hey everyone i get asked quite often what size enclosure tank setup cage whatever the word you
want to use for my particular pet reptile and so i decided that i'm going to go through and give my
opinion on what i think the minimum size for some of the most popular pet reptile cages and closures
whatever may have you are so again my opinion not prove whatever it is but i'm to give justification
for that as well as an example of what i think might be a better choice above and beyond the
bare minimum so before we get going i just want to quickly bring up you'll probably notice a bit of a
change in some of the more recent videos where i'm talking about like our new babies being born this
year we're down here in the main snake room and that's kind of where i want to start doing more
of the videos but with that being said lighting we're still kind of working on the setup we're
still kind of working on there's probably until we dial in maybe a little bit of background noise
from like renoir's tank or whatever may have you so uh hold tight on us for that one we're working
on it we're getting there so getting right into it of the five of five different you know the
most popular pet reptiles are there so you know when you first think of we'll immediately just
go off the bat and we'll talk about ball pythons so right here is colorado she's our pastel highway
who is getting close to size and will probably be going this fall for this upcoming season and
hopefully we'll get some really cool stuff out of her but when we first think about
ball pythons immediately everyone thinks of is racks or tanks that's like kind of the main thing
we're not going to have the conversation about racks in this video because that's an entirely
different subject racks are not necessarily the best for everything and really are more for our
convenience but i'm talking about if you have one or two or just a few pet reptiles what i think a
bare minimum cage is so off the bat i'm gonna be talking about adults full grown animals so
like this big or bigger for a bald python we're talking 14 1500 grams and up so for an animal
like this that theoretically can get over four and a half to five feet long sometimes bigger
for single animals i think for an adult the base size should be something like a 75 gallon aquarium
something that's at least four feet long about a foot and a half to two feet deep and i think
that is a good base thing for a single ball python i know they have the reputation and i like to poke
fun at it just like everybody else too without about them being pet rocks and they don't move
a whole lot and that is somewhat true but that's mostly because they don't really move a whole lot
when actually working with them left for their own devices and more than likely probably when you're
asleep these guys will cruise that's actually why for my larger ball pythons i have four foot long
and by one and a half foot wide tubs in a rack system because they are so large i want to give
them more space to spread out as well as making it more convenient for me but with that being said
that way you can give them more room for them to utilize if you give them a branch if you give them
a vertical high they will sometimes take advantage of that as well as that gives it enough space to
properly thermoregulate i'm not going to talk too much about husbandry in the video i'm mostly
just talking about enclosure cage size minimums just kind of period i know the base that they
like to go off of is you know as long as two sides are the length of the animal so if you
know it's a square like my little notebook right here that i write everything down for the videos
if this and this are the length of the snake then that's the minimum i think that's okay and that
works for like racks and stuff but again i think like a 75 gallon tank for a ball python a single
ball python as an adult is good personally i think like a 4x2 melamine enclosure or 4x2 um pvc cage
is a little bit better so at least four feet long two feet deep and then one and a half to two feet
tall that way again enough size for proper thermal regulation plenty of room to stretch
out and for them to utilize even if they're gonna spend most of the time in a hide or two but again
just you know my opinion moving right along we'll go with the most popular pet
reptile or pet lizard and that's probably the bearded dragon so bearded dragons i don't
know if they're necessarily the best beginner but they're certainly one of the most popular
and i think a good minimum size enclosure is again a 75 gallon tank a lot of people say
like a 40 and honestly i don't think that's enough room these guys do require very high
basking temps but they don't have to be under that all the time and to put them under that can cause
you know undue stress and harm to them so a 75 gallon aquarium or you know equivalent size cage
or whatever once again will hopefully get enough room so that way you can properly give it enough
room for a high basking spot and then enough for like a cooler uh more moderately tempt little hide
or area of the tank for like one side versus the other um i think that again a four by two might
