some 6x3 cages, what to do?

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Paul White
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Joined: June 7th, 2010, 9:52 pm
Location: Amarillo, Texas

some 6x3 cages, what to do?

Post by Paul White »

I'm getting an outbuilding in the next few months, and following that will be upgrading my retics to 10x4x30" cages; hopefully by winter I'll have them set up in their permanent cages. There's 4 of them in 6x3x18" cages now. I plan to buy the big cages 2 at a time, partly cause 2 of my retics are pretty good sized right now, and 2 are still fairly small (8' or less). So I've got 2 that could use those cages pretty soon and 2 that could wait a while.

but that'll be 4 6x3 cages...with no snakes in them...and I'm not 100% sure what I want to do.

I've got a few thoughts...they're too short for arboreal snakes like beauty snakes or the like, which comprise the bulk of snakes I'm interested in, so I was thinking of some torts or some mid sized lizards. I don't know much about tortoises at all though; are there any suitable for small indoor cages like that? Would russian or greeks do ok if I put UV fixtures and basking bulbs in? They seem like they're personable enough and not that godawful to care for. But I'm not sure if that's enough space for a pair.

As far as lizards...I was kind of wondering about Sudanese Plated LIzards, which I've always liked the look of a lot. Does anyone here have experience with those? Given their size I'm thinking 6x3 should be plenty big for 1.1 or 1.2...the other possibilities are other species of plateds. Or maybe other mid sized terrestrial lizards...but these cages wouldn't be that hot for monitors as you can't put enough substrate in for them to really dig around in. And beardies don't do much for me. BTSs are I guess a possibility...?
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Jason_Hood
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Location: Chicago

Re: some 6x3 cages, what to do?

Post by Jason_Hood »

Drymarchon...

Jason
Paul White
Posts: 2288
Joined: June 7th, 2010, 9:52 pm
Location: Amarillo, Texas

Re: some 6x3 cages, what to do?

Post by Paul White »

too many permits required.
Lloyd Heilbrunn
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Location: Palm Beach Gardens, Fl

Re: some 6x3 cages, what to do?

Post by Lloyd Heilbrunn »

Not for BTs or YTs.
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Alex Pepper
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Joined: July 23rd, 2010, 9:26 pm
Location: Florida

Re: some 6x3 cages, what to do?

Post by Alex Pepper »

I'll second Drymarchon! I bought a group of 8 used Vison 6 x 3 cages a few months ago for that purpose exactly. Definitely my favorite group of snakes I currently own.
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Sam Bacchini
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Location: NorCal

Re: some 6x3 cages, what to do?

Post by Sam Bacchini »

Drymarchon would be cool, but I disagree that you couldn't keep Orthriophis in 18 inch tall cages. They really don't need a huge amount of vertical space, and 6 x 3 is plenty of floorspace for them. If you like beauty snakes, I say go with those.
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Berkeley Boone
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Joined: June 8th, 2010, 4:02 am

Re: some 6x3 cages, what to do?

Post by Berkeley Boone »

Paul,
I've got a Sudanese Plated Lizard at work. It is a cool animal, and not too difficult to care for. I can elaborate if you'd like. If you are going for lizards though, my vote would be for a group of the smaller Aussie monitors (like ridgetails).
You had mentioned tortoises as a possible cage-filler, but the majority do not do well in enclosed environments like that. Juvenile Manouria or the Kinixys group, even a single redfoot would probably do alright in there, but that would be about it for the tortoises. Russians or Greeks would be fine in that size of footprint, but the enclosed environment would not fare well for them.

Turtles, though, open a few more doors..... Rhinoclemmys, American or Asian Boxes (Terrapene, Cuora, Cistoclemmys) would all do quite well in some set ups like that.

--Berkeley
Paul White
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Joined: June 7th, 2010, 9:52 pm
Location: Amarillo, Texas

Re: some 6x3 cages, what to do?

Post by Paul White »

I used to keep ackies, and I just didn't like them. They could be cute but they just didn't do it for me.
I was under the impression that most asian box turtles were more aquatic than the north american ones? If I'm wrong then yeah, they're damn pretty!

I think TX protects our box turtles, not sure about the legality of owning them here.

edit: I got a good deal on a pair of het albino king rats so they may wind up moving into at least one of those :) Still leaves mea few.
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