Animal plastic Cage's.

[cba191]

From which company, cba?

Animal Plastics

[Sauzo]

Lowes has 4' x 8' sheets of 1/2" PVC board for $80.00... But, yes, you can find perfectly good 4' x 2' enclosures on the market for as low as $160.00. I see them all the time at the reptile expos for $225.00. For the cheaper enclosures like that you can definitely buy them for almost as cheap as it would cost to build them. The little extra it would cost to buy the cheaper ones would be well worth not having to mess around building your own for sure!

Check this site out:

http://boamaster.com/


That site has their economy 4' x 2' x 12" PVC enclosures for $175.00 SHIPPED. That's pretty hard to beat! It would cost somewhere in that same ball park to build one. Have any of you guys had any experience with that company and their enclosures?

Sweet Jebus man!! Run for the hills and dont look back!! I have heard soooo many horror stories about Boa Master. Anything from shotty cages to flat out not getting cages. Go check out the BOI section of FaunaClasifieds and you too can read the horror stories lol.

[Sauzo]

The biggest on their site is 8x3x2. They also have an arboreal 6x2x4.

Think he meant sheets of PVC.

[Sauzo]

From which company, cba?

AP T8s which are 48x24x12 are $150 and shipping is $45 so that is $195.

That is bare bones though. If you want one loaded with lock, shelf, flexwatt and LEDs, it's going to run you around $280 plus the $45 shipping. My 3 T8s loaded with the stand and shipping ran me $1000.

[Aedryan Methyus]

Sweet Jebus man!! Run for the hills and dont look back!! I have heard soooo many horror stories about Boa Master. Anything from shotty cages to flat out not getting cages. Go check out the BOI section of FaunaClasifieds and you too can read the horror stories lol.

Figures... *SMH* Thanks for the heads up on that! Even $200.00 - $225.00 for 4' x 2's isn't bad and worth the little extra for not having to build one. When you start getting into $500.00 - $600.00 + for 6' + enclosures that's definitely when building your own becomes waaay more reasonable than buying them. I'll be building my own and using the money I save to buy more snakes. Then build more and use the money I save from those to buy more snakes and... and... and... When does it end? lol

[Sauzo]

Figures... *SMH* Thanks for the heads up on that! Even $200.00 - $225.00 for 4' x 2's isn't bad and worth the little extra for not having to build one. When you start getting into $500.00 - $600.00 + for 6' + enclosures that's definitely when building your own becomes waaay more reasonable than buying them. I'll be building my own and using the money I save to buy more snakes. Then build more and use the money I save from those to buy more snakes and... and... and... When does it end? lol

Haha true. I would consider building my own as well but all my tool consist of auto mechanic tools...i should have gone into the woodworking field instead of auto mechanics

[cba191]

I wonder if you could do the whole thing with a circular saw. That's all I've got. Lol

[BallPythonWannaBe]

I'm getting my cage for a blood python from Animal plastics. All I've heard are good reviews

[Aedryan Methyus]

I don't personally have the greatest tools for woodworking, either. My step dad has just about every woodworking tool known to man, though. So, I build a lot of my magic props in his garage. It just sucks that him and my mom live about 100 miles away. But, consider this... For what some of you guys are paying for some of these enclosures you could buy a few basic tools in addition to materials and still be waaaay ahead. $20.00 additional for locks? Come on! lol There's a new jigsaw right there! Then you would have the tools to build more enclosures, which you will undoubtedly need since we will never have enough snakes... lol Also, I know a lot of times high schools will have programs that allow people to come in a night or two a week and use their shops for a couple of hours. Maybe some of you might want to check into that...

I haven't ever worked with PVC board yet, but everyone says it is super easier to work with. Even easier than wood and definitely easier than melamine! I think the trickiest part to building these enclosures is routering about a 20" section out on the bottom piece down to about an 1/8" for the heat tape and that's even pretty simple. If you want a light and/or shelving in it, jeeeez... How simple and cheap! The only tools you really need to build these is a skill saw, jigsaw, router, sander, cordless drill, a square and a tape measure. A set of clamps would make life easier as well. Also, Lowes will cut out all of the initial pieces for you for free. I built two 10 tub melamine racks and both times I had them cut out every single piece for me right at Lowes. Then I loaded the pieces up in my Mustang (Aaargh! lol) and took them home and put them together...

Anyway, I didn't mean to hijack this thread and turn it into a whole DIY thing, but man... I know I would rather be spending hundreds/thousands of dollars on more cool snakes than way overpriced enclosures and shipping costs! lol

[SDA]

AP cages are fantastic but the wait is something you might not be too happy about. 2-4 months depending on backlog and available material. Seems they order PVC in bulk so they wait until enough orders are in to stock.

That's my only concern with them. I do not want to wait up to a quarter of a year for something I buy to come in. Sometimes you get lucky and get it in a month and a half but sometimes you have to keep contacting them to get a response on shipping.