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

[Kinra]

In other words, in the case of BP-Net vs. Mr. Crotalids, both parties are guilty of being judgmental and yet both parties make valid points. Unfortunately, neither party is 100% correct. One party espouses the efficient use of space to provide the bare necessities for success with the aim being economy and ultimately convenience to the keeper, and the other is passionately (and maybe a little aggressively) stating that the goal of the keeper should be to exceed, not just meet the goal.

I find it a bit Quixotic that when faced with the dilemma of housing two ball pythons in one enclosure, the collective dogma screeches in protest that the only reason for doing so is for the benefit of the keeper. However when someone touts the use of a naturalistic enclosure or a large (gasp!) glass tank, they also also wail about how it is not optimal for the keeper. In other words, the masses cannot coherently reason outside of the box - or in this case the tupperware tub.

I think if Crotalids had just made his statement and not insulted everyone who uses bare bones setup this "discussion" wouldn't have turned into BP.net vs Crotalids. What has upset me (and I imagine a majority of BP.net) was the insinuation that because we use racks it is automatically assumed that the tubs are too small, we lack passion for our animals, are too lazy to maintain the naturalistic setup or any of the various other insults that were said.

I do believe that sometimes we become set in our ways, this isn't the first time I've seen a majority of BP.net turn against someone who posts something different from what they do, but again I don't think this would have turned into the utter chaos it has if Crotalids had phrased his opinion in a less insulting way.

There are plenty of other things keepers should also do, like vary the diet of their animals. So many people just consistently feed their snakes the same old mice, mice, mice, mice. I mix it up, dependent on species obviously, but I use every food source available to me; chicks; mice; rats; quails, gerbils, lizards etc.

A lot of keepers don't also alter their feeding regimes, I never stick to a day to feed them. For example, my Gaboons were last fed 4 weeks ago. Next time round i might leave it 2.5 weeks, it's little things like this I believe can make your snakes more active and replicating the behaviour in the wild.

As has already been stated, ball pythons have this annoying tendency to imprint on a certain food source which is why many keepers try to stick to rats. I personally am not willing to risk one or more of my snakes getting stuck on $8 gerbils or hamsters. I won't even feed ASF because I don't want to have to breed rodents in my 2 bedroom apartment.

As for keeping snakes on a feeding regime, ball pythons are prone to hunger strikes which is why I believe a lot of keepers feed once a week. My snakes don't always get fed on the same day, but I try to do it every 7-10 days. I would rather my snakes have some weight to them when they randomly decide to stop feeding, but hey maybe that's just me.