I'm so excited about this. I've wanted a hog island boa for quite a few years now. I've really missed having snakes so with my landlord's approval, Josh told me I can get one and gave me money for Christmas to go towards one. I'm not buying the snake just yet though. I want to get my set up just right before I get one.
That said... I don't want to buy an all glass enclosure from petco or petsmart and they don't really sell anything big enough for a boa that I know of there anyways.... granted hog islands are smaller boas. I have certain wants for my cage... want doors to open in the front instead of a lid on the top, etc. So... I decided that (with my husband's help) I want to build our own boa cage.
I'm going to do 4x2x2 with 3/4 inch plywood. May build a bigger one later if needed, but this size should be fine at least for a good while. The flooring is going to be lined in linoleum to make cleaning a little easier and it will have doors that open outward with plexiglass framed in wood for the doors. It does have to have a lock on it per my landlord which is fine so I looked at different lock options when I was at home depot earlier today.
For ventilation I think Josh is just going to drill holes on the sides of the cage. I wanted to do pegboard, but he said he would rather just drill the holes himself. I don't really want to do mesh... for one thing my last snake rubbed her nose raw on the mesh a few times. For another, it gets kind of cold in my room sometimes so I don't want too much airflow getting into the cage and it's easier to keep it more humid this way.
Now I have to figure out how I'm going to do heat.... my last cages were glass ones and I put heat mats under the cage. This one I'll have to put the heat source inside the cage so I have to decide whether I want to do a heat mat or do flexwatt. I've never done flexwatt though.
This building a cage thing is really exciting to me. My husband will probably be doing most of it, but I drew up what I wanted, which is fairly simple and he's going to help me put it together.
I'm going to try to take progress pics of it being built and set up for those interested in snake stuff.
That said... I don't want to buy an all glass enclosure from petco or petsmart and they don't really sell anything big enough for a boa that I know of there anyways.... granted hog islands are smaller boas. I have certain wants for my cage... want doors to open in the front instead of a lid on the top, etc. So... I decided that (with my husband's help) I want to build our own boa cage.
I'm going to do 4x2x2 with 3/4 inch plywood. May build a bigger one later if needed, but this size should be fine at least for a good while. The flooring is going to be lined in linoleum to make cleaning a little easier and it will have doors that open outward with plexiglass framed in wood for the doors. It does have to have a lock on it per my landlord which is fine so I looked at different lock options when I was at home depot earlier today.
For ventilation I think Josh is just going to drill holes on the sides of the cage. I wanted to do pegboard, but he said he would rather just drill the holes himself. I don't really want to do mesh... for one thing my last snake rubbed her nose raw on the mesh a few times. For another, it gets kind of cold in my room sometimes so I don't want too much airflow getting into the cage and it's easier to keep it more humid this way.
Now I have to figure out how I'm going to do heat.... my last cages were glass ones and I put heat mats under the cage. This one I'll have to put the heat source inside the cage so I have to decide whether I want to do a heat mat or do flexwatt. I've never done flexwatt though.
This building a cage thing is really exciting to me. My husband will probably be doing most of it, but I drew up what I wanted, which is fairly simple and he's going to help me put it together.
I'm going to try to take progress pics of it being built and set up for those interested in snake stuff.
