Rack vs Glass Tank/Aquarium or else?

[Slim]

The best type of cage your balls can have is a plastic pvc cage in my opinion.

The best kind of housing your snakes can have is the one that works best for you, is easily maintained, and holds the proper conditions for your animals. Glass fronts, plastic plants and primate skulls are eye candy for you...your snake could care less.

[Pythonfriend]

oh, from Poland? i had many awesome vacations there, sailing in the masurian lake district. really beautiful nature, especially in the areas of the lakes where fuel-driven engines are banned, and you can only sail there, swim there, or use an electric powered boat.

i think racks are the easiest, but in Germany we have minimum keeping requirements for many species, including ball pythons. since you do not need to register BPs, noone will check, but still, laws are in place. they require a certain enclosure size (height, depth, and width), a hotspot, an opportunity to climb a bit, two hides, and minimum/maximum temperature and humidity. and some other stuff i cannot recall of the top of my head.

and i think these laws are in place in most EU nations and they are similar. so you need to check if you have minimum keeping requirements for ball pythons in your laws. and if you have, then a rack system wont work, breeders in Germany work with modular terrariums. its a huge thick brick of plastic, with a front window, insulation on all sides, and it exactly follows the minimum keeping requirements. with enough space to put in a branch to climb on and two nice hides and stuff. these can be stacked and they are fairly easy to maintain. still much larger than a rack system. for hatchlings or males, at least in Germany you can do that with a rack, so you need modular terrariums only for adult breeder females. stackable modular terrariums have the size shown in your picture, but they only have glass in the front, all other sides are thick and sturdy plastic stuff, with good insulation. but the dimensions in your picture are about right, that seems to match the minimum requirements we have over here in Germany.

check the local laws in Poland, i guess there is a 90% chance that you do have minimum requirements for the enclosure on the books. and if that is the case, you need to follow them. and then racks are no longer practical and you need a good modular terrarium system.

keep us in the loop, i would like to hear what your laws are regarding this. BTW we can freely move ball pythons all across europe, no restrictions there.

[CryHavoc17]

The best kind of housing your snakes can have is the one that works best for you, is easily maintained, and holds the proper conditions for your animals. Glass fronts, plastic plants and primate skulls are eye candy for you...your snake could care less.

IIRC I didnt say anything about plants or skulls.

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[Slim]

IIRC I didnt say anything about plants or skulls.

I'm quite well aware of that, but you did say that in your opinion, PVC enclosures were the best. And most people want to keep those types of cages so they can display them...the plants and skulls are a natural follow on

[JMinILM]

I think racks are better for the snake as they hold heat and humidity better. Also balls like to be hid away in smallish areas, so racks are better at offering that. If they are given to much space or don't feel secure they don't do as well.

[Mr. Misha]

I think racks are better for the snake as they hold heat and humidity better. Also balls like to be hid away in smallish areas, so racks are better at offering that. If they are given to much space or don't feel secure they don't do as well.

I don't agree with this whatsoever. My snakes come out at night and explore. They climb their trees and crawl around. Just because you give your snakes some space doesn't mean they'll feel insecure. You just have to provide them with their necessities and they'll choose what they'll do with it.

I feel like racks are great for breeders who need to save space. However, in my opinion, racks provide the bare necessity.

Personally, I like PVC enclosures. Once set up properly, they're easy to keep the necessary temps and humidity while giving your BP some room to explore and strech out.

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[Pythonfriend]

I think racks are better for the snake as they hold heat and humidity better. Also balls like to be hid away in smallish areas, so racks are better at offering that. If they are given to much space or don't feel secure they don't do as well.

not true, in the wild, or in a semi-domesticated state, they may crawl a mile in one night. they like to hide during the day, but when its dark they like to move. its obvious that if you provide them with more, they will like it. they are quite good at climbing, and they are excellent swimmers.

[Mr. Misha]

I feel like people use the "space = insecure BP" line to justify stuffing as many snakes in racks without feeling bad. I get why breeders use racks. Obviously, it makes sense financially but for people who have them as pets, I just don't get it.

I understand BPs like tight spaces to feel secure but they also like to explore.

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[LukSad]

Thanks a lot for this discussion

yeah a rack or pvc cage works better.[...] but my rack(s) were design to keep the lids of the tub to them too( this help hold humidity in and prevent escapes and mold that would of happen without a lid).[...]

So you use box with lid in rack? Do you have some picture of that solution?

oh, from Poland? [...] i think racks are the easiest, but in Germany we have minimum keeping requirements for many species, including ball pythons. since you do not need to register BPs, noone will check, but still, laws are in place. they require a certain enclosure size (height, depth, and width), a hotspot, an opportunity to climb a bit, two hides, and minimum/maximum temperature and humidity. and some other stuff i cannot recall of the top of my head. [...] keep us in the loop, i would like to hear what your laws are regarding this. BTW we can freely move ball pythons all across europe, no restrictions there.

I don't find any information about minimum keeping requirements in Poland but we must register our BP.

I don't agree with this whatsoever. My snakes come out at night and explore. They climb their trees and crawl around. Just because you give your snakes some space doesn't mean they'll feel insecure. You just have to provide them with their necessities and they'll choose what they'll do with it.[...]

I agree they explore in night - actually i have two BP in small glass cage (CB2013) and i can see they activity.

There is one problem - I don't have PCV cages in my country... i like saying "Poland is a Mexico of Europe" becouse we are far away then Germany, Great Britain, USA etc. Our market of Exotic animals is extremely tiny.

But like i write on top my priority is they feel good in captivity.

i thinking about Rack with "SAMLA" tubs (Width: 30 ¾ " Depth: 22 " Height: 7 ") tubs like V70 etc must be imported so "SAMLA" is easiest to find solution it give space recommended by McCurley. [it will be use for adult BP - you smaller i will just put in tub "partition" (barrier?) to make it smaller and it will be grow with snake. what do you think about it?

[Slim]

I'm not going to throw all tank/PVC Cage owners under the same blanket, but let me tell you what I have seen far too often. People who are newer to the hobby want to have something they can display, so most start out with some kind of tank set up. Then the ones who really do care about good husbandry, move to PVC enclosures because at least you can hold decent temps and humidity in one. At this point, because they really want something to display, and since the Ball Python is a fairly poor display snake, they start to jazz up the cage with stuff like climbing branches and all other manor of objects that are interesting to look at. And while all of these things are not particularly harmful to your Ball Python, they do require a level of maintenance that is above and beyond that required of a tub and rack system.

Not a problem you say..."I sterilize everything in my snakes cage on a regular basis", you say..."I don't mind spending the extra time", you say... Well, I say good for you, and I hope you keep that same attitude for the life of your animal. I have no doubt that many of you will.

HOWEVER

We see a lot of newer owners coming on this Forum with both guns blazing about what they want their cages to look like, and how well they will always maintain it, only to watch that enthusiasm wane over time. They start taking short cuts with the cleaning and cage maintenance...life happens and they don't have the same amount of time to dedicate to sterilizing plastic plants and fake skulls. So, cleaning starts to fall behind, and it's human nature that once it starts to lag, catching up on it is very difficult.

The bottom line for me is that tubs and racks are easy to heat, easy to clean, and my animals have never shown any signs of being stressed out about not having a stick climb on. I'm not a breeder, nor do I want to be, but I do want to always be consistent in my husbandry, because the animals deserve that. Next week, next year, and 15 years from now.