Rack tub sizes? AKA: Am I reading all this right?

[Valdyr]

@MiniJ83: Shod off, don't come in here when I am trying to LEARN something and share my knowledge and insult me. Apparently everyone skipped the first part of my post stating that I meant no insult and I wanted input from people using something that, for now, seems ridiculous to me, but may seem less so later if someone can come in here and TELL me why its a good idea.

@ Dr. Del: Finally someone trying to rationally explain things to me instead of coming in here and saying that I am stupid and know jack about balls just because I am currently owning my first one.

I, personally, will always affirm that old wives tail because my red tail was much, much calmer when I switched her over to dead prey, as well as a lot of the other snakes I have worked with in the past. I realize that all snakes are different, but there are some things that you can generalize.

I do very similar things as you with feeding my snakes, but instead of using my hands, I use a set of soft silicon tongs to hold the rodent down in there. For my corns, for my boa, for everything that required prey larger than a cricket. And yes, I do realize that snakes will recognize feeding patterns; around here at the herp society, they recommend random feedings for snakes that tend to get snappy at feeding time.

Now, could you please, PLEASE, do what this thread was originally intended to do and give me YOUR thoughts on keeping snakes that reach 4-5 feet strictly in a 32 quart tank? I would like to hear ANYTHING rationalizing; I gave my opinions and thoughts on the matter, but I will listen for enlightenment. I've been around many herp societies, read some of the top care sheets on the internet, and everything I read told me to have a minimum length of 5 feet per tank, except for a few of the ones I discounted because the information was ridiculously vague.

I UNDERSTAND that in the wild these snakes will house themselves in termite dens and rodent burrows, but I view that as more of the equivalent of the HIDE I offer my snake, not the equivalent of his overall living environment. My snake's health is probably a lot like MY health. I know that if I am locked up in a small room for a long period of time, my mental and physical health will start to deteriorate. Maybe its not that way for ball pythons, but I have had no one, necessarily, tell me that this is so and WHY it is so.

I know that most of this thread has done little more than disappoint me; I hope there are breeders around that handle all their snakes regularly and know their habits and quirks, and know when they are healthy or not... I'm starting to think those Balls I saw at petsmart with the worker paying so very much attention to them might have been a better choice than my captive-bred that I got for my birthday, and I really hope there are breeders out there that do spend time with their snakes... if anyone still does that, I would love a PM or something with your website, so I can hopefully become a regular customer to them one of these days. No offense to the breeders that don't; after all, interaction, attitude, et cetera, might have nothing to do with offspring, but I'd rather take the safe side and go for a breeder that knows their animals. I prefer that MUCH over a prettily-decorated snake.

And anyone who can give a rational reply as to ANY of these questions, be it about the tank size and why its NOT a bad idea, and how offspring comes out from snakes of different dispositions (calm, violent, shy), then I would love to hear it. But I've had enough insult slinging, and after my response to MiniJ83, I will be ignoring anything that comes henceforth.