What to get...

[willywonka]

I have a Boaphile 30 Drawer Shoe Box Rack that I was going to use to house my tarantulas in but I am thinking of going in a different direction. I want to get some ideas of types of snakes or lizards that I can keep in this. The boxes are 12 1/2" long by 6 3/4 " wide and 3 3/4" tall. These would be the herps permanent home so they need to stay relatively small since I will not be transfering them into something bigger and keep in mind that there would be no heat lamps or uv lights, just the belly heat the rack provides. Any ideas would be great. Thanks.

 

[P. Novak]

I don't know those are pretty small. Maybe some kings or milks or a kenyan sand boa. Hognose snakes stay pretty small.

 

[8 leg wonder]

snakes are the only herps suitable for your set up, lizards, frogs, tortises, turtles all need uv. The size of the enclosures would limit you to small snakes like sand boas, childrens pythons, hognoses, spotted pythons, and milksnakes

 

[Snakeguybuffalo]

i wholeheartedly disagree. Most milksnakes, kingsnakes etc acheive lengths of over 3 feet. Hognoses, breedable ones anyway are all between a foot and a half to 2 feet long. enclosures that are only 12 inches long are far from suitable for these fairly active animals. childrens pythons average around 3.5 to 4 feet, some acheiving lenghts of 5 feet. Spotteds are even larger. also, most frogs do no require uv light, as many of them are nocturnal and spend all daylight hours in hiding. I might consider some of the smaller ground geckos, ie the pictus, namib sand gecko, etc. These are nocturnal, small lizards. Feel free to pm me as well with any more questions

 

[Will Hunting]

i wholeheartedly disagree. Most milksnakes, kingsnakes etc acheive lengths of over 3 feet. Hognoses, breedable ones anyway are all between a foot and a half to 2 feet long. enclosures that are only 12 inches long are far from suitable for these fairly active animals. childrens pythons average around 3.5 to 4 feet, some acheiving lenghts of 5 feet. Spotteds are even larger. also, most frogs do no require uv light, as many of them are nocturnal and spend all daylight hours in hiding. I might consider some of the smaller ground geckos, ie the pictus, namib sand gecko, etc. These are nocturnal, small lizards. Feel free to pm me as well with any more questions

I'm going to have to agree with this. There's really not much you can do with tanks that small.

 

[JohnEDove]

Those sound like hatchling racks and I agree with both people who said you can't house adult snakes in them.
You'd do best to stick with inverts for enclosures that size.

 

[willywonka]

Those sound like hatchling racks and I agree with both people who said you can't house adult snakes in them.
You'd do best to stick with inverts for enclosures that size.

Yeah, that was what I thought too. I had hoped that by tapping the resourses here that maybe there was some snake or lizard that I might have not thought of that would work. Oh well, I guess I just need to fill it with tarantulas.

 

[Snakeguybuffalo]

Don't forget about these guys tho. I have a pair of these and they are awesome little critters. Loads of personality! And they stay small.

http://www.a1reptiles.net/ParoeduraPictus.html

 

[halfwaynowhere]

there are some really tiny geckos, I can't remember where I saw them, they are even smaller than the ones posted by snakeguybuffalo. I would think they might need UV light, which cannot be provided in a rack setup.

 

[Beardo]

snakes are the only herps suitable for your set up, lizards, frogs, tortises, turtles all need uv. The size of the enclosures would limit you to small snakes like sand boas, childrens pythons, hognoses, spotted pythons, and milksnakes

This is completely untrue....theres plenty of herps that don't require UV lighting at all (does "nocturnal" ring a bell? lol)

Many types of geckos and frogs will thrive without it.

 

[LeilaNami]

Everything I've researched about my king and others, excluding nocturnal snakes, has always said they require an amount of weak UV rays. Am I wrong?

 

[Beardo]

Everything I've researched about my king and others, excluding nocturnal snakes, has always said they require an amount of weak UV rays. Am I wrong?

Yes, that is wrong....while UV doesn't hurt snakes, most of them don't really benefit in any way from it.

 

[LeilaNami]

Ah ok. I just have been finding a lot of contradictory information.

 

[P. Novak]

Yes, that is wrong....while UV doesn't hurt snakes, most of them don't really benefit in any way from it.

I agree with this, out of the 13 snakes I own... NONE have or IMO need UVB lighting. All the other snakes I've kept in the past have never had UVB either. Like David said, I'm sure it wouldn't hurt, but I don't see anything beneficial coming from it.

 

[Beardo]

Out of the thousands of snakes I've owned over the last 10+ years....not a single one of them ever had UV lighting.

They get their calcium and nutrients from the whole prey items they consume.

 

[LeilaNami]

Okay. I also read what the UK society site had to say. (The same one researching the UVB radiation) They did state a few specific species as well as some arboreal, diurnal species that did at least benefit from a low exposure. At least, that is what I've come to understand in the reading.