Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Is there A formula to the size of cage I need compaired to the lenth of the snake for the various western rattlesnakes?
Graham

I believe common sense is the best formula to go by for snake size to cage size. I recently received the well-known book Venomous Snakes of the World by W.P. Mara, which (surprisingly) goes into a lot of hot herp husbandry. A table off of page 84 gives the following guidelines for snake length to enclosure size: up to 2 feet, 10 gal; 3 to 6 feet, 20 gal; 7 to 10 feet, 30 gal; 10 feet or more, 55 gal. Now maybe it's just me, but I find this laughable. If anything, he's at least shooting way under. Granted, this was published in 1995, but snakes haven't evolved that much more body mass in a whole 9 years...lol. Just imagine trying to keep a 6' eastern diamondback in a 20 gal aquarium-sized enclosure. Talk about asking for a bite. Or an 8' mamba in a 30 gal. Anyway, I always just base it off of plain and simple common sense. Obviously a 5' rattlesnake is probably going to need a fair amount of more room, or will at least use more room, than a 5' cobra (terrestrial sp) that will simply stay hidden 90% of the time. Likewise, a 6' mamba would probably need (or definitely be given!), more room than a 6' rattlesnake. So just use your own judgement. Give bigger-bodied snakes more floor space, give arboreal snakes more height and air spage, give super reclusive snakes less room as it may stress them out to have too much, etc. Caging size can also depend on the age of the animal in question. Throw a tiny snake into a giant enclosure designed for how big it eventually will be, and you are likely to just have a stressed baby that refuses to eat. For most of the western species of rattlesnakes, the size of a 55 gal aquarium would easily suite one or two of even the largest species. Most of them tend to average smaller sizes, 2 to 3' or so, so a keeper could easily get away with successfully maintaining individuals in a 35 gal size or so. Hope this is of some use.
-Chance

Thank you Chance.Graham