How do you like to balance your giant snake collection?

[soapapilla]

Breeders and hobbyists! Just curious - how do you handle housing your large collection? I've seen a lot of information on making the perfect enclosures for your babies, but at some point it becomes necessary to start racking if you're going to be breeding. Do you still have your favorite snakes in nice big terrariums with the plant life and cool hides? At what point did you or will you choose to rack your snakes? How do you still keep those rack enclosures as healthy and attractive as the terrariums you started with? Curious to hear more insights about how you balance your life with dozens of BPs!

[artgecko]

I don't have dozens of BPs (yet). I'm currently sitting on a mixed collection of 15 snakes and various other herps.

I use racks and cages. I use cages for my larger or more arboreal species (carpets, boas, etc.) and racks for my BPs. With the BPs, i try to provide them with a larger tub size than is standard but give them hides, a large water bowl, etc. so that it gives them more floor space while providing security at the same time.

The main issue that arises (IMO) with a larger collection is the time needed to keep the animals healthy and clean. I check racks daily, change water every 2 days (or when soiled), and find that now, with 15 snakes, it takes me much longer to go through this process than it did before.

My goal is to make maintenance as easy and streamlined as possible, so that I can spend more time with the "fun" aspects like taking the snakes out and handling them, taking pics, etc. To that end, decorations like fake plants, fancy water bowls with crevices and cracks, drift wood, etc. all had to go because they are easily soiled and take much longer to clean adequately.

I keep fresh clean water bowls, hides, tubs, etc. stacked and ready to go.. This makes changing out a tub or cage much easier. I use paper substrate which also makes spotting soiled areas and keeping things clean much eaiser than when you use loose substrate.

At the end of the day, it is really about what you value in your collection and what you enjoy. If you enjoy watching your snakes a lot, pvc cages may be more for you and may limit the numbers you can keep. If you don't mind not being able to cleary see your animals all the time, racks may be acceptabel to you. It depends on the temperament of the snakes also. Out of my 5 BPs, I only have 1 that I might consider moving into a pvc cage because she is less "shy" and skittish than the others. Space is very limiting (cages take up a LOT of room) and cost is also a factor (cages costing as much as an entire rack system per cage), but again, those are factors each person must consider individually. I like the utility of my rack systems, but also would not give up the display pvc cages I have for my boas and carpet.

[SilentHill]

we have this discussion often. we have almost all of our corn snakes in glass tanks, except our newest 4 babies. we just can't bring ourselves to rack them b/c they are so beautiful and love beebopping around. we did purchase a rack for some of our BP's but we only have 6 of those. it is a tough choice. soon we should have a very large dedicated reptile room though so plenty of room for everyone in tanks instead of tubs/racks.

[Lord Sorril]

If you are breeding (bps for example): and one female lays 8 eggs and they hatch...you went from 1 snake to 9 snakes-and each one has to be housed separately. Racks become a necessity not an option for all but pet keepers and the smallest breeders.

[RXLReptiles]

I'll put in my .02 on this one, like artgecko above I don't have dozens of snakes, but I'm at 13 bp's at the moment and expecting eggs from 2-4 of them this year.

I started in tanks for my first few, but quickly built my first rack once I realized how much time I spent on tanks because of their heating and humidity issues. Racks are more about making it easier to maintain a proper environment for my animals, it's a bonus that they save space and make cleaning easier.

That being said tanks do have more aesthetic appeal, but since bp's spend most of their time hiding they don't make the best display enclosure inhabitant anyway. I still have glass tanks, but they are used for my lizards and my fish tanks. Eventually I'll make a display tank for a snake, but it will probably be a diurnal species that is more often in the open.

Also, pro-tip, keeping a larger aquarium in your reptile room keeps ambient humidity up for your snakes. My reptile room is about 50-55% ambient humidity without any maintenance, which keeps my tubs at around 60% with almost no effort. Then a light misting once a day when they are going into shed keeps it at 70-75% for shedding. After they shed I stop misting and the humidity drops back down within 24 hours. Sadly a fish tank was the best thing I added to my reptile room for maintenance of the environment.

[Stewart_Reptiles]

Everything is in a rack which allows me to keep them in a secure setting allowing me to limit stress which to me is essential for breeders.

Do I have favorites? Yes the first pied I ever produced almost 10 years ago, an Albino Pied that was my first DH recessive project that took me 9 years to see through, and a Black Pastel Pied (a gift from a friend)

Even when I retire from breeding in 10 to 15 years the animals that I will keep as pet will still be in a rack system, the only animals I keep in glass enclosure are animals that actually make good display animals and they are kept in a bioactive setup, those are definitely not BP.