Hey guys,
I used this guide to make my own enclosure. Worked out great! (Reference source Striking Serpents).
"Supplies
To build this cage you will need the following tools and supplies:
2 sheets of 2ft by 4ft 3/4 inch melamine*
2 sheets of 1 ft by 4ft 3/4...

any idea where to buy the vents?

or would home depot have them specific size vents

I have found similar vents at Home Depot or Lowes, Otherwise you could check a local HVAC company. I have never built these exact cages, but do have a few similar ones. The vents that I used were actually modified double sided vents used for between rooms or in a door. Like it said earlier in the thread, the size of vent you use will depend upon your application, what you are housing, room temps, etc.

thanks, when i get my boa in the future, i'll give this thing a try.

Very awesome! I think I'll try this...but, would this design, same materials etc, work with 6'x2'x2' dementions or would it not hold up or be stackable?

Yeah, what would be good for a 8ft BCI?

Yeah that was awsome, great pics, but i agree with boa vixen. you see her and I have an 8 ft (we adopted and it was so sad half her tail chewed off by rats years before we got her, but she is all healed up great, so more like 7 1/2 ft.)

Ugh, that's terrible, MidNight! Poor girl.

Back to the cage, though. Now that I'm thinking about it, do you think using acrylic instead of melamine would work? And, since it's difficult to drill through acrylic, would a glue or sealant hold the thing together?

First off, a 6x2x2 would definitely be OK for an 8 ft snake. And as far as using acrylic or other materials for building, that would be entirely up to the individual, but for the most part shoots the $100 thing out the window. Cost for most other materials can be quite costly. I had looked at building a few for myself out of expanded PVC, but after checking out the cost of materials, I personally opted for some thing quite a bit cheaper, and much easier to work with. Acrylic for example is quite costly when compared to melamine, and many people don't have the right tools neccessary to work with it. If you do choose to go this route, they have special glues made for acrylic that actually melt the two surfaces and somewhat bond them, but I'm not sure how well this would hold up to the weight of a snake. They also have special welding equipment for plastics that can be used, but they are expensive, and usually only carried by specialty companies.

I'd advise against Acrylic. You may want to see the snake from all angles, the snake doesn't want to see you from angles it can't see from. So it basically shoots the whole hiding spot concept out the window.

And I can't imagine using acrylic as a cage. You'd probably be better off just buying from one of the plastic cage makers if you want to do that. You need a lot of very specialized tools to make a good one. Acrylic cutting stuff does not come cheap at all.

Good to know, inked. I originally wanted to switch the melamine to acrylic because of the weight. I hear melamine is very heavy, so moving, cleaning, transporting and so on would all be incredibly difficult with a cage that's taller and weighs more than I do.

But, out of the options...I suppose acrylic wouldn't really be worth it either.

I think, like stalk said, I'll just look around for some AP or Boaphile, etc.

now you have the vivs all stacked,do you find the glass ,sometimes is stiff?
but great post thank you,
yup its heavy,
i plan on build a stack of 6x2x12,but will put wheels on to make it more moveable

Aha, wheel would be handy. Good luck with that

does melamine come in other colors besides white?

melaine is really expensive here in michigan its like 100.00 for one panel lol, 2x4's 1x2's 1'x4's and finished plywood for cage building.

One question is any color better than another like brown, white, black, etc. for the wood siding.

I wanted to thank you for posting these plans for the caging... I just built 5 new cages using these plans and they turned out great. You can see pictures at the following link.
http://www.e-visivo.com/caging
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Matthew J Giandonato
Brookfield, IL

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what do you guys use for heating on those stackable melamine cages. since heatlamps wont work.

I am using 11" x 24" heat tape with a thermostat. I am also keeping a quarter inch gap between each cage to keep the heat tape from over heating!

the heat tape heats through the melamine, do you worry about it ketching on fire, and then there is no basking spots at that point its all underbelly heating, i though of building some stackables and buying radiant heat panels, i have heard good stuff about them.

Are you using anything to cover the bottom of the cage? Because wont urine and poop start rotting threw it?