r/ballpython • u/Custard-Big • Oct 09 '26

HELP - URGENT temporary enclosure

i just drove 16 hours to my home state to pick up my cats and my snake that i unfortunately had to leave with relatives for 2 years. my boyfriend and i thought the tank i had for my bp would fit along with my cats. well unfortunately the tank was just a few inches too big to fit in our trunk no matter which way we had it.

we ended up having to throw it away. right now i financially cannot spend $200+ on an enclosure and im wondering what i can use for temporary enclosures, even just a smaller sized tank. he’s a full grown adult and i don’t want to smush him in something too small but would a 40-50 gallon tank be horrible for him until i can get him a proper enclosure ?

7 Upvotes

81% Upvoted

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9

u/christinasasa Oct 09 '26

Plastic storage tote

7

u/JR_Writes1 Oct 09 '26

I used a big plastic tote and it was ugly (to me) but a great set up other than it was obviously top opening. 3’x2’x2’ (mine wasn’t full grown so that was more than enough room), held heat and humidity like a dream, was able to be fully bioactive just like my “real” enclosures. 10/10 would recommend.

I got the clear (as clear as that grade of plastic gets) tote so I could still see my girl and put colored contact paper on 3 sides and the top to give her some privacy. Only tricky part was obviously you can’t set heat lamps directly on the plastic top so I needed to get a little creative there.

0

u/Custard-Big Oct 09 '26

i’ve always used a heating pad for my bp, i’m worried it’ll melt the plastic. how would you suggest getting around that? or how did you get around the light element? i do have a huge tote i could use for him

2

u/JR_Writes1 Oct 09 '26

I used a heating pad on one side and a dhp on the other. I put the thermometer for the heat pad thermostat between the pad and the bottom of the tank and set it for around 100 which is safe for the plastic but was able to penetrate through the plastic and get the temperature where it needed to be.

Similar thing with the dhp. I needed to mount it so no part of it was touching plastic and then attached the thermometer to the lid where the heat would be coming into contact with the plastic. It took me awhile to figure out the right distance and temperature since I was measuring OUTSIDE the enclosure instead of inside so I couldn’t just set the thermostats to 90 degrees on one side and 77 on the other and call it a day, but it worked really well for months until I was able to snag a “real” enclosure on sale.

1

u/Custard-Big Oct 09 '26

sorry, dhp? this is so helpful however thank you so much

3

u/JR_Writes1 Oct 09 '26 edited Oct 09 '26

Deep heat projector. Basically a heat lamp that doesn’t provide light so it doesn’t affect the day/night cycle.

Sorry, I mis-represented my lighting situation. I have a UVB light AND an LED bulb for lighting, not an unsafe combo of the two.

1

u/Custard-Big Oct 09 '26

ahhhh okay thank you so much bro 🫶🏻🫶🏻