Feeding and picking up boa in an enclosure with sliding glass doors?

I want to upgrade my glass terrarium for my adult RTB to an animal plastics enclosure, however I'm wondering how the feeding will work with the sliding glass doors. Currently, I dangle the rat from the top of the cage. I can't envision how to do this with the sliding doors without the tongs or my hand getting in the way.

It also seems like it would be more difficult to get the snake out from the side rather than the top. Especially if the snake is in its hide. Any tips on this?

Thanks so much!

Cleaning is harder as well as you have to stick your head in the enclosure, one of the reasons I went with an ARS boa rack.

It is actually easier. You can easily use one of the doors as a shield for over zealous eater. I have had to use a door as a shield a few times for my retic when he was a baby as he charged first and checked to see if it was food second. I just use tongs and stick the food inside opposite the side the snake is on and they grab it no problem.

As for getting any of the snakes out, all my snakes are really tame so i just reach in, lift a hide if they are in one and pull them out. never had a problem.

Here is what my set up looks like.
https://ball-pythons.net/forums/cach...30beeab9_h.jpg

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Originally Posted by aliamo

I want to upgrade my glass terrarium for my adult RTB to an animal plastics enclosure, however I'm wondering how the feeding will work with the sliding glass doors. Currently, I dangle the rat from the top of the cage. I can't envision how to do this with the sliding doors without the tongs or my hand getting in the way.

It also seems like it would be more difficult to get the snake out from the side rather than the top. Especially if the snake is in its hide. Any tips on this?

Thanks so much!

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What AP cage are you looking in to? They've got several great options depending on the size of your boa.
Sliding doors are great because you can use them as a shield if necessary. You'll get the hang of it no problem. Just dangle the tongs and prey past the door towards where you have it opened. Much easier to clean out a front opening cage than reaching over the top of a glass enclosure in my opinion. Also easier to get larger snakes like boas in and out than lifting over the tops of glass tanks. I've upgraded to AP cages over the last two years and love them.
Though they are a nice option for those with little space and/or large collections we can't all afford drop thousands of dollars on ARS racks for single animals... You do you and keep asking questions about what will be best for you and your animal(s)!


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Edit: sauzo beat me to the door/shield comment hahah

Actually ARS is fairly inexpensive. A single level with tub and heat strip is only $435.

The OP has previous experience with overhead access enclosure options. The nature of their thread is to inquire about frontally accessible enclosures. Specifically Animal Plastics enclosures. That is what we are trying to provide here.
Maybe I'm wrong, but the majority of keepers that I've noticed with single animals, hobbyists/enthusiasts, what have you are interested in the visibility of their animal and it's environment. This is not a selling point of most rack systems.
Sorry for detrailing your thread OP. Please continue to ask about the enclosures you are curious about and those of us that have experience with them will happily contribute our input in regards to those enclosures and offer any advice or input that we can. Cheers!


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Personally i hate racks. They are good for breeders but for just keeping 'pets', i hate them. You can't see the snakes(even with the ones with the tiny window in the side) and generally they are only about 6-8" high. No offense to breeders who use them, but i picture them as a prison complex. A bunch of little 36x18x6 tubs.

I personally prefer to give my snakes cages at least 3/4 their length with optimum being cages their full length so they can stretch out and actually wander around.

Plus remember, with racks, you are only using flexwatt so you have to have a room which is kept fairly warm around 78F. So you can either use an oil filled radiator on a Herpstat HP or keep your whole house warm. You wont be using an RHP in a rack system.

Also i personally think that if a snake sees you every day and can actually see action going on in the room, they become more used to it and 'social' for a lack of a better word. All my always position themselves to look out the sliding doors of their cages and at night, will usually sit at the door looking out or down or periscoping. Now this might be just my impression but its how i feel and all of my snakes are really really laid back and like i said above, i can just reach in and drag them out.

I will say, racks are easier to clean, simply because you take a tub out, dump it, spray it down with F10, wait 15 mins and hose it out but again, no lights, nothing to see and usually pretty small. I havent seen any 6x3x18 or 8x3x18 tubs for racks.

The closest you can come to racks with the full size caging in something like what i posted with the pics of my cages. i have an extra T10 i could have put on that 5 stack but as it is, i need a little step stool to reach Louies cage on top to clean the back of it lol.

Oh and my advice if you go for an AP cage for your boa, unless it is a true dwarf boa, do yourself a favor and save up for a T25. Those are the ones on the right side in my pic. They are 72x30x18. you will never need to upgrade your boa cage again unless you are getting something like a Peruvian BCC or even some Surinames/Guyanans. I order all my AP cages with shelves, locks, flexwatt, LEDs. If you are looking to save some cash, you can just order your flexwatt from RB or Bean Farm as it is cheaper there and you could have AP route the channel for the LEDs and just order them from Amazon. I would definitely get a shelf as all my snakes love their shelves even my dumerils and BP and i would get locks for sure too as my BP has learned how to slide the door open haha. I personally just ordered everything from AP as i just like to get everything at once as a plug and play unit. Plus Ali is awesome and has always taken care of me but that might also be because i dropped $4000 with them in the past year lol.

Feeding a large snake in an enclosure with sliding doors isn't at all difficult, we have several adult retics in 8' Boamasters with sliding doors. Use really long tongs, don't stand directly in front of the opening, and open the door on the side that the snake's head isn't.

Same goes for handling except put the hook in and tap/rub the snake a few times. You should see it relax after it investigates the hook, and then you can put your hand in and pick it up, or use the hook to gently encourage it to move if it's cage defensive. In the latter case I'll open both doors (move each to the middle) and usually the snake will try to come out the side that the hook isn't. At that point it's easy enough to let it crawl out onto you under its own power instead of being picked up. They seem less stressed that way.

Thanks for the feedback everyone! Seems like i shouldn't have a problem, was just hard for me to imagine doing these things from the side. My boa is a little over 5 feet long and according to the woman I bought her from, is pretty much done growing. I wanted to get the t13, however I'm worried about having enough space for it in my small apartment, so I think I may get the t10 instead. It's bigger than the current enclosure she is in so I'm hoping it will be a good amount of space for her.

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Originally Posted by aliamo

Thanks for the feedback everyone! Seems like i shouldn't have a problem, was just hard for me to imagine doing these things from the side. My boa is a little over 5 feet long and according to the woman I bought her from, is pretty much done growing. I wanted to get the t13, however I'm worried about having enough space for it in my small apartment, so I think I may get the t10 instead. It's bigger than the current enclosure she is in so I'm hoping it will be a good amount of space for her.

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Unless she is a dwarf locality she's likely not done growing a five feet. A male maybe, but my females are topping out between six and seven feet.

Yeah, if it's a female, you are probably looking at around 7 feet to be safe. My 5+ year old female normal is 6.5 feet and my almost 4 year old female sunglow is almost 6 feet. Plan for 7 feet and you wont be in for a surprise...most likely lol.

If you need/want access to both sides of an AP enclosure simultaneously, the sliding glass doors just lift out of the tracks. You still have the center support pillar to work around, but being able to remove the doors is convenient for cleaning, etc. And putting my engineer hat on, I’ll keep the structural support of the pillar.


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