be a little bit better for a better dragon that way you can give them even more space they will
absolutely climb you can give them a very large branch or like a small tree or something or bush
with big sturdy branches that they can crawl onto give them plenty of places to dig because
bearded dragons do like to dig and give them deep substrate they can dig through stuff like that
um so we'll just do we'll just bounce back and forth between lizard and snake so after that
we'll move on to corn snakes so when you think of the most popular pet snake it's either going to be
a ball python like colorado or a corn snake like sierra or one of our other corn snakes
so with a corn snake i think that a 40 is a good minimum and then i'm i'm still honestly a little
on the fence about that so they're not nearly as heavy bodied as ball pythons just period they
usually only get about four feet four and a half feet long and that's a good size big girl corn
snake but they are more active than ball pythons just period during the day and the night they are
more active in general and they will absolutely take advantage of all the space that you give
them so even though they're a little bit slender body a little bit smaller and a 40 is a minimum
i think something that you know so 40 when you think of like a 40 gallon so like a 40 breeder
or like a front opening one like a big exoterra i think something that still is at least three feet
long is better but maybe like a vision cage or again one of those pvc enclosures that's three
to four feet long a foot like a foot and a half to two feet deep and then again you know i'm kind
of sticking with this like four by two kind of a thing but these are a little bit bigger reptiles
that i think would be better for corn snake and this also could probably be used equivalently with
similar size king snakes and milk snakes so like a california king snake or a nelson's milk snake
they could also use an enclosure like that that way you can give them plenty of room to climb
to hide to bury everything like that and they will absolutely take advantage of that space so i think
a 40 exoterra is minimum but honestly if you can go bigger and better i think you absolutely should
moving along from that you know let's talk about you know a crested gecko crested geckos are a
little bit hard they are some of the reptiles you can actually keep communally in small groups of
girls or in trios um i personally will keep two females in one enclosure and then a male will
bounce back and forth and i think a minimum and even then it's a little did is you know kind of
the standard crested gecko little thing for a single male or a single female and that's all
you do and you heavily plant it you give them plenty of places to hide and stuff like that
um it's essentially the equivalent of like a 20 gallon stood up i think that a larger tank like
a 20 like an 18 by 18 by 24 is probably a little bit better um or actually probably like somewhere
in between there is a good for one individual crested gecko but i keep pairs of females
in those 18 by 18 by 24s because i think that's good for the two and then i'll keep individual
males in those smaller 18 by 18 by 12s so that's i think a good minimum but i think the 18 18 24s
or lord i can't remember the exoterra like whether they call it i think it's like a mid
tall or something so you know there's like the little one and then there's the larger one and
there's like the skyscrapers that everyone knows about the skyscrapers that they keep like lychees
and stuff like that and i think that that would be really cool for a crested gecko if you just have
a couple but i think an 18 by 18 or like say a 40 gallon breeder that is propped up on its side and
there are a few companies out there that make these conversion kits you see them a lot of for
like 10s and 20s but i know they make them for 40s too i think that'd be really cool for like
a very nice heavily planted bioactive enclosure for a crested gecko i think that'd be really cool
um how many was that one two three four so then the last one is the leopard gecko so leopard gecko
you know it competes with the bearded dragon probably being the most popular pet lizard in
probably the world but definitely in america and leopard and fat tails probably fall into
this tutorial they usually don't get as big as some of the different uh leopard gecko species
that we have i think a 20 gallon aquarium is good for a single leopard gecko i know a lot
of people can keep them in 10 but i think a 20 is good for one because again it's good for thermal
regulation it gives them plenty of space they like to dig they like to hide it that way you can give
them multiple hiding spots you can give them a single nice basking spot provide them places
even with uvb because they can benefit from uvb and then plenty of places to hide away from that
that way you can have multiple hides warm and humid because you know leopard geckos just like
every other reptile um you know your mastic slightly being a little bit of an exception
and something like the sand skinks and stuff but you know those are going to be a little bit
