Would a male ball python reach 5 feet

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Originally Posted by Starscream

Even if your snake is more arboreal, it is still best to give them the option to stretch out fully. Therefore, if you want to have good height and still give your snake decent room, I would recommend upgrading to something longer and still tall enough for climbing room. At minimum 3x2 for a 5 foot snake, but bigger is always better. Just give lots of hiding options and clutter, and add as many climbing things as you want.

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My BP is a shy animal. He does not like to be seen a lot. He won,t fit good in a glass tank. There are times at night when he gets real active, in such times i have to get him out of his enclosure because he will be too active no matter how big the enclosure is. By the way, the amount of space he is getting is very good compared with what some members in this forum said they are housing their balls in. I have read suggestions in this forum that 0,82 feet (25 cm) height is enough for an adult ball python. Plenty of people keep even adult boas in racks and they aren't quite 12 inches high. They need such recommendations of yours.

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Originally Posted by Dutti

My 4 years and 10 months old male ball python is currently 4 feet long or almost 4 feet long. Would he reach 5 feet in the future or he will continue to grow in girth only? I,m asking because i just built for him a new enclosure, size in feet: 2 long, 2,62 deep, 3,30 high. I am wondering if this enclosure size would be enough for him forever or i will have to upgrade in the future?

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2 feet long is way too small for a 5 foot snake no matter how you try and rationalize it. They would benefit more from floor space. They are arboreal to an extent but they arent skilled climbers like boas. My pied girl is 4.5 feet long and will be 4 years old next month and i have her in a T10 with a shelf and that is plenty for her and she is a very active BP. half the time she sits out laying around lol.

In my opinion, the sweet spot for cage height is 18-24 inches. Anything higher requires the addition of an RHP to warm the air in the cage unless you keep the room around 78-80F.

And i would be very surprised if a male BP reached 5 feet. Like i said, my female pied is 4.5 feet and 4 years old next month. At last weigh in she was just over 1600 grams and that was after her 6 month fast. Since then she has been eating 2 small rats or a medium rat every week. And she was a garbage can as a baby and ate anything that got close to her. Sure you dont have a female?

Bottom line, there is nothing wrong with going for a tall cage but you need to balance it out with the floor space as this isnt a GTP and even those, you still want at least 3 feet of cage length for an adult. My rule of thumb is i have my cages long enough for my snakes to stretch out. The only exception is Caesar my retic who atm is in a T25 72x30x18 with a shelf and he is 7 feet long. I will most likely be upgrading him to a T65 next summer 96x30x18 with a shelf and giving the old cage to my suriname.

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Originally Posted by Dutti

My BP is a shy animal. He does not like to be seen a lot. He won,t fit good in a glass tank. There are times at night when he gets real active, in such times i have to get him out of his enclosure because he will be too active no matter how big the enclosure is. By the way, the amount of space he is getting is very good compared with what some members in this forum said they are housing their balls in. I have read suggestions in this forum that 0,82 feet (25 cm) height is enough for an adult ball python. Plenty of people keep even adult boas in racks and they aren't quite 12 inches high. They need such recommendations of yours.

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Your animal is shy. That is why you add clutter and more hides. He is very active to the point you need to take him out. Give him more room to roam and he will use it. I mentioned nothing about glass tanks. Please also note that I said at minimum. I prefer to give mine the ability to stretch out in one direction plus height. So for me, my personal rule is the cage is at minimum the length of the snake.

When Maze is old enough I plan on putting her in a 6x2x2 or larger, because I know she will use the space and I do plan on making it as cluttered as possible.

If I were you I would also look into the recommendation of a RHP. They create a more natural heat gradient than an UTH. Plus with greater height you can make more variable basking spots so your snake can pick what temperature he wants to be.

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Originally Posted by Sauzo

2 feet long is way too small for a 5 foot snake no matter how you try and rationalize it. They would benefit more from floor space. They are arboreal to an extent but they arent skilled climbers like boas. My pied girl is 4.5 feet long and will be 4 years old next month and i have her in a T10 with a shelf and that is plenty for her and she is a very active BP. half the time she sits out laying around lol.

In my opinion, the sweet spot for cage height is 18-24 inches. Anything higher requires the addition of an RHP to warm the air in the cage unless you keep the room around 78-80F.

And i would be very surprised if a male BP reached 5 feet. Like i said, my female pied is 4.5 feet and 4 years old next month. At last weigh in she was just over 1600 grams and that was after her 6 month fast. Since then she has been eating 2 small rats or a medium rat every week. And she was a garbage can as a baby and ate anything that got close to her. Sure you dont have a female?

