Enclosure size

I am starting to draw up some plans to build a reptile cage rack set up. It will be individual display cages. Anyway, would 64 inches long by 24 inches deep by 18 inches tall be a large enough cage for an adult blood?

I keep all my adults in 48 x 24 x 11 inch cages and its perfect

Im not sure they would benefit from the 18'' of height...

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Originally Posted by hud556

Im not sure they would benefit from the 18'' of height...

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I recently had this conversation with a friend of mine. My cages are 24" high and he was looking at buying a 12" high. I said my personal opinion is go with 18". 24" is all for the human and really too much for a terrestrial snake. 12" is great for a the snake but not all that visually appealing. 18" is a great compromise. In the end he went with the 18" and after setting his snake up he agreed with me. The animals needs have to come first but we don't need to totally leave out our desire to have an attractive setup.

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Originally Posted by Egapal

I recently had this conversation with a friend of mine. My cages are 24" high and he was looking at buying a 12" high. I said my personal opinion is go with 18". 24" is all for the human and really too much for a terrestrial snake. 12" is great for a the snake but not all that visually appealing. 18" is a great compromise. In the end he went with the 18" and after setting his snake up he agreed with me. The animals needs have to come first but we don't need to totally leave out our desire to have an attractive setup.

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Personally I think 18'' would be easier for me to get into to clean lol
If 48 long will work I will go with that though probably, Thanks.

No problems with my 12" tall cages and the snakes havent complained yet either

Right after I got em up
http://i81.photobucket.com/albums/j2...e/P1040169.jpg

I may drop it down to 12 inches then, then I can add an extra enclosure lol :D

Bingo! 15 inches tall is more than enough, 18 would be overkill, and 12 is just right.

The bigger the enclosure is, the harder it will be to maintain temps and especially humidity.
I like being able to stack 5 cages and even a 6th and still not have to reach past my shoulders to clean.

I like being able to add another blood or possibly a short tail lol

What do you use to heat the cage? I am thinking about radiant heat panels but will they be alright for a terrestrial snake?

I was wondering the same thing. My place gets pretty chilly in winter and was thinking I might need RHPs to get 4ft cages to 82-84 ambient air temps in winter. RHPs take up volume in the cage.. anyone know if RHPs are a burn hazard if a snake has extended contact with it?

I know some people like RHP's but I wasnt a fan of them with my animals

Flexwatt for bellies and oil filled heaters for room heating here

What do you do to keep them off of the flexwatt? I've heard it's dangerous to allow the animal to have direct contact with the flexwatt or uth.

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Originally Posted by deftones2015

What do you do to keep them off of the flexwatt? I've heard it's dangerous to allow the animal to have direct contact with the flexwatt or uth.

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I didn't think you were supposed to use uth with heavy bodied snakes like bloods?

I use a ceramic for my P. curtis :gj:

All my heat tape stays outside my cages, just underneath the left sides

Flexwatt is tried and true with herps and are just fine for Bloods

Ceramic heat emitters are humidity zappers and would certainly make my keeping of these snakes a lot more difficult.

So those who use a rack system, How big of tubs do you use?

I had AP's VE racks before I switched back to cages and they were plenty of room

Some people are also having luck in some Freedom Breeder racks as well as ARS racks.

I have an old freedom breeder rack and my bottom tubs are this size -

http://www.freedombreeder.com/reptil...-large-27.html

They don't have quite as much room as the 4' x 2' cages I'm using also, but a big positive is that they are much easier to clean since you can pull the tub out. I have a bad back and have issues trying to scrub farther back in the cages closest to the floor. They seem to be a sufficient size for some adult bloods, also.