Reptile & Amphibian Forums

do snakes appreciate shelves in their cages or are they usesless? do they need a barrier at the edge of the self and how high should it be?

thanks a lot

I have shelves in most of my Colombian redtails' cages and they all seem to use them at one point or another. The type of shelving I'm using is the free-standing, vinyl-coated wire shelves sold at WalMart - I think in the Housewares Department? Anyway, the large shelves are sturdy enough to support even my largest boas and they often seem to like crawling over them. I figure it gives them a little exercise and a basking spot for the cages where the heat light is a substantial distance from the cage floor (arboreal cages). I don't attach my shelves to the cage in any way so that they can be taken out and cleaned (they WILL defecate on them, just give them time lol). I also have them in my adult corn's cage and my male carpet python's cage - both snakes seem to enjoy them and the carpet is almost always on his. My subadult female dumerils boa also used the shelf in her old cage quite a bit though the male did less so. As for height, it varies depending on the cage I have them in. The tall cages' shelves are probably stand a foot off the floor or better and are pretty large for the large snakes, the smaller cages or tanks have shorter and smaller shelves that are maybe 6"-8" tall and considerably smaller for the smaller snakes. They're also cheap enough that you can try them out and if you don't like them there's not a lot of money lost (they work great in the pantry or garage, too, if you don't like them in the cages).