I'm not sure how much other people spend on building their own cage, but I just finished mine and went back and looked at the cost, and I spent $207.20 before taxes. This is for a birch plywood cage that's 4ft long x 18" deep and 18" tall with sliding glass front doors. Being a wood cage, I went with a ceramic heat emitter instead of floor heating. Costs do not include the temp gauges, heat bulb, thermostat, etc... just the cage, as if you purchased it in a store. I could have went with melamine and saved $32. If I was going underbelly heating then I wouldn't need the porcelain socket, cord, and wire guard, saving me another $36. And if I really wanted to save $$$ I could skip the LED light bar and save another $30... so bare bones cost could be as low as $109. I see AP Cages has the T8 PVC cage which is 48L x 24W x 12H for $165 plus $48 shipping for a total of $213. Doesn't seem like I saved much by building my own. Granted the T8 has no lighting so that would be some additional cost. But for the work involved, it really seems like the only reason to do it is for the personal satisfaction of doing it yourself and maybe if you have some things you want done a very specific way (for example, my vents are at different heights, the vent on the warm side is lower and on the cool side it's higher).
Tracking for glass - $24.99 (Amazon)
1/4" Tempered Glass – $31.37 (Amazon)
Glass Finger Pulls - $4.82 (Amazon)
1-3/4 Desk Grommets (10 pack) - $12.80 (Amazon)
LED Light - $29.99 (Amazon)
Porcelain Socket - $3.47 (Amazon)
Heatlamp Wire Guard - $20 (Local Reptile Store)
Cord for Socket - $1.97 (Home Depot)
16” x 4” Vents - $3.94 (Home Depot)
4 x 8 ft Birch Plywood, ¾” - $60.88 (Home Depot)
Construction Screws 1-1/4” #8 - $7.97 (Home Depot)
TOTAL COST - $207.20 before tax
I was going to post pictures, but it looks like I need to host them somewhere first. I'll look into how to do that and see if I can update with pics.
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