OK I keep getting flack for keeping my snakes in a rack system

[reptileexperts]

Crot, venomous are a different story. Ball Pythons thrive better in the seclusion of a tub. They don't care what their substrate looks like as long as its clean and functional. You can have a nice big viv but I promise that it has a higher Ammonia concentration from the urates than you will find in properly kept rack systems. Each keeper can have their own way about doing things, and that's fine. I use to have wall to wall 40 gallon breeder tanks, with tons of lights and UTH, and yeah my snakes thrived, never missed a meal, and were generally happy in appearance. But I also kept 3 sides of the tanks covered at all times, and live in a place where humidity is very easy to accomplish with an open screen top unlike some areas.

Snakes are secretive in nature, and do cram themselves in small corners. I would NEVER keep a crot in a tub since you can not monitor them easily or safely without using hooks to open the tub every time, and hope you have a good lableing system. But for all my pythons and colubrids I have no issues at all with tubs. I also use PVC enclosures for my giants (Retics, Burmese, Coastal Carpets, BCI), and they are amazing setups in their own mind, and look like a fantastic display, but as soon as I moved some of my female jungles from the PVC tanks and into tubs, they started growing at a faster rate? What changed, only the cage. Feeding times, prey size, and temperature all remained the same. Could it be because they received less exercise? Possibly, but the snakes are lean and not obese.

Just because you chose to do enclosures one way, like many people do, it doesn't mean that the others are wrong. As long as your snakes have the proper temperature gradients, humidity, enclosure size, and a proper number of areas to hide, your doing things fine regardless of how you do it. Racks are not meant for dogs and cats or birds and fish. They are meant for reptiles. This is why they work so well.

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Crot, venomous are a different story. Ball Pythons thrive better in the seclusion of a tub. They don't care what their substrate looks like as long as its clean and functional. You can have a nice big viv but I promise that it has a higher Ammonia concentration from the urates than you will find in properly kept rack systems. Each keeper can have their own way about doing things, and that's fine. I use to have wall to wall 40 gallon breeder tanks, with tons of lights and UTH, and yeah my snakes thrived, never missed a meal, and were generally happy in appearance. But I also kept 3 sides of the tanks covered at all times, and live in a place where humidity is very easy to accomplish with an open screen top unlike some areas.

Snakes are secretive in nature, and do cram themselves in small corners. I would NEVER keep a crot in a tub since you can not monitor them easily or safely without using hooks to open the tub every time, and hope you have a good lableing system. But for all my pythons and colubrids I have no issues at all with tubs. I also use PVC enclosures for my giants (Retics, Burmese, Coastal Carpets, BCI), and they are amazing setups in their own mind, and look like a fantastic display, but as soon as I moved some of my female jungles from the PVC tanks and into tubs, they started growing at a faster rate? What changed, only the cage. Feeding times, prey size, and temperature all remained the same. Could it be because they received less exercise? Possibly, but the snakes are lean and not obese.

Just because you chose to do enclosures one way, like many people do, it doesn't mean that the others are wrong. As long as your snakes have the proper temperature gradients, humidity, enclosure size, and a proper number of areas to hide, your doing things fine regardless of how you do it. Racks are not meant for dogs and cats or birds and fish. They are meant for reptiles. This is why they work so well.