Animal Plastics

so looking between boaphile, vision, and animal plastics and AP seems more reasonable. anyone own one for a ball? if so which model? how does it hold temps? i plan on buying 4 so wanted to make sure they are good before i purchase. also do they stack/lock to each other? thanks

I am housing my ball pythons in the 1756 and 1860 Sterilite racks. They hold heat and humidity well. I am very pleased with them.

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Originally Posted by MPenn

I am housing my ball pythons in the 1756 and 1860 Sterilite racks. They hold heat and humidity well. I am very pleased with them.

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wow that 1756 looks pretty nice. for the price of 1 cage i can get a rack for 7. i had a rack, they house alot compared to cages, but i like the display factor as well. i can SAY im only getting 4 more ball pythons, but i know thats a lie:P

I just got my boaphile and its worth the wait. Calling Jeff is key. He made an awesome point with his product, not 100% sure but others did confirm it aswell. You can read it yourself to better understand. Im not good at explaining things...

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Originally Posted by The_Boaphile

The racks are specifically made to carry our cages. I do not know if APs cages will fit on our racks or not. If those cages leak, they will leak onto our racks and I don't recommend that.



Our cages don't leak because they are fully assembled and welded/glued. Leakage is yucky. I just moved all the cages from nine stacks of Boaphiles to put racks under them. Most of those stacks have been housing Boas continuously for more than seven years. Not one stain or even hint of any leak whatsoever between those cages. Not one. That's one of the big advantages of cages are are not screwed together. About half of these cages are made with just 1/8" thick material too. They function exactly as they did the day I stacked them up. No pinching of doors at all. They don't look brand new any more. Especially the doors that are scratched up now but they work very well and have hosted many many Boas and seen thousands new lives begin in them. Great fun!



The pedestal racks are sturdy enough to hold our cages and whatever you want to put into them. The cages are not engineered to hold up the racks though, so that won't work. Generally heavier more solid products should go on the bottom. That is how we designed it and built everything.



Thanks for all the great feedback and wonderful thoughtful questions! You kids are out there thinking about it that is for sure!

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Originally Posted by The_Boaphile

The problem is nothing sticks to PVC except glue. PVC glue that is. Using it is tricky and we have mastered it here. That is what we use to glue/weld/seal all the cages we build. The other guys that make cages from PVC could do the same thing but for reasons that are unknown to me, they do not. Silicone or any other typical sealant will not stick to PVC or other plastics. After curing it will just pull right off. That's why the "other" cages leak. All cages that are screwed together leak if they can't be properly sealed and no plastic can be sealed except by gluing. HDPE and Polypropylene can't even be glued. They are chemically resistant to everything except heat welding. Heat welding will work but must be a complete total seal to avoid leakage. I don't think anyone does that. That's too time consuming and expensive. So for cages that don't leak, you need either a Boaphile or a mold type cage like Vision Cages. Of course there are still aquariums but yuck!



Ten years ago I moved from one house to our new facility. I had about 500 Boas at that time and had more than 100 large 4' cages. 60- 4' x 2.5' x 18" tall cages with shelves and 54- 4' x 2' x 12" tall cages. These were all melamine. These were 3/4" melamine. I "hired" one good friend and two buds I worked with. I paid them well but, after a very long day of moving these tremendously heavy cages full of Boas, they were all just about dead. Both from the heavy work and the stink! I do mean stink! The urine had leaked from one cage down to the cage below and sort of settled on the top of that cage actually kind of gluing some of the cages together. They were sticking to each other not really like glue but yuck! The fluids just sat there festering. I did not smell this until the day we moved. It was unbelievable! A horrible stink!!! I can't overstate how bad that was. That is what happens to cages that CAN'T be sealed perfectly.



The two distinct horrors we encountered were the stink and the back breaking labor that moving was. Now last weekend, my delicate daughter and I moved stacks and stacks of 421D cages outdoors, moved in the new pedestal/racks, and restacked the cages. There was absolutely no stink. None. No leaks, not one. Half of these cages are 7 1/2 years old and built using 1/8" plastic vs. the 1/4" thick material we use today. The new cages weight 25 lbs. The first ones only weighed about 20 lbs. We used 1/2" material for the ends and face at that time. A slightly different style. More complicated and less sleek but still performing like the day I set them up more than seven years ago. Since the cages only weigh 25 lbs. each the work was so easy. The melamine cages we moved weighed more like 80 lbs. and up to over 100 lbs. for the cages with shelves, plus the snakes!



