Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Is 4 feet high by 2 feet long by 2 feet wide a good size terrarim for a eyelash viper?

I replied to your post in the venomous forum and I have pasted it here incase you don't see it there:

I sometimes agree with the idea of "bigger is better" when regarding cages for arboreals, but only when you are talking about adult snakes. And even then the cages have to be well designed with many hide spots and with various temperature gradients in those areas. Larger cages provide more room for error and a snake will choose a poor place to roost due to incorrect temperatures that may exist in their preferred hiding spots, resulting in undue stress.

Experience has shown me that baby and juvie arboreals do better in small cages that simulate a niche that they would choose in the wild. Babies have a need to hide because they are themselves prey items for many animals. You will never find a baby eyelash viper strolling along on the leaf litter in the open forest with nothing to hide under...or at least one that will live longer than it takes the first bird to fly along that can fit the snake in its mouth. When I first started with arboreals I tossed baby eyelash, baby Atheris, and baby Trims into huge 20-30 gallon natural vivaria and they perished. They never used the basking spots, they never seemed to find the waterbowls, and they always seemed to find the coldest corner to hide in a little nook of a plant. In essence, they were terrified of the space that was given them. Now, if you take that baby and put it in a Rubbermaid shoebox with lots of plastic plants, a small waterbowl, and a piece of heat tape under one end the snake will feel secluded and secure enough to move about that small cage to get the things that it needs to survive (food, water, correct thermal regulation).

I don't mean to sound like I'm lecturing. I've just seen too many folks make the same mistakes that I made ten years ago when they toss a 8-10" neonate arboreal into a 30 gallon enclosure thinking that they are doing the right thing. There are differences between the cage requirements of adults and babies, that's all. Good luck to all.

Derek Morgan