How to Choose the Right Size Snake Cage

Video Transcript

"Hi, I'm Johan Svahnstrom on behalf of Expert Village. The first thing you're going to do when you choose to set up your snake tank is to find the appropriate enclosure for the type of snake that you are going to get. If you're choosing to buy a baby snake, one of the colubrid, it's like a corn snake or a king snake or something like that, it's sufficient to start of with one of these plastic shoe boxes. Actually the smaller the better in the beginning so that the snakes feel comfortable in their new environment. If your snake is a little bit larger than a baby colubrid, like a yearling colubrid or even a full-grown smaller-size colubrid like a California king snake or even a baby python maybe. You might want to choose a little bit larger of a cage in the beginning. This size here is approximately a twenty gallon wide tank, however it's custom built so it's a little bit different than what you might find in the stores. This enclosure is good for a baby python, a baby boa, or a medium-size colubrid for the first year or two. If you are getting a snake that is a little bit bigger than a baby colubrid or a yearling colubrid, maybe a full-size corn snake, full-size king snake, full-size milk snake, or even a yearling boa or python - a twenty gallon long tank might be appropriate. It is important that it's a twenty gallon long tank, not necessarily a high tank because they do like a lot of floor space - the species that I just mentioned. This tank here would be perfect for a full-grown colubrid and you actually never have to change it. You could keep this for the full life of the snake. If you're buying a tree snake such as an Amazon tree boa, an emerald tree boa, or a green tree python, you're going to have to look at the height of the cage more than the length and the width because those animals spend ninety-five to a hundred percent of their lives in branches so they do need a high cage. If you're getting a large colubrid or a mid-sized boa or python this cage here is a perfect enclosure for them. It's a fifty-five gallon long tank that will work great for those species that I just mentioned. We are going to use this tank today to show how to put it all together to get a perfect enclosure for your mid-sized python or colubrid."