Thankfully! Those days are gone!!!

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I dont want to sound bias by that either. I just wanted to give you some input before you spend that much money. I love ap's too, their awesome. Its your hard earned money and you sould get all the input or advice before you buy it. I wish I have an advice box everytime I bought something. :oops:

Good luck what ever you do.

I have AP, Boaphile, Neil Golli/Reptile Basics, and Herp Enclosures. All have advantages. For me it comes down to the person I'm buying from, how quickly they can ship and cost. Are they giving me good customer service? Can they ship in a reasonable time? Do they actually meet their projected shipping deadlines?

I personally wouldn't buy from Boaphile again because it took soooo long to get my juvi rack (15 Drawer Clear Sweater Box RhinoRaXX). Then I had some problems with the fit of the tubs (they were too tall for the space). Others I know have had great experiences with them . . . . maybe I just hit a bad time.

I get great customer service from AP, Neil Golli and Rich at Herp Enclosures. All are great people to work with and depending on your need, can usually get you set up pretty quickly.

i really like boaphile cage "looks". to me they are like a cadillac in herp cages :P i really like cages cause i like visually looking at my snakes, and as long as its holding temps/humidity fine then im happy. but on the other hand theres the $$$$ for 1 AP sterilite rack @ 200+ i can hold 7 snakes. for 1 cage its like 200+ for 1 snake... more economical i guess. i had a homemade rack before but my wood working skills suck! i dont even have a jig saw or band saw. AP seems like the most reasonable price. Your comments have indicated 2 that AP has best customer service which is a ++. so my decision is going to be on a AP rack i guess. 1756 or 1860? all the way to adult size? will 1756 be big enough for a ball for maturity *females*? i had a rack but it was cb-70 iris tubs, and that was a nice size. never dealt with sterilite. also with those racks, i see the option belly heat. will they apply flexx watt to all bins of the rack?

i do like getting Personal experience from others before i buy. i aint rich.....yet :P father of 2 and a wife and the army doesnt pay all that well. :) so i have to think wisely. i can go to any of their sites, and they ALL say ... We are the best! i rather get it from the customers mouth. anyone can post pics of their AP rack setup? im convincing wife that it will save me money and she would like to see the pics. i was going to spend 1000+ on a cage system setup from boaphile but with a kid on the way a rack would help with space.

thanks for all the comments. really helps before i spend any of my money. hate blowing it on something that breaks down in a year and is just awful!

I'm happy with my AP racks...I have a 1756 and 2 900 racks.

The cages were OK. After disassembling and selling two T3 cages that I had, I could relate to the issue of urine and fecal material getting into the seams and smelling bad. I cleaned them 3-4 times after they were disassmbled to avoid the embarrassment of sending someone a used cage smelling like that. And even then it never really came out completely.

While boaphile might be a good product, I still think its rediculous for a vendor to take payment and then deliver an order 2-3 months later...just not very professional IMO.

I was going to order from boaphile, then after waiting several weeks decided to cancel my order. I looked at AP, but the fact that the bins aren't included, and they wanted me to pay shipping too. I ended up going with Reptile Basics, because they are shipped constructed, with tubs, and shipping is free. For basically the same price as AP you're getting tubs and shipping included, and by far the best customer service experience I had dealing with any of the three.

I had an AP T-11. Nice cage, a bit big for a bp but it did the job.
I used the silcone they sent me and sealed all insides where there were joints and it never leaked or smelled. I laid a nice thick bead along the seams. Anyway I had the heatcable just on the hot side and still had to use heat lamps to keep the temps up and then of course that killed the humidity. I eventually got it all fine tuned but it was way to much work to maintain. I was into the whole display deal also but w/ bp's all you are really displaying is hides and cage decorations :). If I was to do that again I would have heat cable on the hot and on the cold and set up two Helix's, one each side.
I since purchased a Boaphile rack and I really like it. No problems, It took me about 5 weeks to get it and anytime I needed to speak w/ Jeff I just left a message and he called me back that evening.
I got a good look at Herp Enclosures at the show Sat. and they are very nice racks. And I have spoken w/ Rich from there and he is a great guy to work w/. I had a rack all planned and set up a way I wanted but had to cancel due to some other things coming up. I plan on getting that rack after the first of the year and I will buy from Herp Enclosures.
Do yourself a favor and check them out and give them a call. You will be glad you did.