Ball python enclosure

Hello! It's been awhile since I last posted, Poppy is doing great, and I'm very happy with her bioactive enclosure! Plants, Clean up crew, and microfauna are doing amazing.
I posted my enclosure on another website and some people said my enclosure will be too small when she's a fully grown adult.

I was hoping this enclosure would be big enough for her entire life. Her enclosure is 48x24x14.

What size enclosure would you guys recommend I upgrade to when she's fully grown? Thank you so much. You guys have been so helpful. :)

I think the size is fine, assuming your BP doesn't grow to be really large (they grow their whole life, so much depends on how long she actually lives). But honestly, I don't care for enclosures that are only 14" high, but that's up to you. While BPs don't use much of the height, that's still awkward to reach into (unless it's top-opening?) & not much height after you add substrate & hides, especially if there is a heat source overheat that you don't want the snake to be too close to. Can't comment much without seeing what you actually have.

That will be plenty large enough of an enclosure to house her for life.

By regular traditional enclosure standards, that's an acceptable size for anything other than a truly big BP (6 feet); those recommendations tend to be L x W of the cage = length of the snake.

By "bioactive" standards and reasonable practices, not so much. Even on a naturalistic enclosure mindset that could be a little small. That could be part of the difference in recommendations.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Malum Argenteum

By regular traditional enclosure standards, that's an acceptable size for anything other than a truly big BP (6 feet); those recommendations tend to be L x W of the cage = length of the snake.

By "bioactive" standards and reasonable practices, not so much. Even on a naturalistic enclosure mindset that could be a little small. That could be part of the difference in recommendations.

---

I'm glad you said that...I have no experience with bioactive enclosures, but I was thinking they might need more room.

I'll post a picture of the enclosure when I get home.
I agree 14 inches is pretty short especially with the 4~ inches of substrate and 2~ inch RHP. Thank you guys! do you think a 6x2x2 would be better?

She has 2 hides and a couple of bushy areas where she hangs out in the middle of the enclosure.https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/202...ad2b576bab.jpghttps://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/202...1144a21a6a.jpghttps://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/202...4513c98971.jpghttps://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/202...651be4b823.jpg

I definitely agree with Malum. It's a great size...if it wasn't bioactive.

The downside with BPs is they can produce such a large amount of waste and urine as adults that they will overwhelm the system you currently have.
I think the larger size can work as long as you're on top of scooping a majority of poop when it happens and overturning some of the soil regularly.
Or the larger size can just simply be a nice naturalistic setup without the bioactive to worry about.

Oh yeah, Either way I'm going to be scooping her poop and urates. I just enjoy bioactive set-ups. The clean up crew I got aren't big enough for her waste. :D

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Ruby

...I agree 14 inches is pretty short especially with the 4~ inches of substrate and 2~ inch RHP. Thank you guys! do you think a 6x2x2 would be better?

---

Maybe? It might depend on where you live- how cold it is & how hard it is to keep enclosure warm enough, as that's almost twice the height- all that air will be hard to heat. I think if you need & want the extra work of 6' x 2', that 18" high would be better, if available, & if you can keep the temps. in the right range.