animal plastics or boaphile

[Merchant]

hi all. have had my baby ball python for about 4 months now. shes doing great and now that i have replaced the round hydrometer with a better digital one my last problem should be gone. (round one varys from 10 to 15% off from the digital one) anyway. i was planing to design and build a custom cage for ginger my ball. she is curently in a 30 gal critter cage. but i dont like it. i want her to have a cage that will look good and have more than enough room for her when shes full grown. im thinking of the t5 from animal plastics or the 322d from bophile. i want one at least 18 inches tall becuase for what ever reason she likes to climb. i have caught her in her trees a number of times and i want to give her lots of cover and places to climb and places to hide.

i had some questions form the pictures on boaphiles web site it dosn't look like the 322d has a litter dam. i like to use cypress mulch and am thinking of adding/switching to poting soil.maybe a mix of both this is one of the reasons im thinking of going with a plastic cage. rather than buildin one useing wood.
plastic dont rot if it gets wet. so anyone who has one

1 dose the 322d have a litter dam.
2 is it large enough to give an adult femail ball plenty of room to play and live in or should i be looking at the 422 modles.
3 the detail the heating very well on the bophile site but only say belly heat on the animal plastics site. what type of heating unit and how is it installed in the animal plastic cages. (i have searched for reviews but have only only seen brief note that its some kind of heat cable.)
4 how well do both units stack becuase some time in the next few months probibly around tax return time. im going to be looking to get a GTP one of the yellow one's. they look so cool. and i will also be looking for a aborial cage for it. and i really like the look of the animal plastics for that. and i will once again be doing a natural looking interior. for that mater what size cage should i be looking for to house with room to spare a GTP

my curent 30gal tank has a therostast control for belly heat, 2 didtal themo's to verify temps, 2 hides one col one hot. a small tree with leaves that cover her large water dish. and a climbing branch. most of the furniture will move to the new cage and the 30gal will go to my mom who has anoles and is keeping them in a 10gal tank they need more room.....

thanks

[gncz73]

me i would go with an animal plastics cage over bophile. and if your snake is climbing you might want to check your temps alot of time when they climb they are trying to get closer to the heat. and you might run into some proplem with the dirt in the cage as far as bactira(sp) that can grow in it so if i was you i would look around for as much info on that before doing it. and yes ap use a heat cable in there rack but not sure what they use in there cages but i would think they use the same. you could call ap and they will tell you all you want to know.

[Merchant]

i have 2 digital gages indoor/outdoor types. one is an acurite with the hydro meter. one mesures the cool side hide temp the probe is in her hide. and the unit mesures the air temp. cool side is 83 to 85.

the acurite mesueres the hot hide and hot side air. 90 to 94 in the hot hide and 90 air temp. humidity ranges from 50% to 65% heat is generatd with a UTH and a 60watt black bulb. (mostly so i can watch her at night.) both of these are controled by an alife thermo. i also have a day dusk dawn conputer controled white light no heat. one of the things i plan on geting when i get the GTP is a higher grade proporitnal theromstat. i was looking at the habitat controls 4 zone unit. it would be able to control the heat on up 3 to 4 cages. depending on how big they are. ive caught her in the tree drinking from the water dish and hideing in the tree watching me only late at night. and the temps were good.

[jotay]

I would go Animal Plastics but then again I would say that cuz I have a T11
The heat is heat cable routed in the ext bottom of the cage and works great.
You will need a T-stat to control it. It is located on the left half of the cage.
It keeps the warm side floor a nice temp. I have my connected to a Helix dbs1000 set at 93 degrees.
I got mine w/ the 2 8" cutouts w/ screen. In my house the heat cable is not enough to keep cage warm so I have two heat lights w/ red 100 watt bulbs on t-stats to keep the air temp up in the 80's. But the heat cable does the job for the belly heat, no doubt. The humidity stays around 50-55.
I see now you can get them w/ a flo. light in the back go for that because they are dark inside when trying to clean etc. They didn't offer that when I got mine last year.
They are great people to deal with and will do almost anything you ask on the cage. Just give them a call and tell them what your looking for.
Shipping is cheap and putting together is a snap and will take all of 10mins.

I love my AP cage but most of all my Ozzy seems to really enjoy it
Hope this helps

[Merchant]

thanks the info helps alot. im going to get an animal plastics. now if i can make up my mind on the size. im thinking a t10 at this point it will have lots of room and is only 2 inches shorter than my curent setup. 48"x24"x15" do you think this is too big for an adult ball pyton. or would the 36x24x24 be better? her curent cage is 36x12x16. also im definately looking to add to my colection and add a GTP and was wondering if anyone has one in a animal plastics aborial cage what size/model do you recomend i understand they can reach 5 to 6 feet. was
thingking the A20 48x24x36 and have them put side vents in like the a10 vented. i am curently useing a alife thermo. but am going to switch to johnson controls or habitat controls propotinal. im really consideign the habitat controls 4 zones with night day cycles would allow me to use one unit to control all 3 cages but im waitng to find out if the habitat system has the malfunction safety like the johnson unit.

[jotay]

Mine is a T11 which is 48x24x18h and it seems the prefect size for an adult.
Just make sure you have hides etc so it's not just wide open spaces.
I have a hide at each end and then a half log/ hubba hide in between and then some plastic plants etc.
Ozzy seems to like it and I don't feel I will ever have to go bigger as he gets older. My guess is he is about 18 mos old.

The rule of thumb I think is 1.5 sq ft for every foot of snake.
The T10 sounds fine easier to keep warm etc. I wish I had gotten the 15" high instead of the 18"high.