Quote Originally Posted by JodanOrNoDan View Post
Define and quantify please.



What is the magic formula?



Not really. I personally will only keep animals where my needs and theirs do not collide.

What experiences are you applying to your assessments?

Good discussion if you can provide me with data I do not have. Not everything I have read has proved out to be true. Have you ever done experiments where you have kept animals in natural settings vs clinical ones and determined if it affected eating habits, growth rates, longevity, general health, or mental state?
Ok so a few of those you have taken out of context.
I dont know what you personally do. That statement was a generalization to the point that if you are doing anything other than your best to match its natural environment, you are putting your own needs first. I do this as well. My bp is in a 48" tank for now because the place i live in now is too small for something bigger. My hog started in a smaller tank with aspen too because i didnt have the time to build his viv at that point. My hog doesnt have a ramping timer yet so his day/night lights are just on/off.

I dont think there is a magic formula. I think providing the biggest environment that you can afford and maintain is the right size.

I have been keeping herps since i was a child. (Almost 30 years now) I got lucky and my mom worked at a local zoo. I started keeping and breeding veiled chameleons. I converted a 5'x3x2' dresser into a viv. The breeding pair stayed in this. It was planted had vines and hibiscus and other things in it. After the first two clutches i bought and built a a couple of growout cubbies for the babies. The ones i sold from the house stayed in bigger more natural cubbies. (Soil, plants, cuc) the ones that went to local pet stores stayed in the typical sterile breeder style cubbies. The ones that stayed in the more sterile cubbies were more easily stressed, more nervous, more prone to sickness and did not have as great an appetite and were therefore smaller on average. I might still have my notebooks on this that will have weights and dates and stuff.
I have bred and kept many different species of reptile and amphibian over the years.
Some with some weird requirements, like needing a puddle, or rainfall that is pretty accurately simulated. Either way i found the best way was to research that specific animal and try to match its environment as best i could.

I found that a regularly timed sunset/sunrise created more natural behavior in the animals. Getting up with the sun and ramping of the heat for the diurnal. Going to hide for sleep when the heat and light starts ramping for the nocturnal. Becoming active just before lights off for the nocturnal.
More actively using basking spots.
With moving water, using the water more often.

BPs are relatively new to me.
Only had mine for about a year now. He started in a 40gal breeder with me with aspen. He did not do well at all. Stressed and nervous all the time, cage aggressive, would fast frequently, poop irregularly, shed in tatters. Humidity and temps were good. He would stay in his hide all the time till i pulled him out for food. He is now in the 48" bioactive and it is a complete 180. He is active a majority of the nights of the week. The only time he doesnt eat is during shed. One piece whole sheds now. He is not cage agressive at all and now i feed him in his tank. Since i started feeding in his tank his feeding is more natural and graceful as well. He waits and ambushes when the rat goes by instead of bumbling around his feeding tank until he finds the rat.

All "data" is anectdotal at this point from keepers much older than me and like me who have kept then for a long time like this or in zoos.

As for the mental stimuli, that is provided through the viv and through the time the snake spends with you during handling and its daily experiences. There is a reason it is recommended to re-scape the viv every few months.

All these things are pretty simply googled. I found most of it while researching bioactive vivs.