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heavy duty screen top..

J

jasonrb

New member
Hi guys/gals,
I've recently taken in a black rat snake that someone was going to turn loose (probably to his death) and I've been working on getting him a permanent enclosure.
I just got ahold of a nice 40 gal breeder (36x18x16) but I'm still trying to come up with a solution for the top.
I'm having a hard time finding anything other than the Four Paws/Zilla mesh screen tops. I have a cat that will definitely get on top of the cage and I really don't feel comfortable with something that feels so flimsy supporting her.
What I'm looking for is something like this:
screentop.jpg

But so far I've not had the best luck contacting the guys who run that site (not to mention that top is a tad expensive).
Has anyone seen other similar tops out there (or built one)?

Has anyone reinforced one of the commonly available mesh tops? I was considering cutting thin slats of aluminum/some other metal a few inches wide and epoxying them to the top to hopefully take some of the pressure off the mesh itself.

Any suggestions are welcome!
 
You could always just go get some heavy duty mesh and just epoxy it to the top of the new one rather then using strips. As for heavy duty screens like that I think I have seen something similar at pet stores.
 
Sanebedlam said:
You could always just go get some heavy duty mesh and just epoxy it to the top of the new one rather then using strips. As for heavy duty screens like that I think I have seen something similar at pet stores.
Click to expand...
Ah that may be the easiest solution.. I'm kinda wary about epoxy alone holding 10-12 lbs sitting on top of the screen, am I just being paranoid?
I haven't had any luck at Petco/Petsmart around here for anything other than the cheap mesh ones. If anyone in the DC area knows of better stores please let me know!
 
You could buy the flimsy mesh, then get some mini-legs and fix a studier peice of plexi-glass or something similar over the top. That way you have the ventilation from the mesh, and light and sturdiness from the clear plastic.

Just a suggestion,

All the best

Tom
 
jasonrb said:
Ah that may be the easiest solution.. I'm kinda wary about epoxy alone holding 10-12 lbs sitting on top of the screen, am I just being paranoid?
Click to expand...

I think you're right that might be the easiest way. You can fasten it with wire if you don't like the epoxy idea.
You can go to Lowe's and buy a piece of hardware cloth (heavy,usually galvanized,wire mesh) and cut it a bit smaller than the top.
You can bend under any pointy bits, the light mesh of the original top will protect snakey.
Take some light wire and fasten the meshes together, make sure the wire ends are outside the viv.
 
Why not just put it ON TOP of the lid rather then under it then the epoxy isnt holding the weight and is instead just preventing it from sliding form side to side. Another option is just put the tank on a bookself so the cat cant get ontop of it. You then have to slide it out a bit to get the snake out but it works for me.
 
Sanebedlam said:
Why not just put it ON TOP of the lid rather then under it then the epoxy isnt holding the weight and is instead just preventing it from sliding form side to side. Another option is just put the tank on a bookself so the cat cant get ontop of it. You then have to slide it out a bit to get the snake out but it works for me.
Click to expand...
I don't have a tall bookshelf out of her reach so I can't do that.. but yea I realized I was a dummy not thinking about putting it on top of the screen top.
I ended up ordering a normal four paws screen top from petco.com this afternoon. I went to Lowes looking for something to put on top of that but didn't really find anything that looked suitable. I'm planning to poke around Home Depot and see if they have anything better.
 
BTW, you're not being paranoid. I've had a fat cat actually go through the top of one of those flimsy screen tops. Fortunatly I was home, and the snake and cat were okay, just very surprised.
 
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