Pine plywood?

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Originally Posted by Skiploder

feed in a separate container or your snakes will fart cyanide gas...

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I never blamed it on the snakes.

Pine ply is fine, kiln dried pine is fine. Plywood is heat treated to death so it is completely fine to use. I might suggest looking at Baltic birch as it is stronger and can be used in smaller thickness and at least in my area it is about the same price as fir.

i would suggest not using a wood bottom if you are thinking of UTHs. I would suggest using PVC (not expanded PVC aka PVCx just the plain with ho air bubbles in it) it is warp resistant and strong and also easier to heat through than PVCx and way easier than wood.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Skiploder

Pine is fine, be it bedding or cage material.

Until someone can come on here and actually relate ONE incident in which pine resulted in health issues with THEIR animals, take the talk for what it is - the regurgitation of internet baloney.

I've kept my snakes on pine for over 20 years and many of the breeders that are worshipped by the masses use it and use it in bulk.

The only problem with pine is that a couple of cementheads with no experience and no proof of anything got a lot of mileage out of a couple of articles that said it MIGHT be a problem.

BAM! Before you can say "cloaca" everyone is an expert on how toxic it is.

Every week somebody new to the hobby logs on here and gets bombarded by conflicting "facts" - feed in a separate container or your snakes will fart cyanide gas, ingested substrate kills 100% of the time, pine substrate causes ass rot, people who use aquariums support Hitler, etc. etc.

This crap has been covered 100 times. Pine is fine.

I'm in a real playful mood - so anyone who wants to go a few rounds with me on this, take your best shot.

But read this first:

http://ball-pythons.net/forums/showt...he-Pine-Debate

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:rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl:

I really look forward to your posts.

:D

Quote:

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Originally Posted by kitedemon

Pine ply is fine, kiln dried pine is fine. Plywood is heat treated to death so it is completely fine to use. I might suggest looking at Baltic birch as it is stronger and can be used in smaller thickness and at least in my area it is about the same price as fir.

i would suggest not using a wood bottom if you are thinking of UTHs. I would suggest using PVC (not expanded PVC aka PVCx just the plain with ho air bubbles in it) it is warp resistant and strong and also easier to heat through than PVCx and way easier than wood.

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Home Depot sells a really nice furniture grade Birch plywood that is super light and easy to work with.

My Boa condos and Alice-catraz are made of it.

Very pretty, too.

http://www.homedepot.com/Lumber-Comp...&storeId=10051

And no formaldehyde, which most plywoods are loaded with.

I also use their tempered hardboard [basically really compressed "wood dust" that has no phenols or formaldehyde either] and seal it with non-toxic water based acrylic or polyurethane to make it water resistant.

So far, so good, especially with the Dumeril's huge, disgusting messes.

It's thin but dense and sturdy and spreads the heat very evenly and nicely, IMO.

Here's Alice in his post-escape SuperMax house.

http://file.walagata.com/w/the-salam...licecatraz.jpg

[and yeah, he's always checking out that lock very thoroughly]

Where can I find large sheets of PVC for the bottoms?

[4' x 2', specifically]

That is interesting ply. It is not what I was thinking the baltic birch is solid birch exterior and cores. It is glued with urea formaldehyde glues and needs to be fully sealed. (it needs to be anyway so no big deal) They are odd sizes being 60 inches square. But far cheaper than the ply you quoted and more laminations.


http://store.workshopsupply.com/cata...1_512_353.html

The edge of some baltic birch ply (3/4) from my bearded dragons enclosure.

http://images59.fotki.com/v111/photo...icbirch-vi.jpgHosted on Fotki

I use pine in my cages but I do seal the bottom 1/3 of the cage I built to prevent ( reduce ) the amount of mold that can form under the wood. I am about to build a display cage for my mother ( she had to have one of my pieds I am willing to take pictures and video i anyone wants.) I am goingto put a piecce of temperd glass in the front to let people see the cage ( the cage will be 2 large at first but in a couple years it be prefect for the snake.) I do seem to have a better results when I place my snakes in larger cages to get them to eat and such.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by kitedemon

That is interesting ply. It is not what I was thinking the baltic birch is solid birch exterior and cores. It is glued with urea formaldehyde glues and needs to be fully sealed. (it needs to be anyway so no big deal) They are odd sizes being 60 inches square. But far cheaper than the ply you quoted and more laminations.


http://store.workshopsupply.com/cata...1_512_353.html

The edge of some baltic birch ply (3/4) from my bearded dragons enclosure.

http://images59.fotki.com/v111/photo...icbirch-vi.jpgHosted on Fotki

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I thought $46 was pretty cheap for enough plywood to build a 2 x 2 x 4 Boa condo. LOL
[cheaper than solid wood, by far]

Home Depot is the only place around here that sells 4' x 8' sheets of Melamine particle board but it costs as much as the ply and the edges are always chipped and ragged.

