Opinions On Display Enclosures vs Rack & Tubs? - Page 2

Bandit · 05-08-16, 09:34 AM

Personally, I like having my snakes in display enclosures and will never have tubs. That being said, I have no problem with others using tubs, they just aren't for me. I enjoy seeing my snakes whenever I am in the room. Additionally, I don't ever have on planning too many snakes at any given time. I think my max would be about five.

SWDK · 05-08-16, 05:58 PM

These rack systems seem like a pretty neat idea. Kind of a mix between and rack/tub setup with display type viewing.

They don't seem to me like a DIY customization to the tubs bc it looks perfect and factory made?

Anyone ever come across something like this before or know who makes/sells them?

chairman · 05-09-16, 06:23 AM

Freedom Breeders makes a tub/rack system like that. Others may as well, I found a company in the UK that offered a similar product.

Petsnakes · 05-10-16, 12:22 PM

If you have a large collection of snakes it is simply easier to keep them in racks.

Look on YouTube at the big breeders. Row, upon row, upon row of tubs.

Snakes that can't even stretch out their full length.

Depends how high you want to go on the moral ground but racking is the way to go if you have a large collection and want to be time efficient with cleaning and feeding.

Just to be clear, when I had a lot of snakes I used racks and it didn't bother me.

The snakes, fed, shed and bred with no apparent signs of stress.

For those that think a vivarium is more animal friendly, look at the size of the base compared to the space that the snake has in the wild.

Vivariums can look very nice and offer more space but, realistically, the nice viv is purely for our enjoyment. The snake really doesn't care if it is hiding in a kitchen roll tube, cereal box or the most expensive hide that you could find on ebay.

Bye for now,

Jim

SWDK · 05-10-16, 02:46 PM

Definitely a lot of good points made for each side of the spectrum. I really like the idea of the tubs with the viewing window. I'm definitely going to research them more. I'd like to try a rack setup and see which is better for me. Right now I have 13 snakes and I know for sure there will be several more added to my collection in the near future. So we will see how it goes.

sirtalis · 05-10-16, 02:52 PM

Personally I only use display, part of keeping the animals is the enclosure aspect if that makes any sense. I'm fine with racks/tubs as long as their not bhb style/borderline animal abuse small, what I don't like about most people who is tubs and racks is that they claim it makes the animal more secure *facepalm*

SWDK · 05-10-16, 06:16 PM

For the most part my collection consists of colubrids that don't get very large, with the exception of a few misc snakes. So I'm thinking about trying them out in the tubs. I plan to keep my Baja Rattlesnake, Dumerils boa, Eastern Garter and Blue Beauty in display enclosures. Maybe even my Ball Python but he's very shy and only seems to roam about at night.

Again, I want tubs with Windows so it will have some small aspect of viewing. Even if I have to try to make my own window in a tub to try out at first.

RAD House · 05-10-16, 07:53 PM

I have been mulling over somehow building a combination of rack/display enclosure for my ball pythons. It is in my long list of summer projects, so we will see what happens.

**Andy_G** · 05-11-16, 07:35 AM

Both work great. Burrowing or less active species I would put in a rack. Very active/arboreal or large species go in a display. This works for keeper and captive. People often forget that 20+ years ago, a lot of the imports would not eat in a display cage and the introduction of racks and tubs solved that problem extremely well, so if anyone hates the idea of a rack outright because it's "cruel" in all aspects and all cases where they are used(which I don't think I see here), I am sorry but chances are your snakes do not.

Tiny Boidae · 05-11-16, 04:04 PM

Andy, I think the only people who think that are keyboard warriors on less enlightened sites

Both are personal preferences, although I currently use transparent enclosures since I have a small collection. However, tubs and aquariums don't necessarily equate to a sterile and display environment, respectively. I have aquariums that are bare bone down to the middle with just a jug of dirt, a water bowl, and a cork flat, and then I'm trying to make my Baird's cage a lot more aesthetically pleasing since he seems to hide more in the fake plants than his actual hides. I'm sure if someone really wanted to, they could make a tub visually appealing, but that's less common.

The snake cares only to an extent what container you use or what you fill it with so long as it feels secure and its needs are being met. Personally I'm more open minded about this topic though and could be swayed to use either method or anywhere in the middle.

Tiny Boidae · 05-11-16, 05:37 PM

Oh and I'm sorry if this is considered spam, but I forgot to mention something that I wanted to and it's too late to edit my post.

I see a lot of people complaining about how hard it is to clean a glass aquarium, and while I could agree it's harder then a tub, it's not challenging. If I'm cleaning my sand boas' cages, I'll scoop out as much dirt as I can with a disposable cup, although I'd otherwise just nitpick for poop and manually clean that out. I'd inherited an old vacuum when my mom upgraded to the latest Dyson, so when I feel like I got enough dirt out that I wasn't going to break anything, I'd simply vacuum out the excess dirt with the hose. Nothing overly complex or exerting about it