Boaphile

So I am leaning towards getting some Boaphile cages. Not the racks but the actual display type cages. Has anyone used these? What do you think of them? Do they hold heat/humidity well? Any quirks/problems? I've heard about the poop stain thing but I'd be getting the black cages if I go with them so it won't be a problem.

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Originally Posted by spix14

So I am leaning towards getting some Boaphile cages. Not the racks but the actual display type cages. Has anyone used these? What do you think of them? Do they hold heat/humidity well? Any quirks/problems? I've heard about the poop stain thing but I'd be getting the black cages if I go with them so it won't be a problem.

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I have no clue about the poop stain thing (don't think I wanna know)

I have two that were donated to our rescue.....one is the 4 foot double door condo....the other is shorter and taller...both came with heat and light....

EXCELLENT humidity and perfect temps....the ONLY two enclosures I don't have to constantly mist and adjust..

AND these are the cages that the ONLY two females to breed for me are kept in......

i personally LOVE these cages....I have heard bad things...but this is my personal experience....

I have two and I love them :)
they take awhile to arrive though, so be prepared.

Boaphile cages look good hold the heat and humidity well. But then they start to sag in the middle, They build them as one solid unit so the corners start to chip and i don't even want to talk about the scratch marks.

You get poop stains because they are very hard to clean.

They tell you theres a three week wait:colbert: Its more like two months.

I used to own five of them and traded them off and made the switch to animal plastic T3's.

I have 'coupe' style cages - they have two doors instead of one with a rib in the middle - the rib prevents sagging plus I feel that having two smaller doors means less heat/humidity (or fast animals!) is lost when you open one to access the cage.

I've never had a problem cleaning mine, nor has anything scratched or chipped. The doors, being Lexan, do require special care to prevent scratching. I'm used to that though because I have plastic fish tanks.

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Originally Posted by fishmommy

I have 'coupe' style cages - they have two doors instead of one with a rib in the middle - the rib prevents sagging plus I feel that having two smaller doors means less heat/humidity (or fast animals!) is lost when you open one to access the cage.

I've never had a problem cleaning mine, nor has anything scratched or chipped. The doors, being Lexan, do require special care to prevent scratching. I'm used to that though because I have plastic fish tanks.

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How long have you had yours?

I've had one about 18 months. The second one I've had about 6 months

Mine were about four year old when i started having problems.

that sucks.
were they the 4 foot, single door kind?

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Originally Posted by fishmommy

that sucks.
were they the 4 foot, single door kind?

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Yeah, Oh well live and learn:weirdface

I have heard that other similar brands (maybe you know if it's AP or Reptile Basics) have thicker plastic walls than Boaphile.

If I didn't already have one when I bought my second one I might have switched for that reason. Thicker plastic means better energy efficiency/isulation. I was surprised at how thin the Boaphile walls were and promptly insulated mine to save heat.

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Originally Posted by fishmommy

I have heard that other similar brands (maybe you know if it's AP or Reptile Basics) have thicker plastic walls than Boaphile.

If I didn't already have one when I bought my second one I might have switched for that reason. Thicker plastic means better energy efficiency/isulation. I was surprised at how thin the Boaphile walls were and promptly insulated mine to save heat.

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AP is thicker than boaphile no question. They just put out a better product.

it might help the OP if you described the differences :gj:

I dunno, I've looked at the AP cages and I'm just not quite happy with them. They don't seem to offer as many options as boaphile. I'd like to have the top cage as a row of smaller cages to houses babies or smaller snakes in and AP seems to only offer the bigger cages. I haven't seen a style with the smaller cages being all one peice like boaphile has. Although, the non glass doors do worry me. They are going to be for display and if the doors get all scratched up I'll kind of feel like I wasted money.

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Originally Posted by spix14

I dunno, I've looked at the AP cages and I'm just not quite happy with them. They don't seem to offer as many options as boaphile. I'd like to have the top cage as a row of smaller cages to houses babies or smaller snakes in and AP seems to only offer the bigger cages. I haven't seen a style with the smaller cages being all one peice like boaphile has. Although, the non glass doors do worry me. They are going to be for display and if the doors get all scratched up I'll kind of feel like I wasted money.

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They offer the same as boaphile you need to call them their web site is out of date.

i have 3 stacks of 421d's that i love the only problem is that they take forever to arive. he told me 4 weeks they showed up out of the blue 10 weeks later. (and god help you if one is borken in shipping if that happens you are beter off to just accept it than to order a replacement from what i have herd. but i do think they are a great product. your best bet is to order them and forget them. and just be happy when they arrive.

if you want to put smaller cages on top you have to get the 'coupe' style cage for sure. I planned to do that too and so I called Jeff direct and asked him flat out if putting short cages on top of long ones would cause sagging and he said YEP. He recommended the 'coupe' cage since it is supported in the middle. The standard cage with one door is really only designed to support other same-size cages on top.

neither of my cages showed up late - both took 4-5 weeks and I was told to expect 5 weeks so I had no issue with that.

I have 12 421Ds and they are in two stacks with a 3/4 plywood sheet underneath the bottom ones. Each one is on casters too. I haven't had a single problem with any of them except one of them had an inside piece cracked off. He told me to fix it with rubber cement, wait a few days before putting a boa in, and he took off some dough from my next purchase for me to fix the issue. I didn't wait that long either to get them...

As far as comparisons- I don't think there really is any difference, but from the APs I've seen personally (friends whom have them), they are thicker but seem more rough around the edges to the eye than the Boaphiles do. A good friend of mine who owns a pet shop around here has four of the four foot APs and he even says that the Boaphiles look more appealing and have a more sleak design. I've never had any issues with keeping them clean either, although I'm pretty picky about cleaning and I doubt any poop or whatnot has much of a chance to set in around here.

so what about the rack reviews? do they start to sag at all? Im considering getting a ball room rhinorack and a 10 drawer shoebbox rack. I realize they are slow to ship but i like the looks of the boaphile racks the best. so if its just slow shipping I can live with that. Sagging however.. not so much lol

I have a Rhino Raxx 4 tubs and I have had for over a year filled w/ for bp's and no sags what so ever. I owned an AP cage and now the Boaphile rack and I have had 0 problems and like the product very much.

I love the look and design of Boaphile cages and racks. I have a RhinoRaxx rack and it is more visually appealing than my other racks. My biggest complaint is the texture of the plastic. It is harder to clean than the smooth plastic that Reptile Basics uses. If the Boaphile cages are made with that same textured plastic, I don't think I would enjoy cleaning them much. I also was told I would receive my rack in less time than I had to wait in reality. The website said 5 weeks max, and everytime I called they told me one more week. It arrived 9 weeks after I ordered it. I usually receive my Reptile Basics racks during the next working week after I order, which has been awesome. I would love it if someone had more cage options like Boaphile but better customer service.

Here's another cage company who I've heard great reviews on. http://www.pvccages.com/id149.htm Perhaps you could ask him about multi-unit caging like the ones that Boaphile offers.