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The Best Reptile Cage
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by Cro on May 30, 2005
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My friend Will (ASP) and I have been considering starting a side line business manafacturing reptile cages.
What we have in mind is a line of vaccume molded cages, similar to the old Neodesha Plastics cages. I have access to vaccume molding machines and a workshop to set up this business, if we decide to do this.
The old Neodesha cages were reasonably priced, very secure, and light weight. They did, however, not stack, and got brittle with age, and would break if dropped, and would discolor when some cleaning solutions were used on them.
We have in mind a cage that would be made of somewhat heavier plastic, possibly ABS, something that would not get brittle with age, and be more resistant to cleaning chemicals. This would, however, be somewhat more costly.
We would use tempered sliding glass in an aluminum channell, just like Neodesha did.
The cages would all come with a dam in the front to retain substrate, and a double layer of vent screen on the top, and on the sides of the larger cages.
We would change the slope of the back of the cage so that you could use a floresent strip light without it sliding off, but the top would not be totally flat.
I am not sure if the cages could be made to stack or not. This type of cage is labor intensive to produce, with the installing the rails and screens, that is one reason why Neodesha stopped making them.
We would offer a basic line of cages at first, say 18', 24', 36", and 48". Later on we would add larger, tall cages more suitable for arborial snakes and big cages suitable for large pythons and groups of snakes. We would not offer the rack system cages. We would consider offering custom designed cages for zoos and reptile parks. We would also offer a discount to members of SHHS and SSAR on the purchase of cages.
We looked into purchasing the Neodesha line of cages and molds, but they want to sell the whole product line, and the price is much more than we are willing to spend.
What I am looking for is Your Ideas, Help, and Suggestions on what would be the Ideal Reptile Cage. What would you like to see in a cage? What price range would be reasonable? What special features should a cage have? What size cages would be most useful? This will help us decide if this venture is worth doing or not. If we decide to go with this idea, we would create molds for the custom design, and purchase used vaccume molding machines and kind of start small, and and try to build a business.
Thanks in advance for any ideas, and suggestions that you might have! Best Regards JohnZ
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RE: The Best Reptile Cage
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by earthguy on May 31, 2005
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Great idea John. I love to see small businesses taking off (small businesses drive our economy and inovation) I will attempt to be of some help here. Hey, do I get a double discount because I'm SHHS and SSAR? ;)
1. What price range would be reasonable?
Tough question. You'll have to rely on the established market for this one.
2. What special features should a cage have?
Many herps require special temps, humidities, etc. A humidifier/dehumidifier might be beneficial. Radiant heating (like the systems used in tile floors up north) might be nice. An escape hatch with a fitted tube would be nice for moving skiddish herps (like mambas) safely from one place to another.
3. What size cages would be most useful?
I am happy with the standard sized cages that most producers have on the market now.
I hope this helps. Best of luck to you.
Josh
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RE: The Best Reptile Cage
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by herpboy on May 31, 2005
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sounds like a great idea! I'm going to have to think more about the details though, but ill post them when I come to a conclusion.
Thanks
Bryan Hudson
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RE: The Best Reptile Cage
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by LarryDFishel on May 31, 2005
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Whatever you do, make the bottoms smooth with curved edges rather than sharp corners. This makes them much easier to clean.
I would certainly make the substrate dams optional or at least have some height options for them. The ones on the neodeshas were a bit too high for some purposes. Certain snakes insisted on spending all their time hiding just behind the dams.
Stackable sounds nice, but the more I've thought about it, the more I suspect that making them strong enough will require so much more plastic, and make them so heavy that the cost of materials and shipping may kill you. It might be better to work up a design for a cage that will look good in a rack made of 2X4's and give away plans for the racks with the cages... Just a thought.
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RE: The Best Reptile Cage
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by Sal on May 31, 2005
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One thing I like in dealing with venomous snakes is the lid on top. It makes it a little more difficult for the animal to get out during cage cleaning. The front opening cages get me nervous that a quick bolt from the snake and it can get out. I have a watersnake in a Precision Cage and it gets out occasionally during cleaning.
Thats just my opinion though...
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RE: The Best Reptile Cage
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by Cro on June 4, 2005
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Thanks for the ideas so far ! After looking at my old Neodesha cages, I can see that the substrate dam is too high. Snakes could easily hide behind it. It needs to be high enough to hold back substrate, but not nearly as high as Neodesha had.
Please send any other ideas you have.
Best Regards JohnZ
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