Cage Poll WITH Poll

[mrmertz]

Sorry for dual post...thread closed before I could post poll!

Pardon me if this is redundant...

...the wife and I started with Humphrey, our BP. That was to be it.

Then came Gopher our RTB, then we picked up Mr. Biggles at the Tucson Reptile Expo (our Colombian Boa), a yet-to-be-named Cali Kingsnake and the latest will be a 2009 Blood from Kara at Bloodpythons.com. We WILL top our collection off at six snakes.

We have Exo's right now but the rack we have to sit the tanks on take up considerable room as compared to some of the stackable cages I have seen. Please keep in mind with the poll that we use a natural setting in our tanks (mixed substrate for humidity, climbing vines/logs, artificial plants, etc.) so this is a given. This will carry over to the new tanks/cages. I have seen pics on here of some AP units with natural settings and they look good BUT - the one thing that doesn't sell me on AP is that they are not one piece from what I understand. Just comparing the construction between AP and say, Boaphileplastics (which are one piece construction, correct?). To sum it up we are looking for stackable cages that will contain natural settings in them, interior lighting and controlled belly heat.

Putting money aside, vote for overall satisfaction - particularly quality and options.

Thanks again people!
Jeff aka mrmertz

[Argentra]

I'm biased, since I build cages myself. It's cheaper, more fun, and can look a lot more 'natural'. And they can be built to specifications of size.

[DutchHerp]

Animal Plastics.

-Very sturdy (1/2" plastic thick)
-Holds heat and humidity well
-Looks good
-Customize orders
-Excellent customer service
-Easy to clean

[Christina]

Yeah, totally go with animal plastics. They rock! I especially like their belly heat option, which is encased in the plastic, so you don't have to worry about getting exposed wires or anything. Nice sturdy cables for that. I personally like the swinging doors. And the lock option is verrrrry nice with little kids running around. or drunk/plain dumb friends....super sturdy as well. My first real tank, and I'm always going to buy from them.

Don't worry about the construction portion of it. It's not really that bad. (if I'm remembering correctly) you put the walls in, caulk them (included), let it dry, and screw everything together. Doesn't take that long.

[Soil_Herper]

I'm biased, since I build cages myself. It's cheaper, more fun, and can look a lot more 'natural'. And they can be built to specifications of size.

This...I'm starting one this weekend. Can't wait!

[SugarFox03]

I have only purchased one rack brand new, and that was from Boaphile. I do own an Animal Plastics and a Reptile Basics rack, both of which I purchased second hand.

With that info out of the way, I would not hesitate to buy ANY of these brands again, they are all great...but I voted for Boaphile, because it was just so easy and it's the only brand that I have first-hand knowledge about their service. Tubs & belly heat included, price was reasonable and the service was top notch. I cannot vouch for the service from the other brands, but I have heard only good things about them as well.

[loperm]

Animal Plastics.

-Very sturdy (1/2" plastic thick)
-Holds heat and humidity well
-Looks good
-Customize orders
-Excellent customer service
-Easy to clean

thats what I use.

[Denial]

Ive used animal plastics and vision cages as stackable enclosures and theres pros and cons for both type cages.

Visions are very lightweight you should be able to move a 6 foot vision enclsoure by yourself. But they are not meant to be stacked directly on top of each other. They will eventually start to sag and bow out. You also have to rig them to hold heat and humidity in them right. I completly close off all air vents on them to get the humidity at the right levels.

Animal plastics look nice and stack well on each other. THey also hold heat and humidity in very well. The only thing I did not like about ap cages and this is wasnt even that big of a deal its just something extra you have to do. Once you get in there and scrap urates off the floors and give it a good cleaning the cages will start to leak no matter how well you sealed it. I had to reseal mine every couple of weeks or the urine would seep through bottom and the smell was horrible. But as long as you reseal often that shouldnt be a problem. If you do go with ap I would also suggest heattape or rhp. I had there cable heat and have there cable heat in my rack from them and I do not like it all

Boaphile
I do not have a boaphile cage but I have a rack from them that I bought used and its very well built I actually like it more then my animal plastics rack it seems more sturdy.

Boamaster
Also a great cage company I have one of there racks (its extremely heavy) there old cages were extremely HEAVY and I was not a fan of them but mark has started producing plastic cages now and can build any size you would like and they resemble ap cages

If you get into large snakes theres a new cage company called sentec cages and I have not used them personally but they do look like nice enclosures. I however am waiting till there on the market for a while to make sure there is no flaws in them with giant snakes. They also make cb 70 racks

Heres my old ap cages I had the version with swing out plexi doors and I hated the doors I highly suggest the sliding glass doors.


Heres a vision stack

[Egapal]

Well you said the magic words to get me involved "Putting money aside." To copy DutchHerp's format.

Showcase Cages.

-Solid 1 piece molded plastic
-Holds heat and humidity well
-Looks great
-Super easy to clean

If you are willing to put money aside you may like the Showcase cages. I post a pretty detailed review here http://www.ball-pythons.net/viewarti...?articleid=272. I have a few things I can add to this post.

The open area at the top of the cage should be filled with something, newspaper works fine. My ball will climb up there and when I tried to move her up to a large reptile basics hide recently she showed me it was not time yet by crawling up there and waiting wedging into a coil for the day. Once they are up there its very very hard to get them down before they are ready. I switched back to the old hides and she came down as soon as the lights went out for the evening.

The raised area that is designed for a UTH is raised higher than it needs to be. I put some foam board under it to bring the UTH in contact with the plastic. I could probably aluminum tape it up as well but I haven't yet.

The hole for the thermostat probe is on the wrong side. It would make more sense to be on the side where the UTH is going to be.

The Heat lamp areas is complete unused in my setup and thats a negative but it would be great for a bearded dragon or possibly for another snake or lizard. I cover it with some Plexiglas to keep my humidity up.

I only have one so I can not speak to the staking ability but it looks like it would work out great. If money is not a concern I have to say that its absolutely beautiful compared to any other display enclosures I have seen, with the exception of some amazing homemade units.

PM me if you have any questions

[jsmorphs2]

We have had 2 Animal Plastics racks for over a year and they are awesome. EASY EASY EASY to clean and makes checking everyone's cage a breeze. Also we built a melamine rack which was posted by another member (http://ball-pythons.net/forums/showthread.php?t=58302) and it turned out GREAT. Lots of room to add to the collection. Tweeked it a little by adding casters cause it was very heavy.

I have also used Boaphile single cages and they were harder to clean and seemed to be harder to keep the temps up.

With my Burms I had the huge vision cages but my arms are short and I had a hell of a time getting to the back when I did a full cleaning. Had to get a step stool and get all the way in there (of course while no one was home ).

I'll never go back to glass aquariums (had them when I was in high school/first cages). Compared to a rack they were a pain in the butt.