Burm cage size

OK, this is going to be a housing question but very specific to an albino burm so I put it here rather than in the housing section. I hope that doesn't matter to anyone.

I have a 14 foot male albino burm that a friend of mine has been caring for for a while after I moved. I am getting ready to set up a gage for him now but the only problem is that the cage will need to be in a part of my store that sees a quite a bite of traffic. I would prefer not to have him on such direct display so I have devised a cage plan that I thought might give him the seclusion that I think he would like but would still allow people to view him if they wanted to. I have a couple of questions however.

first of all, the cage dimensions will be 96X36X18 made of plywood. What I wanted to do was section of a portion and make sort of a blind hide with just a small viewing window on one end of it. I was wondering if 36X36 would be enough. I am thinking that when large snakes are holed up they are most likely coiled so they wouldn't need the room to stretch out. Another question that brings up is would 60x36 be enough for the lighted side. I would like to partition off the two sides leaving just an appropriate sized hole for access. which I could also close off for feeding and cleaning safety. Inside the hide section I would like to put a couple of small red LED lights so people could look in through the window if they wanted. I could put them on a timer to shut off at night but would the red LED bother him if they were left on over night?

I would most likely put the water on the lighted side because the other side would be too small. If I get really ambitious I thought of another idea that I might try to incorporate if I can work it out. On the hide side I was thinking of making the shell of the cage hollow and running heat tape along along the top, side and bottom portions to make the hiding place sort of like an oven controlled by a thermostat. I figured 3 rows of 4" tape Each one about 6-7 feet long would be sufficient to raise the temps enough. Would this work do you think or would a single 11' trip be better. It would be easier to wire that's for sure.

Those are my main questions. If I can get those answered I can proceed with the actual plans. If anything comes of it I will post pictures.

Thanks

My thoughts.

Starting with the cage dimensions, I would suggest making the cage 36" high. The length and width are good, but 18" seems a but on the shallow side.

The hide seems okay in size as this is for a male. How were you thinking about partitioning off the cage? Leaving only 60" for a 14 foot snake to stretch out seems a bit short. I would suggest making the cage longer, if I understand correctly how you want to partition off the cage. Now if you were to set up a partition that you can drop, or slide, in the cage so the snake can have full floor space when it is alone and would give you the option of being able to partition it off during feeding/cleaning without compromising a loss of space.

Lighting setup seems fine. Having a red light on all night would probably not bother the guy much at all.

Heating, either way you go is good, though 11 inch tape would just simply be easier to work with.

That is my two cents.

I had pretty much the same thoughts, Michael:
18" tall is not really enough when you are dealing with a 36" deep cage - you won't be able to reach the back without leaning inside. 2ft tall allows good access...3 ft tall allows you to put small children inside to do the cleaning for you
The hide - I haven't kept a snake that size in 10 yrs, so I'm having a hard time combining memory + spacial relations. You see him all the time, so I'll accept that the dimensions will be sufficient. It will, however, detract significantly (too much, IMO) from the floor space of the cage. Michael offered a great idea - namely having the hide below the cage. You could use the other portion underneath for supply storage, thermostat housing, etc.
There are a few different options for heating, though FlexWatt (Calorique) is probably the cheapest approach. 6", 17", and 24" widths are also available. If you are planning on keeping the tape only in the covered portion, will that provide high enough temps for the rest of the enclosure?

Can't wait to see the finished product!!

i also agree with every one plus how u construct the hide area is important u must have full access i have had many snakes defacate in ther hide boxes so something u could slide in and out would be ideal