Some Animal Plastics Questions

[kayoung]

I'm getting a 6 year old normal female BP (my first snake) from a former coworker in a month or 2 (she's in no hurry to get rid of it) and I'm looking at the Animal Plastics cages after someone recommended them to me here and I have a few questions.

1. I'm considering the T8 because I've read a couple places that people get the divider and house 2 snakes in it, and I would love to get a pretty morph some day so I'm just wondering if the girl I'm getting now will be okay in just half of that cage? I'm not sure how big she is.

2. Heating. I have ton of questions here. As far as UTH goes, I see a lot of people recommending heat tape but I'll be honest, I am a little intimidated by the stuff. The idea of just being able to plug in a heat pad is a lot more familiar to me but will it work as well on this type of cage? And as far as ambient temps go, I like to keep my house cold so I know I'm probably going to need something other than a UTH to keep the cage warm. I have an extra clamp lamp lying around that I was hoping to put to use for that but it doesn't look like these cages come with holes in the top for that. Are the "8" circle screens" in the add-ons what I need?

3. And just how massive are these things? I mean I obviously have the dimensions but I'm trying to find space for a cage this large in my tiny bedroom that already houses 6 fish tanks, a hamster, and a Great Dane.

[Sauzo]

1. Personally I would spend the little extra and get a T10. Makes cleaning the cage a lot easier. As for dividers, yes I see people do it but honestly I would give the whole cage to 1 snake. If your BP is anything like mine, she will love to cruise around at night and "play". During the day, my BP just sleeps in one of her hides. My girl is about 2 years old and about 4' or a little longer.

2. As for heating, I use flexwatt in my T10s and love it. I do keep my house around 75F though and the basement is actually warmer, probably closer to 78-80F so flex worked great for me. I do have a radiant heat panel in one of my cages though which I personally don't like for warm rooms as it doesn't seem to really create a hot spot without heating up the rest of the cage as well. If you keep your house cool, a RHP would work awesome as it would be on much more and keeping a nice hot spot while the house ambient would keep the cool side cooler.

Don't cut holes in your cage. Just order a radiant heat panel. They are easy to install and just require a drill and screw driver. As far as add ons, I would definitely say get a shelf. My BP LOVED her shelf and would climb on it all night long. Also about the RHP, AP will install the RHP for you if you have whoever you get it from, I recommend either Pro Products or Reptile Basics, drop ship it to them.

3. Well the T8 and T10 are the same length and width. just 3" taller on the T10s and of course the door opening is bigger on a T10. The door opening on a T8 is 22x8 and the door opening on a T10 is 21x10. Trust me, that extra 2" in door height makes a difference when cleaning plus the extra height is nice if you go with a shelf. The total dimensions for either are around 48x24x12 or 15. They are heavier than other PVC cages but they are built strong. I personally love the 3 I got and am ordering 3 more in the spring and then probably 2 T25s next fall depending how big my retic gets, might be getting 3 in that case lol.

Here's a picture of my cages. The white one on the right is a Pro Line from Constrictors NW. And a picture of what the lights they install look like and a picture of a couple of my gals and guy using the shelves.

[jmcrook]

For an adult female BP I would personally give her the full cage. I have my 7 year old male in a full T8 and would feel like he was cramped in half of it, but I have him set up for display not to save space.
Heat tape is essentially the same as a heat pad but without the adhesive and FAR less expensive. If you keep your house cold I would go with a radiant heat panel and maybe heat pad/heat tape as well. Putting screens in a pvc cage is going to kill your humidity, which is one of the greatest aspects of having a pvc cage in my opinion.
They're just as big or small as the size they say they are. Really though a T8 isn't terribly huge, incredibly heavy duty and looks great to boot. You could stack another cage on top no problem, but I probably wouldn't put an aquarium on top in the event that any leaking occurred.
I've got two T8s stacked and love them. Animal Plastics has my business for all my cage needs from here on out. Great customer service as well!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Sauzo]

Oh and one other thing. The picture of the lights is the LEDs that AP will flush mount into the roof of the cage for you for $40. They come in either blue, red or white. That's another must have imo as they mount the light flush into the roof like I said and also they route a channel on the top of the outside of the roof so the plug sits in the channel. So no exposed wiring at all really. Very nice. They aren't actually listed in the list of extras on their site so you have to actually call them and have Ali add them into your order.

[jmcrook]

They'll also cut the channel for the LEDs for $10 if you have your own set you want to install yourself. That's the route I went because I wanted a color changing option.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[KMG]

I just ordered a T8 with divider and light today, was $241 shipped. They are on sale and listed on the quick ship page.

The glass door model is $150 which is what I ordered.

I plan on using something like this for belly heat as I do with the cages I already have. These look much like heat tape but are large. They are a flat rigid plastic and very thin and heat evenly. They are not like the rubbery plastic UTHs you see in the pet store.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0...?ie=UTF8&psc=1

[Sauzo]

I just ordered a T8 with divider and light today, was $241 shipped. They are on sale and listed on the quick ship page.

The glass door model is $150 which is what I ordered.

I plan on using something like this for belly heat as I do with the cages I already have. These look much like heat tape but are large. They are a flat rigid plastic and very thin and heat evenly. They are not like the rubbery plastic UTHs you see in the pet store.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0...?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Those are the same kind I use for my glass tanks. I just use plain old flexwatt though in my AP cages as for me at least, flexwatt per foot was cheaper than the Flukers heat tape style UTH although I do like the flukers one.

[KMG]

Oh and one other thing. The picture of the lights is the LEDs that AP will flush mount into the roof of the cage for you for $40. They come in either blue, red or white. That's another must have imo as they mount the light flush into the roof like I said and also they route a channel on the top of the outside of the roof so the plug sits in the channel. So no exposed wiring at all really. Very nice. They aren't actually listed in the list of extras on their site so you have to actually call them and have Ali add them into your order.

Im glad you gave this tid bit of info about AP adding LED lighting to a cage.

I got an email today saying that the divider I ordered would not work with the fluorescent light mounted in the middle of the cage. I could cancel the light, move it to one side, or add another light so each side would have one. Luckily I remembered your post and since two fluorescent lights would be $40 and the led option is $40 I went with the LEDs. Being recessed in the cage ceiling allows them to stay in place, light both sides, and work with the divider in place.

All said it done though it only cost me $14 more as you don't pay for shipping when you order the LEDs. I went with the fluorescent option first just because Id already placed the order when I ran across your post and all my other cages are fluorescent. But Im really glad it worked out this way as I think in the long run it is a better choice. One day I'll upgrade all my lights to LED.

As is standard with AP they were completely friendly on the phone and took care of changing my order quickly. It was really great to have good folks in the world that still know what customer service is. This will be my second AP product and it will not be my last.