 18" - 24" tall.

The upside of a larger enclosure is that you may get to see her perform more behaviours than just the "curl up and pretend I'm a rock" routine. And, if you're going to build the cage yourself, you might even be able to make more efficient use of your building materials (i.e. less unused cutoff waste) by building a larger enclosure. Just some food for thought. Get a piece of paper and draw out a couple 4' x 8' sheets of building material, and then doodle and noodle on it! :)

Now, as regards building her an enclosure, the question of doing it yourself vs. purchasing a cage is always a personal one. What I can tell you, based upon what research I've done, is that most people who build a cage themselves do not always end up saving a huge amount of money vs. buying a prebuilt cage. Quality materials are not cheap, and because you'll only be building one cage, you're not going to get any benefit from buying materials in bulk as a cage manufacturer would (unless you're a contractor or something, which you may be). Also, building a quality, escape-proof cage requires a decent amount of skill--it's basically like building a nice cabinet, more or less.

That said, the most common materials I've seen used for a home-built cage are generally melamine and some form of treated (or painted) plywood. The main issue you run into with whatever you build your cage out of is that the cage is going to be a relatively high humidity environment, and you have to build it to withstand the same. You also have to build it out of materials that are not going to be toxic to the animal inside. Balancing both of those issues can get a bit tricky.

Melamine is basically a plastic-faced particleboard, and while the plastic facing seems to be very water and humidity resistant, you have to be really careful with edges (which are unfinished), because if water gets in there, over time the cage will start to fall apart. What I've seen recommended to combat this is to carefully seal all interior seams with silicon caulk. And remember to seal around the edges of whatever vents you put in, as well!

Next up you need to decide on a door system. Many people seem to use little window tracks or similar if they're building a sliding-glass type of door, others build a frame around their glass and do a fold-out or down arrangement. Again, the complexity of your arrangement will be driven primarily by what you can accomplish with your building skill, and the budget that you need to stick to. The only "must-have" requirement is that the cage is escape-proof for a powerful 8' boa :)

As far as heating the cage goes, I guess it depends to a great extent upon how much you want to try to recycle whatever heating equipment you've already got. If you don't have a thermostat yet, PLEASE buy one. It'll help you get the kind of finite control over your enclosure's environment that is pretty hard to obtain otherwise. Helix Controls and Big Apple Herpetological both make thermostats that are highly regarded by everyone I've seen with them.

Good heating equipment to use: Flexwatt, CHE - ceramic heat emitters (with protective mesh guard to prevent burns), radiant heat panels, human heating pads (be careful--do not use these without a thermostat), and incadescent bulbs. Hot rocks are definitely no good, due to hot spots that can reportedly reach 130 F+. You don't need your snake lying around on something like that!

You may also find that, in order to maintain proper cage temperatures, you may need to place the cage in a heated room (either by your home's heating or by a small space heater). Shoot for no less than a 78 F ambient (cold side of the cage) at night, and around an 82 - 84 F ambient (cold side of the cage) during the day, with a "hot spot" that's got about a 90 - 95 F surface temperature (aids in digestion of meals). 60%+ humidity is great, you can accomplish this using a large water bowl over your heating source, or else by misting with a little spray bottle as needed.

At this point you're probably thinking, "Geezuz, this is gonna cost a fortune!" Well, I can tell you what, it sure ain't cheap. But most of this stuff lasts a long time, and after all, your snake has a good chance of living at least 15 - 20 years with good husbandry. If you prorate the initial costs out over that timeframe, it's really not so bad. At least that's what I tell myself ;)

So, should you build or buy? I really don't know how to best answer that...I'd estimate that the cost of buying a prebuilt cage of sufficient size and all heating equipment will probably run you about $800 - $1000. If you build it yourself, the heating equipment is still going to run about $200 +/-, and then whatever you can build the cage for will be your savings. (I'm defining heating equipment as a thermostat, a couple digital thermometers, and some Flexwatt--your needs may vary). My really rough guess on the cost of the cage materials would be at least $200, although this is probably on the low side.

My last piece of advice, if you're thinking to build it yourself:

Measure twice, cut once!!! ;)

[surfimp]

One other thing: here's a link to John Hollister's site, which contains a lot of good cage building information. Maybe it will help as well:

http://www.herpo.com/cages/cages.html

[Dennis_Gulla]

Take it from someone who has built most of my own cages, BUY one! I have built 7 cages myself out of melamine. I like my cages, they work great, but I had to do a lot of research first, and the cages do get better everytime you make one. With that being said, I will not be making any more cages myself. My cages are 4ft wide x 2ft deep x 16 high, after purchasing all the materials (melamine, plexiglass, silicone, screws, hinges ete, etc....It ends up costing me just under $100 in materials. Now, after making many of these cages I can assemble them much quicker then before, however, it still takes me a few hours. If you have no design, or have never made a cage before, you are going to make a couple of mistakes. Plus it's going to take you longer to put it together. After factoring in the cost of material and time you will soon figure out that you would be better off buying your cage.
I would recommend buying 2 of Jeff's 36in wide x 24in deep x 12 high Drastic Plastic cages. Purchase the option (open end) on each cage. Now you have a 6ft x 2ft x 12in high cage which is plenty big enough for an 8ft boa and it will cost you less then $400 deliverd!!

Just my 02 cents.
Dennis