>>you mentioned that the cage was huge. should i switch it to something smaller to make it feel more secure? my tawian beauty is in a 20 long. 30x12x12. i'm sure it would love the room.


Well, if it were me, I'd switch to something smaller. I had my big guy in a 20 gal tank...

He was over five ft. when I traded him off.

Most of my three ft. snakes I keep in ten gal. tanks. Most folks think that's too small, but I put a lot of fixtures in these cages and it pretty much fills them up. The snakes are most always hiding and they find a number of different places to hang out. First, I have a large, plastic container filled with paper towels and newspaper making a tight fit for any snake hiding therein. I use bottom heat which only covers a portion of this large hide. It sits on about one to two inches of aspen bedding which the snakes can burrow into and get under the hide, where it is a few degrees warmer, around 82*F. There is a large, gallon, plastic water jug in each cage. Even a large snake can coil up in one of these and soak for hours or days. There is a smaller water jug also for a tighter fit. Together they fit snuggly and don't ever tip over or spill water. The rest of the cage is covered in aspen bedding usually with wadded up paper on top of that. The snakes can crawl on top or under the wadded paper. Any defecations are easily cleanable. The snakes are very secure in this habitat and have a very naturalistic behavior, although it is much more functional than aesthetic.

PS: I always spray the bedding before feeding to stimulate appetite and raise humidity. Ratsnakes are very responsive to spikes in humidity. They can feed off the paper or in an empty water jug. I try to never put food directly on aspen, so snakes won't ingest the bedding. Sometimes I put in a moist hide for shedding, or other reasons. Plants aren't the only things that help make the habitat feel naturalistic to the snakes.

Cheers....TC

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