5 New Large Enclosures DONE!

[Aedryan Methyus]

Thanks for all of your kind words. I really appreciate it! With regards to cost per enclosure, I built 5 of these at the same time, so it is difficult to break it down to an exact cost per enclosure. That is because some of the materials, such as the plexiglass and the window tracks require a minimum order from the suppliers. The materials and costs for the 4' and 6' enclosures are essentially the same. Here is an approximate cost breakdown for the 6' enclosures...

Cost Breakdown (6' x 30" x 19 3/4" enclosures):

Melamine: 2 Sheets $30.00 x 2 ($60.00)
Panel Board: ($14.00)
Pine 2" x 2" (2 each): ($20.00)
Center Support/Divider ($7.00 divided by 5): ($1.40)
Window Tracks: $0.89 per foot x 6 ($5.34)
Plexiglass: $118.00 (for all 5 enclosures) divided by 5 ($23.60)
Circle Vents: $2.89 each x 3 ($8.67)
Locks: ($5.78)
Liquid Nails: $1.27 x 2 ($2.54)
Caulking: $8.98
21" THG Heat Tape: $5.00 per foot x 2 ($10.00)
THGHeat Connection Set: ($2.49)
Electrical Wire (7' per enclosure): $0.48 per foot ($3.36)
Screws & Nails (apx. $15.00 divided by 5): ($3.00)

Total: $169.16

This total doesn't include shipping costs for the window tracks and circle vents or any of the tax. It doesn't include the cost of primer, paint or paint brushes, either. Also, my plexiglass supplier normally charges a $20.00 cutting fee, which they were kind enough to wave for me. If I would not have been lucky enough to find an awesome local manufacturer/supplier, the plexiglass would have cost a fortune to buy anywhere else,which would have increased costs significantly! If I would have discovered this local source sooner, I could have built these with PVC for only $28.00 - $46.00 more per enclosure (depending on if it was white or black PVC), but I wouldn't have needed to use panel board on the bottoms of the enclosures, which would have taken that cost down. Interestingly, it is possible to build PVC enclosures without even using screws! This supplier sells a variety of special glues/adhesives, which will weld the PVC together. Anyway, i'm trying to forget that I could have built these enclosures with PVC...

I should also mention a few of the minimum necessary tools that are needed to build these enclosures:

- Saw Horses
- Circular Saw
- Miter Box
- Cordless Drill
- Drill Bits + Counter Sink Bits
- 3" Hole Saw
- Corded Drill
- 4' clamps (at least 2)
- Caulking Gun
- Tape Measure

In addition to everything I have mentioned, I also made large custom hides and humidity boxes for all of these enclosures, which cost about $6.00 each and for now, i'm using red rosin paper on the bottoms of the enclosures, which costs about $14.00 per 166' roll. If I calculated correctly, that is only enough to replace the paper in all 5 enclosures 6 times each. I still need to find a cheap local source for printless newspaper. In addition, I am using sphagnum moss in the hides/humidity boxes, but i'm thinking that once it's all gone, wet paper towels will be much cleaner and easier to use, because these snakes aren't hardly spending any time in the hides whatsoever. Instead, they are cramming themselves beside and under the hides, which is very surprising of the Blood and Borneo girls! I thought for sure they would be having a blast, burring themselves in the sphagnum moss, but NOPE!

Bottom line... These enclosures are not cheap or easy to build (or buy) and these animals are NOT cheap to properly house and care for by any means!