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Building an Enclosure

_Sam_

_Sam_

Kelsey
Hi everyone this is _sam_'s (Kelsey) sister, Katie. She is away in Germany for 2 weeks and I want to suprise her with a little present when she gets home. I want to build a big enclosure for her where she can keep all of her snakes (she has 3..and I'm gonna make 4 cages. So she can get one more snake if she wants!)

Here's what I'm thinking -
jones-cages.jpg

I want there to be 4 stackable cages like the ones above, solid on all sides but clear in the front. Instead of the door opening down, I'll have it open up with locking hinges. The cages will be the size of 40 gallon tanks. It'll be pretty tall, though...especially since both of us are pretty short...is cage height important for snakes? The 40 gallon tank she has now is about 17 inches high, so I'm going on those dimensions...

But what I really need your guys' help on is how to heat it and everything. I don't know much about caring for snakes so help is appreciated! :bird:
 
Here is a step by step guide that I did that may be of some use for you. It's designed as a two unit viv, but could easily be converted to a 4 unit one or 4 single unit ones.

http://www.blueappleherps.com/page13/page5/page5.html

As for heating what I recommend is flexwatt. Get a single piece of 11" flexwatt and wire it up and seal the connections with silicone so that they're water proof. Then lay it down in the cage and cover it with a piece of glass/acrylic/plexiglass/etc and seal that up with silicone so that it's water proof. This gives you double protection in case water is spilled. Then hook it up to your favorite t-stat and you're good to go.
 
What a great sister you are!

One thing I will point out that may be worth thinking about, I had a 4 stack of similar vivs made last year, in two sets of two tanks, 4ft x 18" x 18", and we've found we will need help moving them if we need to, we had to have two strong lads to get them in position to start with, so take into account the weight of the wood that you use, or make them as singles that will stack.

The other thing I've found very useful is a small set of steps, as my Hubby and myself are a bit vertically challenged...lol....I can reach to get the snake out of the top tank and change the water, but cleaning is much easier if I use the steps.

Good luck with the project and I hope you post pics when they're done :)
 
Mathew, excellent set of instructions. Very good.

One important thing to remember is that snakes are short too. They don't require a lot of head room. 17" tall is much more than you need. 12" tall is plenty. Then you could put 7 cages in the same height as 5. Always think more snakes. more snakes. more snakes. more snakes....
 
wade said:
Mathew, excellent set of instructions. Very good.

One important thing to remember is that snakes are short too. They don't require a lot of head room. 17" tall is much more than you need. 12" tall is plenty. Then you could put 7 cages in the same height as 5. Always think more snakes. more snakes. more snakes. more snakes....
Click to expand...

Thanks for the compliment! :)

You're right that they don't need much headroom, but I designed mine to be a "display" viv so that vines, branches, etc could be added to give a neat look. But couldn't agree more that lower cages means more cages which means more snakes!! Which is always a good thing! :grin01:
 
Hey wanted to chime in here and say I can vouch for the plans, I built that two unit viv and it's truly awesome. I have racks, but it's nice to have your best 'show snakes' in that two unit viv in the living room.

Also it's nice for placing junk on top, like an extra little table top.. Great viv!

Only things I did different than Matthew was I didn't spray paint the peg board (wish I had) and I used these cool little plexiglass hinges I got from the plastics guy who sold me my plexi fronts. They are kinda' nice if you can find them cause they glued on and are basically invisible. They are really squeeky though when opening..

I'll actually be making another one soon I think, two more of my guys need to go on 'display'..:grin01:
 
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