block

[piscivorus]

No pictures of anything. My computer crashed a while back and I lost a ton of photos (family, animals, cages, everything). Live and learn I suppose.

My thing has always been efficient use of space. The more room I have, the more I wanna use.

As for sliding vs. hinged, the only difference to me is the space necessary. With a front opening design (regular cabinet-style, swinging left to right or vice versa, not up and down), you can stick the cage in much tighter spaces. With smaller cages w/ sliding doors, it doesn't matter since you can easily pick it up, set it on a table and have as much room as you want/need. With larger cages w/ sliding doors that aren't as easy to move, you need that side room to give the door somewhere to slide to and sometimes, that will force you to leave open space where a nice, snake-filled cage could go.

I was thinking last night about the design too, and it seems people like slant-front cages (doesn't really matter to me whether they slant or are straight) and while keeping the scrap plastic down to a minimum (i.e., cost/price), a one piece bottom/back/top shouldn't be an issue at all. I would probably be better off using acrylic doors that swing on the front (hinges on sides, out-swinging doors) than sliding or top to bottom opening doors. Every cage that opens top to bottom has a far greater risk of hinge malfunction due to gravity and the likelihood that a snake will land on that door and cause problems at some point in that cage's life.

It also seems that people are leaning more toward the flexwatt heating method which is easily incorporated, too.

I'd like input on what size cages you guys prefer (i prefer lower-profile cages with more floor space since a snake is just fine in an 8-12" tall cage with plenty of floor space).

I'd like to make a cage that is 6" tall and 2'x2' (rough dimensions, depends on what works out better in terms of lack of scrap) and I also love flexibility, like when a 4x2x1 cage can be used as TWO 2x2x1 cages with a simple divider insert.

I also wanna offer an inexpensive rack system capable of holding a lot of neonate boas or whatever hatches/pops out, but can also be used for the smaller species of snakes (4' and less).

I just had to fix one car and buy another today, so in the coming weeks, I'll build a few that I can use but still show some variety in size and the build quality and if people want them, awesome, if not, more free time for me lol.

I have found a local source for plastic at a good price via some connections (old highschool friends come in handy AT LAST) and everything else is easily sourced so price shouldn't be hard to keep down where I want to keep it.

Various colors, hinge options, handle options, size options, and even design options shouldn't be a problem either. I've been building all types of things for many years and I'm told I have a knack for it. I've always had high standards too, mainly because I'm too lazy to have to go back and fix something that could have been done properly the first time lol. Build time isn't a factor even though they'll definitely be hand made, shipping options are plentiful and special designs will be no problem since I actually enjoy anything even remotely artistic/unique.