I found a local place that sells sheets of PVC and am going to call Monday to price 2x4 sheets for flooring.

Does the PVC outgas when warm?

My enclosures have a false floor with heat cable running underneath it and I have to worry about that.

I used Oak Plywood to build my cage that was a beardie cage and converted for a Ball Python. In the end I could have gone with pine because I sealed the heck out of it with a water-based sealant (4-5 coats on the inside). I even ended up using an oil-based stain because locally there were very few options in water based. WIth proper sealing/curing it is non-toxic. The key to it all is to allow appropriate times to cure for any stains used and also the sealant. If you seal it properly it is easy to clean and I used iron on edge veneer to clean up the edges and make staining sealing easier. It also gave a finished look.

The cage bottom for me was tiles I grouted in (for the beardie). Extremely easy to clean. Unfortunately I can't use a UTH with my setup because i converted it. I use a CHE and cypress substrate to keep humidity at proper levels. All temps good and humidity is perfect and holds for days. No issues with cleaning or hold buildup. I think the sealing (4-5 coats) makes the difference here.

If I were to make another plywood cage for a ball python or other snake I would create a PVC floor within the cage and keep an inch from the bottom of the plywood floor. This would allow for flex watt or UTH pad.

http://ball-pythons.net/gallery/file...8/img_0049.jpg

Quote:

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Originally Posted by mechnut450

I use pine in my cages but I do seal the bottom 1/3 of the cage I built to prevent ( reduce ) the amount of mold that can form under the wood. I am about to build a display cage for my mother ( she had to have one of my pieds I am willing to take pictures and video i anyone wants.) I am goingto put a piecce of temperd glass in the front to let people see the cage ( the cage will be 2 large at first but in a couple years it be prefect for the snake.) I do seem to have a better results when I place my snakes in larger cages to get them to eat and such.

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So do I.

When I first got Alice [the former/recent escapee] his breeder told me he was a "finicky, sporadic eater" and that he would be 'happy' in something like the 20" square cubicle he was in at the breeder's place.

I put him in a 40G breeder tank with a Lucy lid and the snake never looked back.

He'll eat on any day that ends in a Y, now.

When I got him, he was a medium-sized 3 year old who weighed about 750 grams.

He's now almost 4' and over 1500 grams.

He loves his new 2' x 18" x 4' house.

My snakes who live in "houses" are more gregarious and outgoing than the ones who live in tubs.

They may be snakes who 'like snug security" but I think they really enjoy having room to roam and exercise, too.

I know the ever-expanding Kelly is getting antsy in her 10 gallon tub.

I think because I have a Lesser girl coming August, I can justify getting Kelly a "house" to hubby so the new baby can take over Kelly's tub.....:)

- - - Updated - - -

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Originally Posted by whispersinmyhead

I used Oak Plywood to build my cage that was a beardie cage and converted for a Ball Python. In the end I could have gone with pine because I sealed the heck out of it with a water-based sealant (4-5 coats on the inside). I even ended up using an oil-based stain because locally there were very few options in water based. WIth proper sealing/curing it is non-toxic. The key to it all is to allow appropriate times to cure for any stains used and also the sealant. If you seal it properly it is easy to clean and I used iron on edge veneer to clean up the edges and make staining sealing easier. It also gave a finished look.

The cage bottom for me was tiles I grouted in (for the beardie). Extremely easy to clean. Unfortunately I can't use a UTH with my setup because i converted it. I use a CHE and cypress substrate to keep humidity at proper levels. All temps good and humidity is perfect and holds for days. No issues with cleaning or hold buildup. I think the sealing (4-5 coats) makes the difference here.

If I were to make another plywood cage for a ball python or other snake I would create a PVC floor within the cage and keep an inch from the bottom of the plywood floor. This would allow for flex watt or UTH pad.

http://ball-pythons.net/gallery/file...8/img_0049.jpg

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That is beautiful!

:O

Personally I have never noticed. Most commercial enclosures are made from PVCx and PVC is the same just with no bubbles. I would not expect there to be an issue, if there was it would have already appeared.