Reptile & Amphibian Forums

My ball python will soon outgrow his aquarium, and I need to put him in something bigger. Since he hides all the time anyway, I'd rather just stick him in a rubbermaid than spend a lot of money on a nice cage or 75 gallon aquarium.

My questions:
How big of a rubbermaid?
How do you heat the rubbermaid? Do you just sick the heat pad to the base of the thing? What kind of heat pad do you guys use?
How do you keep the rubbermaid lid firmly fastned? I can't have any escapes.
I'm not building a rack, I was just planning on putting him in one big rubbermaid and keeping it on the floor.
Does anybody have plans for this?

Minimum I would suggest one equal in size to a 40 breeder, better equal to a 75. Use a Heatwave heat pad, get the largest size I think it's 11x17. These distribute the heat better than other heat pads that can get too hot and melt the tub. For added security use bungie cords across the top to secure the lid. They should hook under the lip of the tub nicely. I strongly suggest cutting out a portion of the lid and hot glue or epoxy metal insect screen or 1/4" hardware cloth for ventilation. Duct tape the edges to keep the BP from possible harm of sharp wires. Not much to look at or see your BP in but it is economical housing.
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Hope this helps.

BigT

Hi-
I was hoping that I might interject a rookie question here. I'm not as familiar with snakes as other things and I'm curious about the 'rubbermaid tub' setups. Do ball pythons(etc.) not require uv? If so, how do you handle that in a tub/rack situation. I don't keep any snakes now but would like to in the future and this sort of a set up would make it much easier to convince my better half.

Thanks!
MP

BPs diet consists exclusively of mammals the liver of the prey item contain sufficient VitD3 to make UV lighting unnecessary.
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Hope this helps.

BigT