Reptile & Amphibian Forums

For my baby ball, I was looking to get a 20gal long aquarium to house him in until he gets bigger. But with all the tanks I see, they have screen tops with those little pins that you put in to "lock" the screen top. Do you think that is secure enough? Thanks for your suggestions!

no. the screen tops are not secrure enough even if you lock it. if notice on my cage i but a 3lb weight on one side where he can reach really easy. and a 2 1/2 on the other. you can use books and blocks of wood but i had the weights handy. And i would just get a 40 gallon. i saw it at a petco for 80 dollars. thats a good price for a 40 in my opinion.

A piece of masking tape on each corner that slides out is a very effective way of adding extra security to your bp tank. The masking tape is easy to pull half way to make sliding out the top easy (the remainder of the tape stays on the tank), and stays sticky so you don't have to constantly replace it.

Mark

they're secure enough, but build your own lid out of wood and hardware cloth, it takes about 10minutes, and it costs $4 instead of 10-15. a 15-20 gallon long is good for a baby, dont get a 40 like fobes said because he might get stressed, once he gets bigger like 3 feet move him out of the 20gallon into a bigger enclosure of your choice. rubbermaids and custom made enclosures are always best.

why the hell would a ball pyton get stressed in a bigger enviroment? have you not seen the cage they live in when they live in the wild?? thats right. they have open reign of the country. And if you set it up with a lotta hide spots, it wont get stressed. put alot of cover (fake plants and drift wood and such) in the tank and it will be fine. Canada man is flaming me for my set-up, but it is doing well, no dehydrated snake or bad sheds. humidty is up at 65% all the time with a cover.

I've heard that larger enclosures cause stress in small snakes, too.

Lee, how long have you had your snake? Have you ever heard the expression that "only bad things happen fast in animal ownership"? I come from the reef hobby, and I can tell you that that's a motto over there. You can be keeping an anemone and doing everything 100% wrong for a year and not know it until the thing finally dies.

Your python setup seems pretty good to me, but I would hold off on calling it the "gold standard" until you've had your snake for a couple of years at least.

Well thanks for the suggestions before the arguing. Anyways, I'm only gonna have him in the 20gal for about a week or two because I'm gonna start building a custon cage today. I'm goin to a reptile show today in IL to see some plans on what kind of cage I want.