Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hi everyone,

As some of you know, I'm in the process of setting up a new enclosure for my burm (a male, who is now almost 13'). To be sure I make good choices on the design plans for his new home I do a lot of reading here and there of what other peoples' experiences are with caging. Here's a couple things I'm curious about:

1) "Holding humidity in a cage" - This seems a bit odd to me. It seems to me that to do so one must also hold the 'air' in the cage, since the moisture is in the air. This doesn't sound like a good idea to me. Think about how much we, people, dislike stuffy rooms full of stale air. Think about how bad that would be if you, or someone, left a huge pile of feces and urine in the corner and you had to wait until your 'owner' came home from work to clean it out. Talk about wanting some fresh air.

I have flexable exhaust tubing connected to my burms Vision cage. The other end of the tubing is connected to an exhaust fan about six feet away that runs continuously, all the while pulling air from the room, into and through his cage, then out the window through another short length of flexable tubing. A gentle, steady stream of fresh air for him. Sounds good to me. And to compensate for the loss of 'humid' air, I run a humidifier in the room, and on top of that I have a misting system in his cage that runs on a timer to boost the humidity in just his cage (I also have other snakes housed in the room who don't require such high humidity levels). He lives in about 60-70% RH normally, which I boost around shedding time to help ensure a good shed. I don't have much of any problem maintaining humidity this way, aside from having to remember to refill the humidifier every now and again.

2) I've been looking at all different manufacturers caging options to see what might be best. I have to say, most all of them, in my opinion, amount to what looks to me like a casket with a couple of small locking windows. Even the Vision cage I have him in seems a bit on the 'gloomy' side, even though it does seem to have the largest 'viewing area' of most cage options out there.

For his next cage, the manufacturer I'm probably going to go with offers clear acrylic walls all the way around, and all mounted on a slim framing system (I won't mention thier name, as I don't intend this to be a commercial advertisemtment for them). This seems great to me - he gets a lot of natural light, very little of a 'boxy' feeling, and I get a huge 'viewing area'. And for 'privacy' I'll still offer him a hide box of some sort.

I'm sure there are a number of assumptions I'm making and things that I'm overlooking - so please, let me know what you think and any comments you have on this.

Thanks very much,
- Mark
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Hey Mark!

I was thinking of the same thing with the air exchange except putting the fan on a timer to run for maybe 10-20 minutes twice a day. This would help keep humidity and still allow for fresh air exchange (I don't think they use that much oxygen to leave it running). As for the enclosure, my burm has hit 12' and I can't imagine any "cage" being large enough. He's in a cage now but my next enclosure will be to section off a part of a room. I really like the large viewing area idea but I can't imagine any purchased enclosure being large enough for a snake that size to be content in.

Just my thoughts!
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DZ

"People sleep peaceably in their beds at night only because rough men stand ready to do violence on their behalf." -- George Orwell

That struck me as a really good idea (to use a timer on the exhaust fan), as it has the added benefit of saving electricity too. BUT, then there's one thing, one pretty important thing, I have to consider... that's the feces and urine odors. When I'm away all day, at work for example, I never know when he's going to go. As it usually happens, he lets loose, I'm guessing, right after I leave in the morning - then I feel bad for having left him in there with all that stench all day. So I feel a little better knowing that at least he's getting some air turn-over at all times, which will cover the inopportune times too.

I love the idea of a room size enclosure too. But that will have to wait a couple years until I get to purchase a home. Then he'll be living large! (and me too).

- Mark