Rack tub sizes? AKA: Am I reading all this right?

Thank you, Shadi. And I am guessing mostly females get housed in the larger ones due to their usually larger size?

you are correct in that assumption. The chances of my males getting to the size of the females I have are pretty slim. And if they did they would have a large tub as well.

dont think for a minute i cant tell you everything about every herp i have and every one i have ever had! :colbert:

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Originally Posted by Valdyr

@MiniJ - Most of the answers that Deborah were giving me were not 100% relevant to what I had entirely asked. It, sadly, ended in an arguement that probably devalued one another in eachother's eyes.

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My first answers were relevant to your original post.

You came here already prejudice against tub housing mainly because of the dimensions,

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Seriously? If that is the case, then forget it... I could never force my snakes into that dull of a life. I mean... how do they MOVE? What is there to explore? Where do they HIDE?! How would you terraform that?

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and I addressed that in my very first post. (You asking to give good reasons only came in your second post and by the time I got to it YOU had already went off topic with aggressive behavior due to feeding methods, not me)

When you went off topic talking about aggressive behavior, I commented on that since the info posted was not correct. Sorry if you have an issue with that but when I see false information I will correct it simply because there are already enough new BP owners that keep thinking that those old wives tales are the truth.

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Plus I probably could have worded this post a bit better, and made it seem a bit less... grouchy and insulting, but I was just trying to give my view of the act of racking snakes in my eyes, hoping that someone would give me some reasons as to why the racks work better than cages (after all, its easier to inform a person when they state why they think something might be bad).

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You are right coming here and asking about tubs housing and their benefit rather than already being prejudice and calling it cruel would have gone a long way compare to your original post, which I also pointed out in my first post.

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Originally Posted by Valdyr

And... oh, I don't know. 5 years of handling large snakes and rattle snakes, a red tailed boa that I owned since I was 7, multiple corn and garter snakes... I could go on with the rest of my animal rescue work resume, if you prefer.

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How many snakes do you own total? How is that you have 5 years' experience with giants and hots and are missing some very basic knowledge about snake husbandry?

What rescue organization are you affiliated with?

Just a quick plug for tanks here. When I had nothing but tanks I didn't like racks. Then I got a beautiful rack system and didn't like tanks. After moving my entire collection to racks I soon realized that some of my snakes actually prefered tanks!!! I made a very cool "rack" system for my 20 gallon tanks and I love it so much I'm making another one. They are lined up side by side with a single strip of 11" flexwatt running under the back end of each tank. My other rack is a Freedom Breeder so it's actually easier for me to maintain humidity in my tanks than my racks. And I love sitting in the snake room at night and watching them all out at once.

I'll put my .02 in here lol. I keep all my snakes with the exception of my male king in racks and all of my BPs seem to be quite happy with their setup. I have 2 RBI 32 qt racks and the smaller snakes are all in divided tubs. I know it's already been said 100 ways but ball pythons like small dark places. In the wild they live in termite and rodent burrows spending most of their lives underground!

I have one girl that, even though she's big enough to be moved up to a full tub, refuses to eat unless she's in one of the divided tubs. Which, even to me seems too small but that's what she wants!

Okay I was in the same situation when I first started with BP. I swore that I would not get a rack system and keep them in tanks so that they could have space to meander around. After about 3 months, and having a hard time keeping proper temps, humidity problems, numerous shed problems, and with them trying to escape every other day by climbing mind you. I came on here to research and found that many people switched to a rack system due to the same problems. I was afraid that these problems would led to an RI problem and or other health problems, thus why I changed to a rack system.

I built my rack from a DIY here on the site. It made keeping the temps and the humidity so much easier to where I had no problems with shedding. I see the same activity that I saw when they were in tanks, they like to come up to the front of the tubs and go underneath the substrate. I keep all of my snakes in a 28qt tubs, and will be buying or building another rack so that my large females can be in CB70's.

On the feeding situation that happened earlier in the thread. My personal opinion is that I feed my snakes frozen thawed in separate enclosures, but some will never take and I have to feed them in there original tubs. This is a must and I will never deviate from that. You will learn what it takes to keep your snakes happy, and healthy. I also have a small collection not like the 50+ that others have, but when my collection gets that big I will switch to feeding in their tubs, due to time constraints.

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Originally Posted by Valdyr

I UNDERSTAND that in the wild these snakes will house themselves in termite dens and rodent burrows, but I view that as more of the equivalent of the HIDE I offer my snake, not the equivalent of his overall living environment. My snake's health is probably a lot like MY health. I know that if I am locked up in a small room for a long period of time, my mental and physical health will start to deteriorate. Maybe its not that way for ball pythons, but I have had no one, necessarily, tell me that this is so and WHY it is so.

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First, I hope you understand your comments are making you sound ignorant and arrogant. There are so many people here with years and years of practical experience to help you. It would behoove you to listen to them.

Next, no you are wrong. Your health is nothing like the health of a ball python...or any snake for that matter. Snakes do not have feelings, or emotions...they have instincts. Professionally I study animal behavior at a tier 1 research university. You cannot put human feelings and emotions on animals..why? because they are not human.

To answer your original question: a 28qt tub is fine for adult balls...41qt for large individuals.

I'm glad I read this thread. I currently have 1 BP (at first I wrote that I had 1 ball, but it didn't look right), and am getting several more in a couple of weeks.
My guy now is in a tank, but I will be putting the others in tubs in a rack. I've done a lot of research, and have realized that the tubs are the best for them. However, part of me was still thinking like the OP that maybe the snakes would be happier in a larger enclosure. so they had "room to roam." All the posts here have help put that to rest for me.
Also good information for when talking to people about how I will house the snakes. When telling one guy about the rack I'm building, his comment was that it sounded like a puppy mill, which is an easy misperception to have.
Thanks to all for the good info.