Bottom line, there is nothing wrong with going for a tall cage but you need to balance it out with the floor space as this isnt a GTP and even those, you still want at least 3 feet of cage length for an adult. My rule of thumb is i have my cages long enough for my snakes to stretch out. The only exception is Caesar my retic who atm is in a T25 72x30x18 with a shelf and he is 7 feet long. I will most likely be upgrading him to a T65 next summer 96x30x18 with a shelf and giving the old cage to my suriname.

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He is not 5 feet, he is 4 feet. I was asking if he could reach 5 feet in the future. And yes the room is around 80f. He can strech out to the above, he will be having a second floor. He is really a semi-arboreal snake. Now i will see first how things work out in this cage.

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Originally Posted by Starscream

Your animal is shy. That is why you add clutter and more hides. He is very active to the point you need to take him out. Give him more room to roam and he will use it. I mentioned nothing about glass tanks. Please also note that I said at minimum. I prefer to give mine the ability to stretch out in one direction plus height. So for me, my personal rule is the cage is at minimum the length of the snake.

When Maze is old enough I plan on putting her in a 6x2x2 or larger, because I know she will use the space and I do plan on making it as cluttered as possible.

If I were you I would also look into the recommendation of a RHP. They create a more natural heat gradient than an UTH. Plus with greater height you can make more variable basking spots so your snake can pick what temperature he wants to be.

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Now he will be ok in this cage as he is 4 feet only. He can now strech out but only in one direction to the above. If he grows longer like raches 4,5 feet or more i will have to consider making for him a new cage. But the maximum i could add will be 0,60 feet in length. So a future cage would be 2,60 instead of 2 feet long. That,s it because i don,t have much space left. But 0,60 feet would make a differance. All my snakes have only belly heat except my GTP who has heating from above. Its working good for all of them. The tempreture isn,t a problem. The room itself is warm. In sommer they do not use the belly heat at all.

So, here's the thing. You ask for thoughts/advice, and when it's given to you, it seems you disregard it if it isn't what you want to hear. I'm not trying to be rude, just reciting from observations in this thread and others.

I can understand ignoring my advice -- I'm new, I only have one snake, and a young one at that. But there people here with plenty of experience, like Sauzo here, who know what they are talking about. And they say your animal needs more space. It doesn't matter if you don't have room. This is what your animal, at minimum, needs.

If you can't provide the bare minimum for your animal, you might want to consider rehoming it. There is no shame in admitting you cannot provide for an animal- I would argue that it takes more strength to admit you are wrong.

I ask you, please, to consider what is best for your animal, not you, and make a decison based on that.

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Originally Posted by Starscream

So, here's the thing. You ask for thoughts/advice, and when it's given to you, it seems you disregard it if it isn't what you want to hear. I'm not trying to be rude, just reciting from observations in this thread and others.

I can understand ignoring my advice -- I'm new, I only have one snake, and a young one at that. But there people here with plenty of experience, like Sauzo here, who know what they are talking about. And they say your animal needs more space. It doesn't matter if you don't have room. This is what your animal, at minimum, needs.

If you can't provide the bare minimum for your animal, you might want to consider rehoming it. There is no shame in admitting you cannot provide for an animal- I would argue that it takes more strength to admit you are wrong.

I ask you, please, to consider what is best for your animal, not you, and make a decison based on that.

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The size of the cage is not small. If i just turned it around everybody would say its big enough. Its that the height is more than the lenght. I doubt that someone else has such a cage. Now read please this thread and you will see that many of those experienced keepers don,t provide their BP,s with half or even 30 % of the height which i gave my BP to climb. Tell them please to consider rehoming their snakes: https://ball-pythons.net/forums/show...closure-height

Thank you for proving my point. Have a nice day. :)

I have a 46 inch male and I can guarantee without a doubt your male needs more space. I just upgraded to a 4 foot enclosure and that is just about big enough. If you don't think ball pythons like to stretch out, you are sorely mistaken.

I've always been told that ball pythons prefer long length, shorter heights, and narrow width.

My 40 glass tank is 48" long, 18" wide and 18" tall, and seemed the perfect size. I now have all of them in tubs, in a rack system to conserve electricity for the winter, and they seem happy in there. I suppose they would like to climb sometimes, but I was always told that LENGTH of the enclosure was the most important for balls.

I don't really know the answer to this, as it seems some beeps love to climb, and I personally like to keep them in larger enclosures if I can afford to heat it, and keep it humid!