Reptile & Amphibian Forums

for neonate snakes

i dont keep hots (but i want to)
but for my Ball python i use these clippies (theyre kinda shaped like a seven) that hold the screen lid down. the snake cant open it, and i know i cant open it with out a lot of effort

ashley
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"I’m scared of those nasty big-eyed grey aliens, too. I think it’s that I don’t understand their motivations. I am confident of my ability to out-think, out-con, or if need be, tire-iron-upside-the-head demonic forces, ghosts and goblins, things that go bump in the night, etc. It’s the notion of something that doesn’t have any desire to talk to me except via anal probe that freaks me out"

For starters, fangs can do a pretty good job of hitting right through mesh. There was a cobra bite here in Florida under exactly those circumstances - somebody carelessly put their hand on the mesh top of its tank. That is an illegal way to keep hots in this state; they have to be in sturdy locking cages. For what is obviously a good reason. If you want to keep hots, it is a good idea (and in some states it's the law) to invest in professional quality secure housing. Aquariums with screen lids just don't cut the mustard.

Do not rely on those clips-whether for a venomous or nonvenomous snake. A friend of mine made that mistake with a hatchling ball python-I found out that was what he was using after it escaped. He gave up on the snake, I found it under a garbage can over a month later. Something as flexible as a snake doesn't need to pop the clip off, it just needs a bit of flex-and a baby snake will find more than enough. Please stick to "proper" venomous cages-even for neonates.

Use proper venomous caging ESPECIALLY for neonates

I completely agree that the utmost security should be achieved for housing potentially lethal animals, however, there is quite a bit of disagreement on the best ways to go about this. Neodeshas and Visions are great, as well as others such as Animal Plastics, Cages By Design, etc. These are all well-known to be of great quality and basically escape proof. I see only one major flaw for a person that keeps very easily spooked or otherwise fast hot snakes: they are all front-opening. I would be ecstatically happy if some of these companies would begin to manufacture top-opening cages for those of us with snakes that would otherwise be too much of a risk to deal with in a front-opening enclosure. These are fine for boids, most colubrids, and even more sedentary hot snakes, but for mambas, taipans, cobras, basically any of the Bothrops, Lachesis, etc., there is a bit of a risk by having to take away what is keeping the snake away from you. Top-opening cages would of course not be able to be stacked, unless on a system in which they could be rolled out from the main frame whenever necessary (hey, there's an idea...), and this might be the reason that the big companies do not bother with them. There are always people shouting about keeping hot snakes in aquariums, but (and I'm going to go out on the taboo limb here) I would much rather work with a large mamba, forest cobra, or taipan in a top-opening, decently tall aquarium any day than any front-opening cage. Trap boxes work really well, but then again you have to open the cage to close them in most cases. The only super safe front-opening cages I can really think of for highly dangerous elapids or viperids would be those with a shift divider, and you really don't see just a whole lot of them being made. When you do, for some reason that bit of extra material tends to skyrocket the price of the cage. Anyway, I guess I just wanted to express my thoughts on the subject. To me, the absolute best venomous enclosure is whatever you are most comfortable with that is completely secure and allows you to do what you need to do. If you are comfortable working with hot snakes in top-opening, secure (key word here), home-made cages and aquariums, them fine. If you are good at dodging bullets and can work with super fast snakes in front-opening cages, especially stacked so that the snake can just come right out and kiss you on the lips, then great. The point is, don't automatically assume that any "nonprofessional" cage should automatically be disqualified as safe.
-Chance

That's what I've been saying all along, and I had a custom cage maker practically yell at me for it. I don't even like front opening cages for colubrids, I keep dropping them!

There is one sort of aquarium cage clip, by the way, that I have never ever had an animal escape from. And I've got some escape artists. It basically leaves no flex room at all. I trust it 100% for my non-hots. But since you still run into the whole screen lid problem, it's not really an issue here.
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Eryx - All the fun of a boa in a convenient pocket size!

I believe that aquariums can be converted to be suitable, lockable venomous cages.
However, I have yet to see a commercially available clip, single screen lid system that I would trust with anything venomous.
I make my own modifications to just about any size aquarium, adapting them with padlockable doublescreened lids that have very tight tolerances which have proven safe even with neonate Dusky Pigmy Rattlesnakes.
It can be done. It just takes a little innovation and hard work.
Karl H. Betz