Caging Questions, Animal Plastics, Reptile Basics...etc.

I have AP cages and couldn't be happier. In all fairness though....I have never seen a RBI or any other cages to compare them to. I prefer the sliding doors because as Crazy4Herps said, you can keep one side closed while feeding. My BP's come flying as soon as they smell rat and i'm pretty sure they would jump right out of the cage if they could. Also, the sliding doors are EASY to take out of the tracks allowing you to clean the cage and the doors easily. The track is a nice smooth plastic and they do not grind when opening. I do recommend a stick-on handle to make sliding the doors easier....(like this...http://www.swisco.com/Clear-Stick-on...ardware/10-005)

As far as the shelf goes...I really don't know enough about BRB's to know if they would use it or not. I know my BP wouldn't.

I have a flourescent light in mine simply to give my snakes a consistant day/night cycle. They know that if the cage is being opened up when that light is off......a rat is on its way.

Assembly of an AP cage is very simply....even easier if you have an extra pair of hands to help you. Customer service is also excellent. Ally is a very nice person to work with and they are very accomodating to custom orders as well.

Good luck with your decision.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Jason Bowden

You should be able to get the shelf in the 17.5 boaphile, but not the 11.5 cage.

If the option isn't available on the site,give Jeff a call.

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It is available for the 17.5 but the wesbite said its $100! I'm already trying to talk myself out of it when it only adds $30 on other sites. haha Great suggestion about the climbing branches....I think I would try to find something suitable that was plastic (so I could bleach it if it started looking moldy). I'm such a clean freak when it comes to the snake cages...maybe I'm worrying too much about cleaning these new cages. haha

Can't go wrong with either RBI or Boaphile. Not a big fan of AP. Avoid repti-racks. That being said there are places you can get custom resin branches that will work well. Or you can just simply run a few pvc pipes from end to end as well.

Thanks again to everyone who offered their opinion/advice! I ended up going with the "Carpet Cage" from Animal Plastics. It's 2x3 and came with a shelf. It's also a little taller than most of the cages, so I'm hoping that will make cleaning easier. It just got here a couple of days ago, and I've been working to get it all set up.

http://i258.photobucket.com/albums/h...1104/Cage1.jpg

My husband is very handy, and he added a light for me (you can't see it in the picture, its along the top) and handles (thanks to lmartelli77 for suggesting adding handles). For the handles, we bought a glass bit ($10) and drilled holes in the doors. This basically let me pick out any handle that I wanted.

I'm going to use it for a month or so before I order my 2nd one. I want to make sure that the BRBs will use the shelf and that I'm happy with the sliding doors.