Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I was going to post this on the thread below, but I was afraid that it would get lost in the long thread.
I'm interested in hearing from some of the natural set-up people about my situation. I have about 30 animals (kingsnakes, milks, ratsnakes, small pythons) currently housed in rack systems. I would love to have display-type cages for them, with more natural furnishings, substrates, etc. I have the space for cages, and a reasonable amount of money to spend. What I don't have is much skill with tools or the time to make stuff myself, unless it is almost literally plug-n-play.
Anybody have any suggestions?
-Lee McMurtry

Lee,

Knowing you outside of the forum I think this approach to keeping would work well for you.

I would start with the book "The Art of Keeping Snakes" and get a better idea of what you want to do. If it's constructing fake rocks, etc., this is time consuming. But if you want to take a regular cage and have live plants, bioactive substrate, etc. I think this is something you could work towards.
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Current snakes:

0.0.1 Gonyosoma oxycephala - Java locale (green)

0.2 Gonyosoma oxycephala - Malaysian locale (green)

1.2 Gonyosoma oxycephala - Java local (green)

2.2 Gonyosoma janseni - Seleyar locale (all black)

1.2 Gonyosoma janseni - Celebes locale (Black & Tan)

Without too much trouble you could build okay-sized cages for many of the species you mention using the tote design referred to by Chris in the post above this one. I'll dig around and see if I can find a tote cage pic to post.

Found it...

Here's a pic of a three-high cage I made using Rubbermaid 50 gallon totes turned on their sides.

You wouldn't have to get this elaborate. In fact I'm going to scrap the wood paneled carcass of this caging unit and place the individual totes on wire shelving units that I've started switching over to in my herp room.
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Matt Campbell

"I only went out for a walk and finally concluded to stay out till sundown, for going out, I found, was really going in." John Muir

I like and have used this design before - I had a nice bank of arboreal cages made after cribbing the idea from Chris H.
But...
I can barely build a pre-cut melamine rack without really frustrating myself, so I had a carpenter build it. It turned out great, but ended up being quite expensive once all the labor was accounted for.
And the second thing that I dislike about this idea is that with each of the tubs being 18 or 24 inches wide, I won't be able to get more than 3-4 in a stack. I have a lot of space in my snake room, but this will eat it up too quickly.
Anybody know of a long, deep, skinny box out there? Most of my species are terrestrial - if I could find something that was 3 feet long, 2 feet deep, and 12 inches wide - then we'd be in business!
-Lee

Anybody know of a long, deep, skinny box out there? Most of my species are terrestrial - if I could find something that was 3 feet long, 2 feet deep, and 12 inches wide - then we'd be in business!

Lee,

You might want to wait until you get your copy of The Art of Keeping Snakes. With the methodology outlined in the book you actually want a bit of cage height for both the substrate depth and the plant growth. A 12" wide box when mounted on a face frame may not provide enough height.
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Current snakes:

0.0.1 Gonyosoma oxycephala - Java locale (green)

0.2 Gonyosoma oxycephala - Malaysian locale (green)

1.2 Gonyosoma oxycephala - Java local (green)

2.2 Gonyosoma janseni - Seleyar locale (all black)

1.2 Gonyosoma janseni - Celebes locale (Black & Tan)