cage sizing for young Mainland Reticulated

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Originally Posted by dylan815

I think the consensus on retic and burm cages is; justt so long as there are adequate hides i think you could really start em off in the big 6 footer and not mess around with smaller tanks! Just have lots of hiding spots and places to climb.

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This. I would also give them stuff to climb on as well, both retic and burm youngsters like to climb.

Cool, i'm going to start building a 6 x 3 x 2' tall and when/if the Burm grows out of that (9ft+) by then my female boa will be a good size to move into it (she's just a little 3 foot yearling now). I'm probably going to use melamine, does anyone think it's worth putting a big piece of heat tape under it or will the floor just absorb all the heat??
Sorry if this is getting into a thread more fit for the caging forum, I'm going to start pouring over posts there soon, I just figured while I seem to have a couple of ears I'd ask real quickly.

A 6x3x2 cage made of melamine is going to weigh a TON. That stuff is heavy as heck. Also make sure you seal it VERY well especially the corners since you are going to have rather high humidity and that stuff just falls apart if it gets wet.

Also i wouldnt use heat tape on a wood cage. Wood is a good insulator so you would be fighting that to try and get the heat through it.

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Originally Posted by Sauzo

A 6x3x2 cage made of melamine is going to weigh a TON. That stuff is heavy as heck. Also make sure you seal it VERY well especially the corners since you are going to have rather high humidity and that stuff just falls apart if it gets wet.

Also i wouldnt use heat tape on a wood cage. Wood is a good insulator so you would be fighting that to try and get the heat through it.

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Yeah, I am aware and not terribly happy about the weight of the thing, it will be on the ground, probably with a lumbar frame under it so that it's not actually touching the ground. I'm also thinking of assembling it with bolts and threaded inserts rather than wood screws so that it will be more collapsible if I ever need to move it or otherwise disassemble it.

The density is why I was suspicious of using flex watt, I guess I'll just have to pick up another RHP. Do you think running a moderately sized one all the way to one side would create enough ambient heat to carry all the way to the other side and get it up to the proper cool side temperature?

No idea as i dont know how cold your house is kept. Retics dont need it all that hot. Caesar used to sit on his hot side as a baby but now he spends most of the time on the cool side or 'begging' for the door to be slid open which he then just curls up next to the open door with either his head on the litter dam or completely curled up sleeping im assuming.

I would personally use a RHP that is 1/3 the length of the cage or if you want belly heat, you can look into a Kane heat mat. They are made for farm animals and dogs and stuff so they can go inside the cage and easily cleanable. They arent cheap though but I've seen a lot of people use them in wooden cages.