Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I have a adult male ball , that is about 3 1/2 feet, is a 20 gallon long tank ok ?

A wise man (snake breeder) at the Tinley Park show said, "aquariums are for fish, plastic tubs are for snakes". I think most snake keeping people would agree with that statement, however there may be varying oppinions as to if a 20 gal is big enough for an adult. If that is your only snake (for now, as they are like potato chips) you might consider a 41 qt plastic tub with a few holes drilled in the sides, a few bricks on top of a locking lid , with a heat pad underneath one end, water dish on the other end. Or you could just skip that step and buy or build a rack and start building your collection ASAP Do some homework, research the subject of housing on the web.
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1.0 pastel ball python
0.1 mojave ball python
0.1 normal ball python
0.2 3-toed box turtles
2.3 eastern box turtles
0.0.5 3-striped mud turtle
1.0 northern diamondback terrapin
2.1 tiger salamander
1.1 red-sided garter
1.0 anerythristic red-sided garter
1.1 Iowa snow plains garter
1.1 Het butter stripe cornsnake
0.1 anerythristic motley cornsnake
1.1 Blue garter (Puget Sound)

that was a funny (and appropriate)statement. I started with one kenyan sand boa and now after five months...

1.0 dh sunglow male boa
0.1 alb. het snow boa
1.0 colmb./suri. boa
0.1 brb
0.1 high gold normal ball python

I'd take the suggestion of building/buying a rack seriously for several reasons.
BPs are reclusive animals, and prefer to be left alone. If you have several snakes, you're likely to annoy each one less often than if you only had one.
A rack of four or five snakes is going to be lower maintenance than most pets.
Once you get hooked, it's hard to stop. In my case it'll probably take an intervention.

I personaly feel that a 20L is fine for all but the very largest of male BP's. I keep my males in Iris 32qt tubs which have roughly the same floor space as the 20L. The 41qt/CB70 is what I myself and I believe a lot of breeders use for adult females. Your snake would and should be fine in that size enclosure, but if you think he needs something larger then move up to something like a 30L or a 30 breeder. And if you think you may get more snakes in the future then yes a rack is a great investment.

Jeff

I am always saying snakes are like potato chips... I started with a corn, then a ball, then a red tail, then a burm, 2 more reds, another burm.... and now we're up well past 30 something... with more coming... and that doesn't include the rescue critters....

i love em'

Beth

and i've done the 20 gal thing, and they do seem crowded...
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The rescue site: www.freewebs.com/okreptilerescue

i have my baby (2ft) blood pythons in a 29g layin on its side with a wood top i madei think that has almost the same dimension as the 41q tubs 29g is 30x18x12 layin on its side, works great easy to make, and stackable the lid si made cost me about 20$ each which is like 5$ more than a screen lid holds humidity and heat in great.

http://i265.photobucket.com/albums/ii214/dylanm1987/0108081924b.jpg

http://i265.photobucket.com/albums/ii214/dylanm1987/0108081924a.jpg

With the BP's we're talking about an animal that spends almost thier entire life cramed in a termite mound or a rodent borrow. So when you say they seem a bit crowded I scratch my head. My definition of crowded is tring to get to the time clock on Friday at 5:00 or better yet tring to get into the mens room at the Bucs game during half time.(shouldn't have had that third beer) Not a single ball python in a 20 gallon tank. But hey, I quess its all about perspective.

Jeff

I spend about half my life in a thing called a car. I would not like the idea of spending my WHOLE life in one. LOL A human can live in a 6' X 6' cell and be just fine just as a ball can live in a 20 gallon tank just fine. I think some people think the snakes just deserve as much space as can economically be given to the snake. In the wild the snake can at least slither a mile if it feels like it.

Don't get me wrong, my original reply stated that if the poster feels he needs more space to by all means give it to him. But in collecting and keeping reptiles for 31 years now I have used virtually every consievable type of enclosure. Some were to small for the type of animal being kept and others were way to large(waste of space), but I have learned alot over that time. If your talking about a large diurnal species that is very active and moves about most of the time then yes you would want to provide a larger enclosure with lots of branches, logs or rocks. But a species as sedintary as BP's don't require all the extra room. That doesn't mean they should be kept in a shoe box their entire life either. I will tell you from experience that some animals when moved from a smaller enclosure to a larger one they will stop feeding. Why? I provide my BP's with plenty of room but still they jam themselves in the tightest space they can find. Why? And to compare us (humans) to snakes really doesn't make sense to me. Do you really think that snakes sit around thinking "gee I wish I could afford a bigger place" or maybe they have thier eye on that new 108 inch big screen TV. Lord knows that 19 inches isn't large enough to watch the big game. Bigger isn't always better, but thats just my opinion for what its worth.

Jeff

P.S. have you ever been home alone at night in a big old house and felt just a little nervous hearing every noise. But hey you can't compare us to snakes.

What i meant by crowded was...
When I put a decent size 4ft healthy snake in a 20 or 40 gallon tank and they cover 1/2 the floor space....

Same thing with living in a 6x6 cell--- no thank you- i'll pass...

I am not oppose to using the 28 qt sterilite tubs (or bigger) from walmart- they are decent size....

I'm just one of those people, that thinks if you have the room- use it...

I live in a 2500 sq ft house- and the reptiles have about 800 of that space... plus the few random display of the "fancy snakes" (the emerald, the tiger retic, the peruvian rtb, and my sons snake in his room) in the main part of the house....

anyway....
I say- whatever works for you and works for the animal.
i have seen them change eating habits when thier cage grows/shrinks- and thats a per-animal thing- and thats what you should go by.
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The rescue site: www.freewebs.com/okreptilerescue

a pretty extansive colection. I would love to pics of some of your animals and thier enclosures. How big are your Burms and retics? 15 foot is the biggest burm I every kept. 12 foot on the retics. Back when I was keepin the big boys or should I say girls. I built all my enclosures, ussually 2' X 4' or 4' X 4'. My house is only 1800 sq ft so those days are over at least until the kids move out.

Jeff