Reptile & Amphibian Forums

hi, a bit from me:

my name is Oliver and i'm a brand spankin newb . i have always admired and respected snakes yet never owned one. my sister has 15 month old boy normal ball. after spending some time with this one, i'm was hooked. i already saw a beautiful baby girl at a local pet store, and am getting her today. now, for the past 2 weeks, i have been through, what feels like half the internet, looking for any kind of info for ball pythons. i'm kind of a perfectionist and a super computer nut. can go 12 hours straight on comp. easy .so trust me, i have read lot's so as to not make a preventable mistake.

Ok, to my point.

this project i plan to start the first week of '04, asap as soon as i get home. i'm building a new enclosure for two balls. i have a space of 32"h 55"w 21 7/8"d in my living room. i want the enclosure there so everyone can see them both . i'm guesstimating that i can get a cage of 26"h 53"w 20"d in there with room to move. thinking a bit ahead, is this big enough for two adult ball pythons? three adult pythons?

i have some blue prints i'm working on, and for esthetic purposes, i will use only plexiglass for the enclosure. i will be able to get .221 inch plexiglass. is this thick enough? should i use screws only? or sylicon only? or both? i'm planning dual front opening doors, hinges on the side, and sliding pin locks for the top and bottom of both doors. any thoughts or suggestions on this? on vetilation, do i need to have the top side made of wire mesh? or can i use plexiglass with several openings(closed with mesh)? if so, how big do the openings need to be? i have left room enough for an undercage heating pad for 1/3 of the cage. also two red heating lamps. or should i use 3?

i have gone through more that half the threads on the forum. i was just amazed with of pics and advice posted here. i really hope to stick around here for a while. catch a pieces of advice and tips. and of course, will keep you guys updated on how the build went . and in advance, i want to thank all of you for your time and input. thanks and keep up the good work.

Someone there could probably help with your questions about plexiglass. As for some of your other concerns: The heating and ventilation are totally dependant on the ambient environment of the room the enclosure is being built in. Here in AZ, I avoid heat lamps because the heat and convection currents really dry things out. In many parts of the country with higher ambeint humidity, this is not a concern. You shouldn't plan on keeping more than 1 BP per cage indefinately. It is very likely that one will eventually begin to dominate the favorite hides and begin stressing the other(s). Not that it can't be done, just a known risk. If your cage area was divided in half verically, you could keep 2 BP's separate into early adulthood, but a full grown breeding age female would do better with the full floor space. You might consider splitting your design horizontally with UTH for both levels, you've got plenty of height to work with. Just my opinion, hope it helps.
Paul

Hi Oliver –

Welcome to the forum. I hope things go well for you with your new ball python. I second the advice to post in the Caging forum. Even just reading some posts there might be useful for you. Do I understand you correctly that you are thinking of putting both your sister’s male and your new female in the same cage to grow up together? That’s not such a good idea for a bunch of reasons. Keeping track of their health and getting them to feed vigorously are just a couple. The topic of housing snakes together gets discussed on all the forums frequently. I’m sure you can find lots of threads through the search function. Maybe someone else will post more here.

Anyway, I hope you are going to quarantine that new snake. It is a good idea to keep any new python in a separate cage in a separate room away from any other snakes you may have for three months. Consider getting a fecal done. And watch closely for snake mites.

Good luck,
Joan