more beneficial for them for again proper thermal regulation and enough room for them to move around
um i think that a 40 might be a better choice eventually you know again only if you have a
couple if you have like one pet and that's your buddy um a 40 gallon is a little bit better
because again it just gives them more places um it gives them places to kind of climb and i'm not
talking like they're going to be perched up like a leopard like a crested gecko or anything like that
but if you give them some larger logs or bigger rocks you will absolutely find them perched up and
hanging out and basking under those things that you know they're they can be
you know foot off the ground of their base thing if you have a nice like kind of easy sloping
incline up to that they will absolutely climb little rock walls and faces and like the little
foam backgrounds they'll absolutely climb up those too so i think those are pretty good and i know
there's a lot of other popular pets out there like red ear sliders and bow constrictors that
you know and even green iguanas that i think i don't really want to cover too too much because
that one's like honestly ready sliders and green iguanas aren't really the best just kind of pets
for most people period they get really big they can be really messy sometimes they require custom
enclosures so if you're talking about like a green iguana or something like that where you're talking
like aviaries and custom buildings and then reddit sliders like a 40 or 75 gallon is just too small
honestly i think like 150 plus gallons for a single rare slider with proper filtration is
honestly what they need at minimum but i mean i don't know i just don't really want to advocate
too too much for that because again i think there are better alternatives for aquatic turtles like
like you know map turtles or musk turtles or really anything any turtle with pond in
it isn't really the best for that and then green iguanas again you know we can easily pick up the
little ones really cheap really small but they very quickly outgrow all those little enclosures
and we're talking about big ones um you know what screw it we'll throw in uh number six we'll do the
red tail boa constrictor so bow and paraders and the constrictors with your red tails
i think that as an adult for a single pet a six foot enclosure is really good um they do get much
longer than these guys if you give them you know a six by two then you can provide them a place
for a perch or a brick sorry sorry colorado or a place for them to you know perch out and
branch up they won't perch like a carpet or a green two python but they will absolutely take
advantage and climb up and if you give them like an actual shelf they'll hang out on those shelves
if you give them a high they'll still use their hides i have a fully grown adult guyana boa who
uses a hide in her six foot enclosure so i think that's good minimum for a single animal and you
know there's always there's exceptions and you know special conditions for things like i have a
rescue leopard gecko with mbd who honestly if i gave her the 40 yes she would use it but
i think she's okay getting along with well what she does you know you can have exceptions of like
you can get a you know sub-saharan ball python that's over six feet long and maybe you want
to put that in a six-foot enclosure and that'd be really cool too because then you have this
really cool decked out enclosures and again we're talking for we're not talking about breeders we're
not talking about the people who are providing the reptiles for people to enjoy as reptile pets
um as what is very quickly starting to become almost companion animals
um in equivalent thereof but we're talking about you know this is my pet i invested i wanted to get
one ball python that's really pilly i really like the highway ball pythons this is my pet
i'm gonna put it in a four or five six foot enclosure and give it a whole bunch of stuff
and give it lots of interaction and time out of the enclosure with me that's really what
we're talking about here so hopefully you enjoyed the video i know i'm probably gonna get a lot of
flack for some of the suggestions that i made but honestly i don't think any of them are really bad
again we're talking bare minimum and again this is my opinion based on what i've seen other people do
what i've witnessed in my own animals and other animals what i've read what i've watched what i've
heard what i've learned what i've listened this is my based opinion of a dude who just really likes
reptiles and wants to do the best for them that he can so again hopefully enjoy the video you got to
take away from something from this if you have any questions about like other different types
of reptiles i'll give you my best opinion for that or if you have your owners you know just
keep it civil that's all i ask just keep it civil you know we can all be we can all be
adults and we can't be professional and kind and courteous to each other let me know down in the
comments if you have any questions about anything like that um hit me up at jzsreptiles@gmail.com
instagram facebook all of that jazz hope you're having a great day and we'll check you next time