Caging on a budget

[darthkevin]

Right now I don't have to worry about putting her in a new enclosure but it is something that I got to start saving for. Not knowing my RTBs parent sizes means that I am completely grasping in the dark when I am considering a 6'x2'x3 enclosure. I absolutely know that glass is well out of the question for me because of its weight. So acrylic is the answer for that. Here is the few questions I have:
1) How good are the enclosures built by monster cages? I stumbled upon their site and they seem decent to me and not terribly expensive.
2) I know this is a depends on the size of you snake question but if any of you have a big female RTB how big is her enclosure. I am mainly concerned on length and height because width will be about 2'.
3) should I have enough room for her to climb? She climbs like a champ now but what about when she reaches 6-8 foot. Will she still do it then?
4) what kind of wood do you all use for climbing? I had some grapevine but it got moldy so I was really considering plastic.
5) I was considering a dogger for her next enclosure. I know that sometimes humidity can be hard to keep in larger enclosures.
6) best heat source for a large enclosure.

Anything that I may have missed while asking feel more then free to chime in and educate me. I'm am pretty new to boas. Nibbles and I thank you in advance!


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[Daybreaker]

1) How good are the enclosures built by monster cages? I stumbled upon their site and they seem decent to me and not terribly expensive.
2) I know this is a depends on the size of you snake question but if any of you have a big female RTB how big is her enclosure. I am mainly concerned on length and height because width will be about 2'.
3) should I have enough room for her to climb? She climbs like a champ now but what about when she reaches 6-8 foot. Will she still do it then?
4) what kind of wood do you all use for climbing? I had some grapevine but it got moldy so I was really considering plastic.
5) I was considering a dogger for her next enclosure. I know that sometimes humidity can be hard to keep in larger enclosures.
6) best heat source for a large enclosure.

1) Never had any cages by them so can't comment. My homemade cage for my biggest boa cost about $150 with ~$120 for the thermostat. Pretty affordable IMO.

2) My females will be put into 6' long, 2' wide, and 18" high cages. My male right now is in a 4' and unless he gets huge (he's a big guy for his age anyway) he may need to be into a 6' eventually

3) This is a preference call; personally my guys never climb so the extra height would be wasted for me. Larger (Edit: older) boas tend to chill out on the ground but there are exceptions.

4) I have a PVC made ledge for my guy and he never uses it. So I can't comment on the type of wood.

5) I don't have a fogger in my cage and it keeps at around 50-60% humidity. This depends on where you live and how many holes you put in/have for the cage. If you build your own you'll need to play with adding holes to get the right humidity. I had the cage set out for 2+ week while we got the holes and everything right for my guy (plus airing it out after sealing the edges).

6) I have flexwatt under tiles on my hot side attached to a thermostat (VE-200). If you keep the room cooler you may need to add in a Radient Heat Panel to keep ambient temps up but since our snake room stays at ~80 I only need the flexwatt/UTH.

[I-KandyReptiles]

Animal plastics offers a large 6' for about $700. Probably out of your price range though. Never heard of monster cages.

A radiant heat panel can help with temps.

[darthkevin]

Yeah you should check them out they offer an 8 footer for about the same as animal plastics 6 footer


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[jason221]

I'm happy with my Boaphile 421d (which is 4'x2'x1'). I use a radiant heat panel and flexwatt heat tape, with thermostats of course. My only regret is not getting a higher wattage RHP, because it doesn't always get the entire tank quite warm enough if the temperatures in my room drop to 68-70ºF on rare occasion. The cage isn't too expensive, but you'll start racking up the cost once you get the radiant heat panel and the thermostats. I have two thermostats because I didn't feel comfortable running the flexwatt and the RHP on a single thermostat.

Anyway, back on point about size of cage. Right now, my 2010 boa is about 5 feet long and ~5 pounds, so the cage is plenty big enough. She is a female Colombian, so I don't expect her to get past 7 or 8 feet. If she truly becomes a monster, then I may consider getting a 6 foot cage, but that would be a good $500-600 (including larger RHPs to fit a larger cage) that I would rather keep.