Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I'm buying some cages with my tax return; if I give a texas rat a 3' high cage, will it use the extra height versus 18"? It'll be going on top of a stack of 4x2x1' APs holding some king rats (which seem totally uninterested in climbing so far). As a juvy, mine seems ot love climbing, but he's still a juvy, only 3' or so and less than 300 grams.

Kind of slow growing as he goes off feed for the late fall through early spring time of year. Eats like a pig during summer/early fall though.
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We wouldn't have 6 and a half billion people if you had to be beautiful to get laid.

Yep, a Texas Rat will use the vertical space in an arboreal cage - especially if you provide a temperature gradient. They are highly arboreal in nature - I have found them fairly high up in trees...
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-Toby Brock
Southwestern Center for Herpetological Research

Are they OK with a mostly vertical thermal gradient? Like if I toss in a radiant heat panel will that work? I kind of plan to bolt some bird nest boxes to the sides so he'd have a high up place to hide.
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We wouldn't have 6 and a half billion people if you had to be beautiful to get laid.

I had setups in exoterras that I used mushroom head tape on (super velcro) to attached little top-opening bird boxes. It works great except you have to get the snake out Make sure you can remove the box handily and that access will permit easy extraction of a stubborn animal.
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See all my snakes at SerpenTrack.com

Sounds like a good plan to me, but I've never used RHP's before so I don't have any opinion of them. If it was in my snake room, I would probably use heat tape on the outside of the cage. I might use a small piece low on the side and one near the top on the same side - or just have a vertical run of tape up the side or back near a corner. I do this with my cage stack - run a section of heat tape up the side (of all of the cages), like with a tub rack. This way, the snake can choose to warm up at any level of the cage.
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-Toby Brock
Southwestern Center for Herpetological Research