Which cage company to go with?

Animal Plastics has terrific customer service. I am affiliated with them but have been in the process of a major upheaval in my personal life so that aspect of my business has been put on the backburner. Mark is a terrific gentleman and I have no doubt he would do right by you.

Jungle Habitats
420JSC 48”x24”x12” w/ lights & Heat $295.00 shipped
Comes with 2 lights , 11" flex watt heat , 2 locks , cage liners & expandable options on both ends for no additonal charge .and with a 1" aluminum angle frame you will never have to worry about doors that bind when stacked and shipping is included in the price .

Yeah that is what I was thinking for the geckos tooo but he only makes them in white...I ordered 2 of the 24 x 24 x 12 for 4 leos each, and there being shipped Monday. As far as the boas and BP's ill have them in a rack while there young and then into 3 or 4 footers for each one and for the boas probably 6 foot or bigger from AP. Does anyone have there larger cages, any sagging? Thanks for all the replies guys I really appricate it.
-Matt Graybeal

I have 4 of the Boaphile 24 x 18 x18 arboreal cages with helix heat panels installed. They rock!! Lightweight and the perches he includes are awesome. They have a notch so they don't rotate and he roughed up the surface of the PVC so my chondros had a good grip on the perch. My boaphiles rock... But a lil too expensive too in my opinion.

As for Moonstruck's , The price seriously can't be beat and their customer service so far is great. I made an inquiry on Friday got a response later in about an hour. I ended up ordering a few cages from them as well.

Now I almost bought the 421D boaphiles over the moonstuck's, but I went with the moonstucks because of the two plexiglas doors instead of the single door on the boaphile. Just my two cents. I prefer the dual doors on a 4 foot cage.

Simon Lin

CAGES
I have BARRS
I have Precision (lots of them)
I have Boaphiles.
I like them all.

BARRS and Precision to me seem to be the same.
Except Precision is just more aesthetically pleasing.
And Precision comes with more extras or upgrades more customizable. (heat pads, Lights, dividers, holes etc)

Boaphiles are also plenty customizable. And Jeff is also a terific guy like the owners of the first two companies are.

Moonstuck. They seem to be an up and coming cage maker. I have correscponded with them ever so briefly and I was rather pleased. I think I will try them out in the future.

For my everyday ball Pythons and Redtail boas. I would keep them in a BARRS or a Precision. Even some of my Burms are in them.

But If I had HUGE Retics and or Anacondas. Those I would keep in a boaphile. Nothing against BARRS or Precision. But the boaphile metal hinges just give me a lot more confidence than the plastic ones from BARRS and Precision.


So basically what I am saying is......all the cage makers are good. I guess you just gotta balance out your needs, wants, financing and whatever else you need and decide for yourself. I do not think you can go wrong with any of them.


RACKS
I have Boaphile Racks
I also have Natures Spirit Racks
I also have my own homemade Rack wich can house 80-96 animals in shoeboxes
Each Rack was bought or made because of the needs and wants that I had. Each rack had the specifications I needed or wanted.

So you just gotta examine what it is you need and go from there.
You can't go wrong with racks from either of these two.

I only have 12 BARRS cage's so far for my Arboreal's but I love them. You can't beat the price for a cage that good.
Tim

We have two of Moonstruck Exotics 4' boa cages. Everything was exactly as described and they are working out really well. Customer service was top notch.

I have one rack from Boaphile and one on the way. Really excellent construction and I like the "plug n play" feature (nothing to wire, just plug it into the controller). Customer service has been great.

I think the real thing lacking in the cage industry across the board is turn around time. The company that can get same day or next day shipping will be leaps and bounds above the competition. I routinely pass up on animal purchases because I'd have to wait for caging.

I inquired about the cages then I ordered 2 of them. I wanted to test drive them for awhile before I ordered more. One cage was going to have a divider installed. I sent money via Pay pal on Oct. 19 2003. After Moonstruck Exotics received my payment they said the would contact me on the progress. I inquired a few times after the 3 weeks time had elapsed. I was having a few e-mail issues (sometimes taking several days to receive e-mails) so it didn’t concern me that hadn’t heard from them.

I sent Neil and Lisa an e-mail on Nov. 21 asking if they had been sent and if so could I have the tracking number. Moonstruck sent a reply on Nov. 24 “I am switching to ups for my shipping ( from fedex) way to many losses. Ups is saying they will be better(we will see!) They have to come by and inspect my packaging for credit on a damage claim. Sorry for all of the delays, but will next week work?” I said next week would be great. I inquired again on Dec. 4 2003 about the cage status. They sent this response “Charles, one cage went out yesterday Ups tracking# 1zy71f450399182054 The one with the divider is going out monday...Thanks again for your patience.”

I didn’t receive my first cage till Dec. 16 2003. The cage had brown box tape on it which when removed left brown adhesive on the cage. Not a serious problem. It was also missing the heat tape (double checked their Kingsnake ad to make sure I wasn’t mistaken about it coming with heat tape). I e-mailed about my concerns. They responded the same day “Hi Chuck, I am sorry for the tape sticking. I tried a new kind, and apparently it’s not the one I want to use.Try a little rubbing alcohol on it, but make sure not to get any on the doors!! It will cloud them up. My heat just arrived yesterday, so I will send heat, cords and clips with the divider cage, which will go out thursday at the latest. Sorry for all these delays, I am ready to pull my hair out with all these problems, but it is getting much better (growing pains I guess) If you need other cages in the future, I will make sure it goes a lot smoother, and I will give you a discount for the trouble.” As of Dec. 28 2003 I am still waiting on the divided cage and the heat tape for the first cage.

The cages themselves are well constructed. It would be nice to have a knob or something on the doors so you could open them (have to use the key to open). I wouldn’t have a problem doing more business with them if they could guarantee delivery times. Luckily I wasn’t in a real hurry to get these.

I attached a picture of the cage with to tape adhesive.

Just to let you know my experience with Vision cages and leopard geckos with their similar size cages. The babies and small geckos can easily escape between the sliding glass panels. The dam in front is very problematic with the animals hiding in it - if you are an enthusiastic cleaner you can accidently wipe over a hiding gecko causing injury to it.
However, the Visions are great for other applications that would not be affected by these two things and I have purchased MANY Visions. Please think about this with other sliding glass cages with dams.
When I get back into geckos, I will go back to sweater and shoe box racks. I have not chosen a manufacturer. I have been a big breeder in the past of leopard geckos.

It sounds like im going with Animal Plastics. They have some excellent customer service, even email at 11:00 at night . Thanks for all the votes and input guys. The quality of the cage is the main concern but customer service is right up there with that. AP seems to have it going on, Ill keep you guys posted.
-Matt Graybeal