I did not mean it to be so neutral. I had to run and thought I had made enough of a point. I guess I should not be surprised to be back here giving an opinion



First and foremost, I'd bet that the picture Michael showed gave a scewed perspective. Pictures can do that. Pictures posted on the internet often do that.



Second, I'm not entirely convinced everyone actually knows which box it is Michael is using. This "argument" would be easier to follow if we had more dimensions that just 13.5" wide. The 32 qt. Sterilites I have are 1/2" wider than that. So either the 42 qt. Sterilites are the about same width and longer, and/or there is some confusion about the box.



I no longer keep ball pythons and have not really paid much attention to them in many years. Yet even I've seen the pictures of some of the major breeders with most of the BP's maintained in boxes that are clearly smaller than Michael's.



I do not want to give the impression that I think 28 qt. Rubbermaids or 32 qt. Sterilites are okay just because some of the major breeders use them "successfully". In fact if one looks up my posts on BP racks I'm a huge proponent of the Iris CB-110 - basically the biggest box available for such a project.



But I do believe that someone like Michael has every reason to believe that his box is appropriate. It's clearly bigger than a 28 qt. rubbermaid.



Lastly, I will say that there are anecdotes throughout professional and private herpetology that suggest bigger is not always better when it comes to cage size - at least for snakes. I would not be at all surprised if many BP's did better and felt more secure in a 28 qt. rubbermaid than they did a 55 gallon aquarium. However, even if so, I suspect the ideal is somewhere inbetween.

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