Quote Originally Posted by Sauzo View Post
I have all sliding glass doors and none of my snakes try to grab the center pillar when coming out. You do realize that even with swinging doors, you will still have a center pillar. Its put there for structure to keep the center of the cage from sagging. I like the sliding doors as you can easily remove them when cleaning the cage just by lifting them off the track and setting them aside. They also double as shields when a snake really wants dinner lol. The only downside I see so far is the gap between the from PVC frame and the sliding doors. Also I have heard from a couple people that the swinging doors will sag after a while and to close them and line them up right, you have to lift them a little and then flip the lock tabs around the door. I also personally like glass better as it doesn't scratch like acrylic. My Pro Line has a nice scratch down the front when my boa got extra hungry and tagged the door and somehow scratched it. It also just has scratches from years of wiping it down with paper towels to clean it and stuff.
Hmmm... good point re. the center support. Maybe in the post i'm remembering they were talking about a 3 or 4 ft cage (?) I agree that glass is better, I will be building my own custom enclosure (i have some cabinet-maker buddies who will guide and help me for beer/pizza) so hopefully we can come up with a framing solution to support a swinging glass door, although i have to imagine the sagging acrylic would be cured if the acrylic door were framed, the ones i've seen all seem to just be a loos sheet with hinges and clasps bolted directly into them.

Sorry, this is getting into a discussion for the caging forum, I didn't mean to derail the thread, it was super interesting - may i ask a retic feeding and growth question to try and get back on track? This may be a really dumb question (sorry in advance) I dont have a retic, but would love to some day, a high % SD ideally. So in my little retic fantasy, i grow him up quick with lots of food, but then put on the brakes to keep him from ballooning into a monster. Can it work that way? If i feed him hard for, i dont know, 2 years to try and put on size fast, can i then slow down the feedings and his growth rate safely? I worry that the change would negatively impact his health and/or his demeanor - or maybe it just wouldn't work the way i'm envisioning. I've seen in Cody's videos how he got one who had been on a maintenance schedule and accelerated its growth by increasing its meals, i guess i'm asking if the inverse of that would work as well.