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[Chris89]

Hi, I thought that I might just throw this out to the members of APS to gather their thoughts and opinions on the different methods of housing reptiles.

In the last few days there has been alot of discussion about what you should be keeping your snakes in, ( eg, enclosures, click clacks). I have had discussions/debates on msn messenger with someone from APS - ( well they've been banned.. 3 guess who ) They seem to think that there's only 1 method to housing snakes ( pythons in general ) the correct way.

So. . The question is - ( What do people find better keeping their pythons in, A) Click Clack or B) Enclosure ) Also if you could please explain your reasons as to why you have come to this decision.

I have been told by a few people that hatchling snakes cannot handle going into an enclosure very well, and should be in a click clack up until they're around a year old. Does anyone have any proof of this or personal experience?

I can understand that reptile breeders keep their hatchlings in click clack containers, as it takes up less space and is easier to manage ( hygiene wise ) Also the fact that the hatchlings in question are generally going to be sold within 1 - 3 months of them being hatched.

What I don't understand is : ( Hatchling pythons/snakes cope better in click clacks than enclosures ) How have ( you ) come to this conclusion? I know that the majority of reptiles that we buy are captive bred - excluding some states. However, a hatching snake/python isn't born in the wild and then placed into a click clack. Yes they may hide under rocks etc to feel secure, but that still doesn't justify as to why click clacks are considered better than enclosures for younger snakes.

In reference to this topic, I've had a few people criticize me for putting my Stimson Python into an enclosure when she was at a young age. People informed me that it would stress her, cause her to go off feeding, make her become aggressive and have problems shedding. I didn't see how that could be possible if I provided the correct heating, and pleanty of hides so if she felt insecure she could hide.

In my own personal experience, my Stimson Python appeared to be happier when I moved her into an enclosure, the enclosure wasn't that big - Length: 60cm, Width: 60cm, Height: 65cm. Soon as I placed her in the enclosure, she went straight up into the branches and started exploring her whole new enclosure. Every afternoon to evening she'd be out sitting on her branches, exploring etc. Around 3 weeks after I put her into the enclosure she shed ( around the same date as her last shed ) it was a perfect shed, and she still had a very strong feeding response ( she even has the same feeding response to this day, even in the new bigger enclosure ) From my own personal experience with moving her into the enclosure over the past 8 months there has been no negative signs from moving her into the enclosure.

Before anyone says anything about Ziggy escaping from her new enclosure the other night, it's my fault that she got out ( not necessarly because of her size ) the newspaper that I had along the gap wasn't thick enough, so - Yes I take responsibility for that, and now it has been corrected and she cannot escape from the enclosure.

If anyone decides to read all of that, could you please post your own personal experiences with different methods of housing pythons, and let me/ everyone else know of the outcome of your choice.

Chris