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Help finding Cages

I

iamthedeadman

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I've been looking all over for some quality sliding door cages. And either they're not as good of quality as I would like, or they don't come in sizes long enough. Anyone know anywhere with a good variety of sizes, or anywhere that custom makes them for a decent price? I would just do it as a DIY but yeah, no time at all between caring for animals, kids, wife, and working lol.
 
This sounds like a question for the herpinator...

Check Craigslist.

Animal plastics aslo rocks :)
 
iamthedeadman said:
I've been looking all over for some quality sliding door cages. And either they're not as good of quality as I would like, or they don't come in sizes long enough. Anyone know anywhere with a good variety of sizes, or anywhere that custom makes them for a decent price? I would just do it as a DIY but yeah, no time at all between caring for animals, kids, wife, and working lol.
Click to expand...

I also prefer sliding doors and am also very picky about their function. Can you tell me what cages you have tried and what you did not like about them? I may be able to give you some advice on how to make them work better. More on that in a bit.

Animal Plastics, PVCCages, Vision & Freedom Breeder all have sliding doors or a sliding door option.

Another option is to have AP or PVC or maybe even Freedom Breeder build you a cage without doors and then you can just spec out some quality aluminum roller track locally.

If you like Vision Cages but don't like the door I recommend rubbing paste wax into both the lower and upper track. It does wonders for their doors, at least in the 4' and smaller cages. In fact this does wonders for any plastic track. I have also used silicone spray and that also works well.

Vision cages are very durable so if you can find one on the used market you could probably also justify cutting out the track it comes with and installing a track that you prefer.

If I remember correctly, I have also heard of someone removing the rubber edging in Vision glass and replacing it with something not so bulky. I have not tried this myself but I understand it did wonders for the cage. I believe Visions rely on that tight fit for shipping reasons and so their cages do not require locks.

At any rate, just throwing some ideas out there in case it helps. Honestly I believe you could buy any cage with sliders you like and get the doors to work to your liking. The exception being with extremely large glass doors, in particular ones where the height of each glass panel approaches two times the width.
 
Well thanks for the help lol. But when I told my wife I was thinking about buying the cages instead of building them she chewed my head off. Now she's in the process of drawing out the plans for them. Nothing worse then having a wife who knows how to draft. Ugh. So yeah, I guess when we start the process of building them I'll start having pictures for you guys. She's going to join the sides together with dovetails. Should be interesting.
 
"She's going to join the sides together with dovetails."

Uhh, you may want to step in right about there!

J/K, good luck on the project. Don't forget the pics.
 
iamthedeadman said:
Well thanks for the help lol. But when I told my wife I was thinking about buying the cages instead of building them she chewed my head off. Now she's in the process of drawing out the plans for them. Nothing worse then having a wife who knows how to draft. Ugh. So yeah, I guess when we start the process of building them I'll start having pictures for you guys. She's going to join the sides together with dovetails. Should be interesting.
Click to expand...

Make sure you let her draw up the plans, then price everything. I was shocked. AP makes racks for less than I can build them for (shipped).
 
iamthedeadman said:
She's going to join the sides together with dovetails. Should be interesting.
Click to expand...

When I hear of dovetails I assume solid wood, which is not a good idea for reptile cages that tend to have significant humidity and temperature differentials inside and outside of the cage.

Reptile cages should really be built from some sort of engineered sheet good to limit expansion/contraction.

You can still join plywood with dovetails but then some sort of high-ply material is highly recommended, in which case you are limited to birch veneers unless you laminate something else over the top.

I would think about this very carefully.
 
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