Building My own Viv

[Cora]

ok So I am planning on building my own viv and I have a few questions. I am hoping to make it so that it is fairly high and can hold 3 or 4 snakes (not sure yet depending on cost)

My 2 biggest concerns are what type of Wood Can I use to build it?
Is Ply Wood ok or should I be worrying about what wood is poison for my snake?

The other is Glass or Plexi glass.. I havent checked into which is cheaper, but if I decided to use an UTH can I put it on plexi glass or does it get 2 hot?

I was planning on having the entire front of the viv made out of a screen material so that it has lots of circulation but I am kinda worried about my snake rubbing against it, is it safer to use glass/plexi to cover the front, in which case would I make vents in the side and cover that with mesh? and what sizes should those vents be and should they be staggard.

I looked at some websites about building vivs but I am hopeing you can make it clearer...
I should mention that my Grandpa will help me build it and I am pretty sure he owns almost every tool I could possibly need lol.

thanks :crazy02:

 

[PtDnsr]

Before you plan on housing 3 or 4 snakes together do a search on cannibalism and housing together. Most people reccomend housing individually for multiple reasons. It would probably be better to build a display cage system with individual cages. Just my .02

~Katie

 

[Cora]

oh no no no I have no intention of housing Snakes together. sorry if I made it sound like that !! I meant that I would have four separete spaces stacked up on top of each other. I dont believe in housing them together!

 

[PtDnsr]

Oh ok...ignore that other post then. I'll just go on my merry way as I know I won't be of any use on infor for building a viv...

~Katie

 

[ScottyK]

Here's a great link for anyone interested in building a furniture style viv.

http://www.arbreptiles.com/cages/cages.shtml

It also addresses the use of screening. I'm using some of the ideas here and incorporating them into sketches of a roomy enclosure to hold six snakes. It's going to be a fall project to keep me out of trouble when my wife goes back to school, so I won't have pics for a few months yet. Good luck with your own plans......

 

[TrpnBils]

The only things I can help with are the mesh front and the vents... I see you're from Canada, so you'd need to consider the temps. The mesh gives you a lot of circulation, but also is bad for keeping temps and humidity stable.

As far as the vents go, stagger them if you have a solid front, but if you have a mesh front, you probably don't need vents at all...

 

[Energi2er]

I am going to eventually build a viv when dominoe grows out of this one. what I am going to do is separate the viv to have a feeding area with no substrate and a larger area with substrate. I agree with everyone as to housing snakes together. Soo, My Idea If you really want to build a viv to house all the snakes together you should build separaters in the viv and maybe different doors so its like 3 or 4 vivs in one. But then you will end up with a bigger viv than you planned. So its up to you. Im not sure about plexi. Im using glass all the way around with a wood border, and Im not sure what Im gunna use for the vents yet. also Im going to permanantly wire flouresent lighting on the inside for viewing. If you do this make sure what ever light you use on the inside is covered so the snake can not wrap around the bulbs and burn itself. Good luck with the building of the new viv, be sure and post pics when you are done if ya can.