Quote Originally Posted by Reinz View Post
Hi Moorea, Welcome to the Forum.

i was in a similar situation. My daughter went off to school and I inherited her 9 yr old Ball at the time, three yrs ago. I had no real interest at time, but being the animal lover that I am, I have become quite attached.

As as far as the size of enclosure, I bumped him up from a 20 gal tank to a large reptile enclosure which is 40-50 gals. It has internal locks on all openings- VERY IMPORTANT!! These guys are escape artists!

As far as other family pets: my first dog , which I inherited as well, i let her hang out with me and the snake. The dog is large, a Rottweiler mix. She was excited around the snake, but I calmed her down. I let the snake crawl around on his own and he could care less about the dog. The dog is gone now, my daughter took her back.

I tried keeping the door closed to the snake's room to keep the cat out. No good. This just made the cat more curious so that whenever I opened the door, she wood shoot right in between my legs. So I leave the door open and I placed lightweight, bulky items on top of the cage so that the cat could not jump on top and then come crashing down inside.
This has worked well, no curiosity at all.

I live alone now but have family members from out of town visit regular with their dogs. I now have a dog as well. I have made the decision not to expose the snake to all of these different dogs. No need to flirt with disaster or add stress.

If you feel that you are in a stable environment that can be controlled, you may feel comfortable going another direction. As far as the snake being aggressive with you cats and dogs, no worries.

Good Luck and Enjoy!
Thank you for your reply. I do plan to my best to keep the dogs away from the snake. Only because as I mentioned we literally have a pack and when one gets excited things can get a little bit crazy. My main concern in the event there is ever an escape neither the snakes or dogs getting injured. My instinct says the dogs are kind of wimpy and keep their distance, my hopes is that a snake would as well. I know my Burmese was always well fed and would not have paid much attention to a dog.

Yup, as soon as I heard "Mom I want a snake...." my husband and I discussed it and decided if we say yes it would likely be a long term commitment for us. At any rate even she takes him back after college, it is a nice family project.

I am currently considering one of the PVC cages from Animal Plastics, but if you have a link or name of the 40 to 50 gallon with locks that would be great, I can seem to find anything like it!