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

[Crotalids]

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.

First of all, you can keep venomous in a tub. The venom extraction facilities do exactly this, due to the need to cram in as many animals as possible for the extractions. They have a valid reason. For using small enclosures.

You cannot tell me a ball python wouldn't appreciate a larger naturalistic enclosure. I have friends with Royals in 5ft Vivs that feed perfectly well and are active.

I will always disagree with you on this. As I will never keep any of my animals in a small enclosure, or an enclosure that doesn't represent their natural habitat. If I ever did, that would be the day I stop keeping reptiles.

There is no reason why a snake would grow faster in a smaller enclosure with the same food, apart from less exercise. A smaller space doesn't suddenly increase the nutritional value of the feeder.

People say Gaboon vipers are animals that are stressed very easily. Yet I have my two babies in 2ft tubs when they're less than a foot in size. But neither has ever shown a sign of stress. If the set up is correct, no animal will stress even if they viv is 200ft.

I'm not saying its wrong, but it shows a lack of passion in my eyes.