racks vs. tanks

MarkS...you're right, the bark costs a small fortune....and picking out poop is not my idea of a good time...cleaning water and picking out the obvious each day is tough enough.....i change bark when needed, but admittedly not weekly......great point!

BeardedDragon....only one of my snakes is wild caught and she was given to me free because the pet store was about to toss her......i knew NOTHING about snakes but brought her home anyway....she's 8 now...refused to eat once last winter.....i must be doing something right :)

leaves are not real in her enclosure...though i DO take the wire out of any artificial plants...just in case

thanks again!

i use to use tanks as every other herper here that now has racks. i also used show case cages from showcasecages.com (36") when i only had 2 ball pythons....tanks are nice if you have one or two balls ( i know some keep alot more in individual tanks) but energy wise and space wise it just donesnt make since to me. racks seem to keep level heat and level humidity which are the largest factors in keeping balls. with the tanks or show cages there is so much work that needs to be done to keep proper temps and humidity compaired. plus add in the UTH and the light/heat bulb needed and the power it takes adds up.

if keeping many snakes of the same kind it just is an easier way to do things and give them what they need at the same time.

I use tubs and custom built cages... I like tubs bc they hold the heat and humidity but they only come so big(116qt being the biggest)... to me thats not enough room for my large full grown snakes so the big ones get 4x2x1.5ft wooden cages. These hold the heat and humidity very well and I have no issues. I use to like the natural look but the mulch costs too much and u cant see the poop n pee very well... I stick with newspaper for the bedding bc when its clean its 100% clean... As for the naturality... I have 2 hides, a water bowl, and something for them to climb on. Id stick to plastic for the climbing things bc is you get wood and they piss/poop on it your gonna have a hard time getting it clean... with the plastic a good scrub will take all the nasties out. I have some pics in my gallery of my tubs/cages if you want a visual.

To me you should offer all animals as much space as possible as long as your still meeting housing requirements... in this case heat/humidity... as the enclosures get larger it becomes more of a challenge to keep heat/humidity where they need to be especially if your using a glass tank.