What kind of Cage Door do You Like?

[Junkyard]

I am in the planning process of building a big cage setup, I need to decide what kind of doors would be best. I have used sliding, top hinged, and bottom hinged doors on quite a few cages. I have not used a side hinged cage yet. I know for a fact I do NOT want top hinged doors. Maybe those with more experience can give me some ideas on what to use.

Please share why you like the way the doors on your cages open.

To give you an idea, I am building three 7 foot long stackable bottom cages, on one side of the cage will be a 3 foot long 5 high stackables. Across the top will be five 2 foot long cages. I may even do two 5 foot long cages below the 2 foot long ones or build five more 2 foot long cages to stack. This is only a roughed out idea, things will change as I go and as I refine my design.

Thanks

 

[Bill & Amy]

I have used sliding, top hinged, and bottom hinged doors on quite a few cages. I have not used a side hinged cage yet. I know for a fact I do NOT want top hinged doors. Maybe those with more experience can give me some ideas on what to use.

I agree with the "do NOT want top hinged doors". They are not worth the hassle. I have used cages with all the different styles and seem to prefer either the sliding or the side hinged doors. As far as building cages, the side hinged doors are much easier to make and operate for a stack. With a large stack of cages with sliding doors, with time any "settling" can cause the doors to stick. The homemade cages I had used for my burms, I had constructed the side hinged doors. The worked quite nice because you could open the door and it was out of the way. I had one cage that had the bottom hinged door and I broke it the second time I took the burm out.

 

[hhmoore]

Bill made the important point - when stacking large cages with sliding glass doors, they will bow slightly in the middle (unless you somehow brace the center). This causes the doors to bind and makes gaining entry a problem. It isn't too bad at 4 ft, but 6ft or larger would probably not work too well. Even the early Vision cages had this problem, if I am not mistaken, so you can't even blame heavy cages. I prefer smoothly functioning sliding doors for venomous, and side hinged doors for most boids.

 

[Clay Davenport]

I generally prefer bottom hinged doors. Side hinged is fine but at a certain point in cage width one door that swings to the side is no longer practical and needs to be split. For instance you really don't want to have to have 4 feet of clearance in front of a four foot cage so the door can swing open. Bottom hinged doors only have to have clearance equal to the cage height.
Sliding doors are handy, but they are not my preference because a lot of the time I like to have full access to the entire cage. With sliding doors half the door opening is blocked at all times. I have had really spastic snakes that would take full advantage of this and when you reached in oen side they would immediately run to the other.
For venomous I prefer top access cages. In a stacked situation though I would rather go with sliding for them though. Hinged doors are a little more dangerous with hots to me because when the door is first being opened there is a space the snake can use but you have no control over.

I've been real pleased with the doors I put in these cages:
http://www.arbreptiles.com/cages/4x2.shtml
Being made of acrylic and unframed, they are very light weight. I wouldn't use these for over 4 feet in width without modification due to the potential of sagging binding the doors.

 

[hhmoore]

I guess I should have been more specific. With cages 4ft (or more) long, I prefer two side hinged doors, as long as the cage height is about 2ft. for shorter heights, I do like bottom hinged doors.
For venomous, if I am not stacking sterilite in a large cage, I like the old style neodesha cages. They don't stack nicely, but that tall in front/short in back construction makes for easy access; they're easily locked; and they are great for doing offsite displays. The downside to them was, if you had the plexi doors, they had a tendency to warp and bind

 

[Junkyard]

Thank you, that gives me a lot to think about. Those are some very good points.

 

[Art Klass]

I built these and they work very well for me.

 

[Skunky]

Those are very nice Art! Must've taken a good while!

 

[Junkyard]

Art, those look very good! I am guessing mine will be pretty mediocre.

I am thinking sliding doors on the 7 foot cages, drop down doors on the 5 foot cages, and swinging doors on the 2 foot cages. My concern on the bottom cages is not having the room for swinging doors or drop down one. So I guess I will have to put together some supports inside the cage. Maybe those metal supports for beams, they will be hidden and are very sturdy. The 3 foot cages though, I think drop down will work fine for those.

 

[Chris_Harper2]

I am building three 7 foot long stackable bottom cages, on one side of the cage will be a 3 foot long 5 high stackables. Across the top will be five 2 foot long cages. I may even do two 5 foot long cages below the 2 foot long ones or build five more 2 foot long cages to stack.
Thanks

For larger cages that require a center front brace a lot of the differences among door types tend to dispear as you can't have the entire front of the cage open anyways for thorough cleaning. So keep that in mind. Having a hinged door with a center brace present is not much different than having a sliding door without it.

Regardless, I prefer sliding doors for almost any application. I like the because...

1) For the fast moving species I keep I can open a door only wide enough to remove a water bowl, introduce a prey item, etc. It also allows me to slowly slide a door shut as a snake is crawling back into it's cage.

2) Generally provides a more open and clean look to the front of the cage.

3) I really like that the doors can be easily and completely removed. This is very handy during cleaning but really shines when moving the cage. It is so much lighter and easier to move a cage with sliding doors removed. It gives you someplace to put your hand.

4) By far the easiest door system to build, although this does not matter much to me.

I do prefer hinged doors for live-bearing venomous species as I believe they are generally more escape proof for tiny hatchlings. For slow moving tree vipers I usually built inset acrylic doors that flip down.

For faster moving live-bearing venomous I like doors that hinge to the side. I found it easier to use a hook in one hand to close these doors without taking my eye off of the snake. Flip down doors tended to bang around a bit more and spook the snake, especially if I was trying to do it while keeping my eyes on the snake.

For egg laying venomous I never could decide if I prefered a properly functioning sliding door system or doors that hinged to the side. I used both and they had their pros and cons.

I no longer work with venomous so it's pretty much sliding doors for me.

 

[Junkyard]

That is great information, thank you.

 

[YJHB]

I love my side opening screen doors, but if you don't have room for them to open on the bottom, your idea (I think this is what you meant by "wooden supports" inside the cage, to support the cage front when it is swung up inside the top of the cage, kind of how those old glass front bookcases work) would be great for a larger, slower animal. A bigger snake wouldn't get up inside the workings enough to poop in them...