How to Make a Snake Cage

When your rambunctious and fearless child brings home a garden snake and asks to keep it for a few days, you need more than a shoebox to keep it in. You need to make a snake cage fast, but how do you make it?

Difficulty: Moderately Easy

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• 20-gallon empty aquarium or larger
• Aspen bedding or play sand
• Wooden stick about 18 inches long and at least one-inch diameter
• Flat rock, an inch, or two tall, with four to six inch diameter
• Hollow fake rock to hide in or butter container, upside down, cut an entrance
• Water dish, no more than one inch deep
• Light bulb (40 watt) in a reflective fixture
• A fluorescent light in a fixture, the one that came with the aquarium lid is great
• Metal and mesh aquarium lid, or some screen

1. The easiest way to make a snake cage is to turn an unused aquarium into the perfect snake habitat. Clean the empty aquarium thoroughly with a mixture of water and a few drops of bleach. Use paper towel to wipe it clean and dry.

2. Place the aspen bedding in the bottom about an inch thick. If you don’t have aspen bedding, you can use play sand, or reptile sand but it is expensive. If using sand, also spread it about an inch thick.

3. 
   Place rock under the light for sunning

   Place the rock under the spot where you plan to put the reflective light fixture. This will be a sunning rock for your snake. Place the hiding rock in the center, and place the water dish away from the light. Place the stick angled from a bottom corner to the opposite top corner.

4. Place the light fixture on the inside of the cage. Have the top of the fixture touching the lid, pull the cord through, and plug it in. You can set the light fixture on top of the lid, but risk another pet knocking it onto the floor.

5. Place the mesh lid over the top, if you don’t have one use some screen. If you are in a hurry attach it with duct tape, but later make a wooden frame and staple the screen to it.

6. 
   Aquarium ready for pets

   Set the fluorescent fixture on top of the screen or mesh lid, plug it in, and turn it on. You are ready to put a snake in the cage.

Tips & Warnings

• If you want to make a cage out of plywood then do the following:
• Cut out the following pieces from the plywood.
• Two pieces 12 inches wide by 24 inches long – bottom and lid
• Two pieces 18 inches tall by 24 inches long – front and back
• Two pieces 18 inches tall by 12 inches wide – the two ends
• Cut out the center of the front piece and staple screen to the inside frame. Cut the center out of the lid and staple screen to the frame. Assemble like a box. Use the hinges to attach the top and the front. This will make it easier to clean. Once assembled, place supplies in as indicated above.
• If you must place the heat lamp on top of the cage, try attaching it to something. You can even duct tape the cord to the side of the cage.