When should I move them in?

[SerpentSteve]

I currently have 3 retics with the male just over 5 ft and my two girls about 1ft behind him. I'm having a family member build me 3 8ftx3ft cages for them and was wondering if i could move them in in a couple of months when he's done or should i wait till they're a little bigger? Although I've never seen it personally in my previous snakes, I've read and heard from multiple sources that they feel more secure in smaller cages so it made me wonder if I should wait and gradually move them to larger cages.

Thanks

[bigsnakegirl785]

You could certainly move them in now, if you want! Just keep in mind an 8'x3' is a very large enclosure for 4-5ft snakes, so you'll need to heavily decorate it so there's little open space. But they're still young, and retics grow very fast so you shouldn't have to have it decorated so heavily for too long. You could also partition off maybe half or 2/3 of the enclosure until they grow into it.

[SerpentSteve]

Thanks! Also, What's the best way of heating the enclosure?

[bigsnakegirl785]

I've only used RHPs, CHE's, heat lamps, and I just got some THG heat tape recently. I'd say probably a mix of those, although I prefer CHE's over heat bulbs that produce light myself. You could probably test out a few of the options before putting them in to see what you need to heat it to where you need it.

[SerpentSteve]

Awesome thanks.

[bigsnakegirl785]

No problem. If there's other, better options, I'm sure someone will chime in. :)

[millertime89]

What are the cages being built out of? That will determine what to use for heat. RHP/CHE for wood/melamine, heat tape will probably work for everything else.

[SerpentSteve]

They'll be built out of wood. Also, is there anything I should tell him to avoid coating/sealing with?

[millertime89]

Use non-toxic aquarium sealant. CHE or RHP for the heat.

[dave himself]

I moved all my bigger snakes into large vivs when they were still small. But as stated above they had a lot of cover and hiding places which IMO really helped. And I use 250 CHEs on pulse stats for heating 2 of our larger vivs and found them to work very well. The first large viv we kitted out was fitted with an 250 AHS heater which we found was fine for ambient temperature but not very good for creating a hot spot, so we added an 100watt heat lamp on a dimmer stat for hot spot temperature. I've never used RHPs although I've heard very good reports about them, good luck with the rehousing and keep us posted on how you get on :)

[SerpentSteve]

Will do! Thanks for the info and I'll get some pics up as soon as the enclosures are done.

[JWFugle]

mainly wanting to follow this but heres my setup. super jamp 2.5 years old about 9ft in a Animal plastics T70(8x3Dx2T) i have 2 5ft rows of 11in flexwatt underneath with a reptile basics 80w RHP centered in the middle of the hot side. temps are still lower than i would like for abmiant but hot spot/hide heats up nicley so im not overly concerned. but do note it takes A LOT of heat to get these suckers up, especially if your room is cold.

[millertime89]

That's a massive cage for an animal of that size. She looks comfortable though. What temps do you have now and what do you want? I would think with that much flexwatt and a RHP you should easily have what you want.