I have NO idea where to start on this.

[tyxisxrad]

First off, I'm Ty. I never posted here before, so yeah. I have two young BP's atm that I had for less than a month, but I plan on getting 678,345,938,746 more tomorrow Anyways.

I only have a 20gal. terrarium starter kit that I bought at Petco when I got my first snake, and now my friend had to give hers away so I said I'd take it. They are around the same size, and are both eating great but I don't want to house them together much longer.

So I want to build a 3 level, 7 tank display. Here is an example, http://www.cagesbydesign.com/p-213-h...-h3-combo.aspx, but I do NOT need something that grand. I basically just need two 30gal equivalent enclosures (wood on all sides except with glass doors on hinge) on the top and bottom, and three 10gal equivalent enclosures in the middle for my future geckos.

I know its easier said than done, but I have a lot of time to finish this before I get more reptiles. As I said, I only have two BP's right now so I have a lot of time to finish all of it. I can get wood for a very low price, so I'm good there.

I have some questions.
1) What type of wood is safe for my BP's as well as Geckos?
2) How would I go about getting lights for the top of each enclosure for day and night viewing (not heat, I will use undertank pads)?
3) What is the ABSOLUTE cheapest heating system I can put in that adjusts all enclosures appropriately? I can get the wood/building materials cheap, but I have limited money available for lighting/heating.
4) My dad is a taxidermist and makes fake rock displays out of some material, so he will make me custom hides and water dishes, but how can I make sure the material won't harm the animals?
5) Do I sound crazy?

I have less than a months experience dealing with ANY reptile, so I don't know a lot and am ignorant in some subjects. If there is anything I said that you don't agree with or can be made better, PLEASE tell me. I need to learn all I can. Also, this may be jumbled up, and if you don't understand something just ask me to clarify

[akaprincesssophia]

i cnt really give much advice on the stuff ur trying to build and what materials but i can tell u from my experience that building ur cages out of wooden boards will give u problems with keeping the humidity up. i built a a pretty big tank (about a 50 gal in size) so im not sure if u would have the same problem if u build smaller ones, se if u can find a better alternative for ur tanks then building ones out of wood and just build a nice rack for them. hope this kinda helps

[tyxisxrad]

Well I was going to cover the wood with like glass, so they wont actually be in contact with the wood. I also just do not like racks. But thanks for responding! No one else did :p

[JenEric Reptiles]

Here is my simple setup... I got
off craigslist and gonna modify a bit to take out original lighting... Put in my own lighting and heat tape...and decorations...I spent 250 on the tanks...with locks and everything... Figure heat tape light and decorations and thermostat bout 300-4oo and some wood.. So total 600...
I think you could do it yourself for around that too.... The tanks I have are 2-20 gal,4-10 gal,4-5gal not pretty yet but in a dew months it will look just as nice...

I am keeping leopard geckos,Kenyan sand boas,a tortise,and a childrens python in it soon to have some beardies and crested geckos...
I keep all my bps in a seperate climate controlled room this case is just for my personal enjoyment... And relaxation....

[Ash]

I'm no builder, but I can try to answer a few of your questions. I've thought about doing something like this before so I've read quite a bit about it.


1) I've heard cedar and pine are not good woods to have around reptiles (in the form of bedding, anyway). Just to be on the safe side, I would avoid them. The oils in them can be poisonous and it's better to be safe than sorry. Basically, it's best to avoid 'soft' woods. (I might sound like a noob for saying this. I'm not sure if those woods are even used in construction much. Oh well, I try. )

2) For lighting, I would use those long flourescent-type bulbs. I have a cage from boaphile and it came with a light just like that, it's really handy and it looks great. You can generally buy them in any pet store for pretty cheap. Looks like this: http://www.bitsforpets.com/images/zo...ight-image.jpg and it shouldn't be hard to find the housing at a pet store or a website that sells the lights, try zoomed.com.
3) For heating, I would go for some plain old heat tape or heat rope, that's probably the cheapest thing you'll be able to get in the quantity you need.

Flexwatt heat tape: http://www.bigappleherp.com/Flex-Watt-Heat-Tape
at the bottom of this page, heat rope: http://www.reptiledepot.com/ut_heaters.html

Do some looking around and see what you can find for cheap. By the way, if you use this, you'll need a thermostat to control the temperature. These people are my favorite: http://www.spyderrobotics.com/products/herpstatpro.html
and you can look at zoomed as well.

4) As far as home-made decorations go, I think as long as there aren't any toxic, 'fume-y' substances involved in its construction and as long as there aren't any sharp edges, it should be fine. My brother made me a snake hide out of clay with some felt glued to the bottom for grip, and he painted it and glazed it. My snake's been using it for well over a year and he's fine, just wash it off to be sure nothing toxic is left on there.

Lastly, I think you should definitely check this site out, I think it's right up your ally: http://www.arbreptiles.com/cages/tips.shtml

:-D Have fun!

[zeke]

Melamine is the best stuff to use. after the cage is built seal all seams with 100% silicone GE makes one. as for lights use something that does not give off heat or it will mess with your temp and humidity. I just built a unit and it has belly heat for the BP's I did not put lights in it b/c it gets lots of day light.
I have seen some peple use LED lights and the rope lights too. they come in red so if you have them on at night they will not effect the BP.

hope that helped you, if ya got more questions i'd be glad to help where I can, so jus drop me aline.


Cheers

[zeke]

you goin for something like this?



doors are plexi and hinge down. ment to put this in the first post.

[OhhWatALoser]

1) Stay away from pine and cedar as stated above, your going to have to protect the wood form moisture for obvious reasons, melamine is the easiest way around that, since is already covered. just cualk up the joints.

2) Since ball pythons do not need anything special, get a light bulb socket from the hardware store and put a daytime CFL in it. for night time viewing i use black light on a switch, no need to leave it on all night, waste of energy.

3) Flexwatt, if you can't soder, they have heat pads you can buy. just don't use lightbulbs or che, they suck up too much humidity. not that you can't get them to work, just flexwatt is easier imo. also don't stick it directly in the cage, most people put vinyl flooring over it or something along those lines.

4) make sure w/e it is isn't outgassing, bout it. common sense, no sharp edges, small holes to get stuck in, ect.

5) your on bp.net... so you must be, atleast a little bit.