Quote Originally Posted by blackcrystal22 View Post
This website is full of people with knowledge that is amazing. Everything I have ever learned about these animals is credited to the people on this website, when I, myself, strolled in here looking for help not so long ago.

I simply suggested tubs because they are inexpensive and the snakes prefer them. If you would like to have tanks, those can be just as simple to set-up as well, and nicer looking too (just remember, bigger is not always better, ball pythons prefer smaller spaces than larger so nothing bigger than a 20g each is suggested). If you build your own enclosure, and make it 4 parts, that would also be a really good project and we can help you along the way with that.

Do you have UTHs currently or are you using the lamps only as heat? If so, I suggest buying a UTH from a petstore ($15 or so) or buying some flexwatt from reptilebasics for $3-4 wired a foot. You can get this very long and have it a few feet to span the entire back 1/4 of your newly built enclosure as well. You can get dimmers from hardware stores as temporary thermostats if you do have a UTH already (though they will need some adjustment with changes in room temps and such). Many people buy a UTH without realizing that it gets much too hot for the snake and can severely hurt the animal uncontrolled.

How do you know the snake's sex? Did you get them from breeders or have you had them sexed?
The most current worry I have is the snakes breeding. Usually cannibalism and stress are later on-going issues, but the breeding thing is important to remember and try to get them separated asap. If you want to buy some tubs to temporarily have them separated, that is also an idea as well.

It depends on how much money you are willing to spend, but there are also other options for caging. On that reptilebasics website are some examples of vision cages (which work wonderfully for most snakes and reptiles) as well as they stack and look nice. They can be pricey, but there are many vision-type cages on the market as opposed to building your own, tanks, or tubs.

Don't worry too much, your feeding them great and you seem very interested in their welfare. I'm very glad you came here to ask questions, that's the most important thing.
We bought them from pet stores and we were told their sex when we got them. I trust they're the right sex... How much does it cost to have them sexed?

I do have a UTH and lamps, one for daytime and one for nighttime.

Can the smaller snakes live together? or do they all have to be separated?

One thing we've noticed over the past few days is that Cleo (the big girl) has become very agressive. Any time we try to pick her up she'll strike at us, or even when she's out she'll start striking. She even strikes from inside the tank when there's people around it. I'm sure it's because of everything you listed... from her needing identical smaller hides, and better temperature/humidity, and the tank may feel too open.
We used to handle her pretty much every day, so that shouldn't be the issue, we just kind of had to stop since we didn't want to get bitten.

Do you have an instant messenger that we could have a live conversation in?