Building a display case for a Albino Burmese and Red Tail Boa

[Danomano]

Hello All,

I do a lot of woodworking on a smaller scale and my neighbor asked if I would be willing to construct a new display for his two snakes. Both are quite big. The Burm is over 11 ft. long I would guess and the red tail is about 7 feet long. Currently he has them housed together in what used to be a display case like you would use in a store. TO be honest, it is highly unsafe for the snakes and the owner for them to be housed in this. I want to be able to build something to match what he is asking however I am not exactly sure how to go about it. The current setup is about 72"x20"x26". I was looking at bumping it up to 72x36 and he wants it up to 48" in height. He also wants me to recycle the 1/4" plate glass from it. Which is what I am really concerned about. Any wrong movement and that stuff is shattering. I was thinking build the frame with 2x4 and sheeting with some sort of ply on the exterior and using a ply type product that is incredibly smooth (can’t remember the name of it... starts with an M) for the interior surfaces. Any suggestions would be great. I need to keep the budget cheap since I am doing the work as barter. He is removing a large tree and stump that is pushing over my fence.

Thanks

Dan

[carlson]

Are you building each snake their own cage? Or does he still want one cage for both, I don't think they have same requirements for heat and all that do they? If it was me I would do two seperate cages since they going to be so big I'd frame it then uses melamine for all the sides and put in a sliding door kind of door outta shatter resistent glass because I'm clumsy and then heat how ever each different species requires

[TheSnakeGuy]

This is gonna cost you a lot more than it's gonna cost him. I would renegotiate that deal. The pressboard you're thinking of is called melamine. Good luck with this project.

[Danomano]

He does want them both together. As far as husbandry for these two particular species i know they both would require something better than what they have currently. I guess im concerned that the dimensions wouldnt be the proper amount of space.

[carlson]

google says this for cage size for just a burm. Adding a red tail too that I would guess you would wanna make it good sized bigger and try an some way get the heat set up so two different species can be happy in same space idk in all honesty dude I'd tell the guy he needs to be paying for that project and paying for two different cages but that's just me. He sounds like he does things his own way and is stubborn so good luck man

[Danomano]

I am agreeing with you. I dont mind building but supply costs are going way up.

[KMG]

Sounds like your neighbor is more into the"cool factor" than the care of his snakes.

If he wants it 48 high that is just a waste of space and more area to heat. I would push him into letting you build two 24 inch cages stacked so the snakes could be seperate and he will still have his 48 inch cage.