Cage setup

[hondaprelude]

Hello everyone,

I have done my research quite a bit on ball pythons and have started my small collection. I am building a cage for my new additions to my reptile collection and wanted to see if anyone had some advice. My plans for right now are as follows:

Im building a 7'H x 4'W x 2'd cage with 3 cages built in to it.

I am almost done with the one im building for my bearded dragons so ill post pictures of it soon as this cage is going to be identical. The only thing that I am looking for help on is your advice on substrate, hide ideals, things that may have worked for you in the past or things that may not have worked so well in the past so that maybe i wont make those same mistakes. I appreciate all the helpful advice ahead of time.

[carlson]

With balls I've found easiest thing to be rack. I had tons of tanks and was gonna build a display, then I read more into tubs and the four in the tubs are doing better than the one still in a display cage waiting for my next tub set up. I like showing animals so I hesitated doing a rack but I'm glad I did

[kitedemon]

At 7 inches tall you have all the issues of a rack and few advantages. Your enclosure is going to be a nightmare to clean! Unless the whole top opens. I would suggest the configuration most commercial enclosures take of 12 or more inches. Personally 16 is perfect the doors are large enough to get into and it is short enough to hold humidity and heat well. If your doors are on the front and are sliding you need some space for the track and substrate dam. So the opening is 5 inches or less? 4 maybe?? I personally could not get my arm in that.


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[Artemille]

I think they meant 7 feet divided into three cages. So probably 2 feet each plus dividers in between.

[hondaprelude]

Yes i was saying 7 foot by 4 foot by 2 foot and each cage is going to be about 2 foot tall. Thank you for your advice.

[kitedemon]

That makes more sense sorry. I would suggest that 2 feet tall is harder to heat and hold humidity. Personally the 18 inch enclosure I had I ended up cutting down it is just easier all the way around. Royals don't need the height so it is wasted on them. I would suggest min 12 and max 18. ZIt is just easier like this. I think the vision guys have it right at 16 tall enough but not to tall to manage.

[PiercingPrincess]

I built my own cage, put about 600$ into it, making it awesome and getting everything perfect... and then I got more snakes. and then had no where to put them. Its all good to say that you only have three snakes so you only need space for three, but collecting is adictive.. I switched to racks that i build, holds 9 adults in one, and the other holds 10 sub adults and 16 babies, taking up the same amount of space as the one i had made and it only cost me 200$ for everything. It's saved me so much time and effort and the snakes seem happy and healthy.
I dont mean to be harsh, but just sharing from my own experiance.

[KMG]

I have a 2 foot tall cage for my gtp. I run a rhp which works great for him, but at 2 feet for a terrestrial snake the rhp would be nearly useless. 2 feet doesn't seem like much but it really is for a terrestrial setup.

I have three other pvc cages that are 15 inches running both rhp and belly heat. I would say 15-16 inches is the perfect size. They are not overly tall once stacked and offer plenty of room to clean and manage your snakes. Anything over that is going to be a waste of space stealing heat and humidity.

It sounds like your going with a one foot base and six feet of cage space. That's 72 inches of cage space. You could have three like you said but I think a better way would be four 15 inch cages and one 12 inch, or add three inches and have five 15 inch cages. You could also make the base three inches shorter and have five 15 inch cages at the same 7 foot height you planned for.