Zoo Med or Exo Terra

[LadyWeirdo]

I currently don't own a snake but I'm doing excessive research to make sure I'm prepared. I'm currently looking at things for the terrarium. I seem to be juggling between two sites, Zoo Med & Exo Terra. I just want to know what you think personally is the best out of the two. Or, if you have another brand that you swear by, please tell me because I'm curious.

[Oxylepy]

Find a species you want to work with and look at the care sheet for them. Personally I dislike both brands.

[BR8080]

Depends what products and like Ox stated, the species you're trying to provide husbandry for.

[BigJay]

If your getting a glass tank I would just get a cheap 40 gal fish tank from petco/petsmart whichever it is i dont remember. They have a $1/gal sale often so a 40 gal tank = 40 bucks + whatever screen price is

unless your getting an arboreal species

[Oxylepy]

Keep in mind that any screen enclosure or enclosure with a screen top will keep the humidity at around household humidity. If your household humidity in the dry months drops to 30% or bellow you will notice a lot of static electricity, this humidity is dangerous to many reptiles.

Now if you are keeping your household humidity controlled to 50% or higher you should be fine on that end. After that comes temperature. You will find raising the ambient air temperature in a screen/screen topped enclosure above household temperature will be difficult. Some species are fine at household temperatures (usually 70+ degrees f), others will have serious issues at these temperatures.

For snake enclosures you will find that tubs are highly suggested for a number of species. These can easily be a hundred dollars cheaper than getting enclosures from either company.

Both companies offer heat rocks, a practice I believe should be stopped.

I've purchased products from both companies and have come to the conclusion that I prefer purchasing from other companies. Ceramic heat emitters and uvb lights tend to be my only continued purchase from them, and I really want to upgrade my mangrove's uvb to a more sustainable system.

I've had foggers, hated them because I'm lazy. I've helped people set up the mesh cages, I could have built something similar for 30 bucks and still would have had leftover screen and wood. Not to mention the result would have looked better, and wouldn't have involved low quality fake vines.

[Sunnieskys]

I have stuff from both companies. I got my 20 long from craigslist that included, 2 lights, hideout, water dish, fake plants with ceramic bulb for $20. Then I added over 6 months to complete my set up. Amazon is cheaper for things like outlets with timers, light stands and dimmers. look around for best price and reviews. We got Boop Boop today and we are very happy with her and how everything is set up. Take your time to make it right.

[Sauzo]

Depending on the species, you probably wont be using much from either company. Any species of snake that needs humidity, you will probably be going with a PVC cage and for heating, you will be using either an RHP by Pro Products or Reptile Basics or belly heat from Flexwatt or THG. And for a t-stat, you will be using either a Herpstat or Vivarium Electronics.

[Craiga 01453]

If you're going with a glass setup you're better off waiting for the Petco $1/gallon sale or looking on craigslist or something for a used tank.

As you'll read on this forum, there are pros and cons to each type of enclosure. I personally keep all my animals in glass with no problem keeping heat and humidity levels where they need to be. Even in the dry New England winters my humidity remains where it needs to be, it just takes a little more work. Daily maintenance may be a little more time consuming, but I don't mind. I keep animals with the intent to care for them daily, so it doesn't bother me at all.

That being said, I am planning on switching to PVC enclosures once funds allow. The main reasons being it simplifies daily upkeep and they are stackable, which allows me to keep more snakes in a smaller area of the house.

Which style enclosure you choose is up to you, but the two brands you are considering won't be your best bet financially. As far at heating equipment, etc... there are better brands. You may need to spend a bit more money out of the gate, but it'll be worth it in the long run.

[Prognathodon]

As others have said, look at Animal Plastics or other PVC enclosures manufacturers, or at tubs. By the time I put aquarium backgrounds on two or three sides of the glass enclosures and cluttered them to make the snakes more secure (and hide cords), there really isn't less viewing ability than with a PVC enclosure, and far fewer worries about humidity, etc.

In the last month we moved our BPs from AP enclosures to tubs (since a hiding BP is a happy BP, we weren't seeing them anyway), and moved several other snakes into the AP enclosures. That puts us down to only two snakes in glass enclosures; one of those because we already own the enclosure and it'll do for a little while as the snake is growing and husband is between jobs. The other snake is a sand boa, which does fine with the lower humidity.

Now, if you're asking about bowls, accessories, etc., both ZooMed and ExoTerra seem about the same - shop by features/price.


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[LadyWeirdo]

I'm looking at ball pythons.