Every keeper eventually argues about enclosure material. Here is the version without the brand loyalty.
Plastic tubs
Good for: spiderlings, quarantine, emergencies, and anyone with thirty animals and a limited budget.
Trade-offs: the plastic goes cloudy, holes have to be drilled by hand and often leave burrs that catch tarsal claws, and the lids flex. For a sling that will be rehoused in six months, none of that matters much.
Glass
Good for: scratch resistance and clarity that lasts decades.
Trade-offs: heavy, breakable, and ventilation has to come from mesh panels rather than holes. Mesh is a genuine hazard for arboreals, which can catch a claw in it, and silicone seams collect old silk and prey remains. A glass front-opening enclosure is a lovely display and a poor first choice for a fast arboreal, because the doors are large and swing.
Cast acrylic
Good for: optical clarity, light weight, and the fact that you can put a few hundred precise 3 mm holes wherever the ventilation actually needs to be.
Trade-offs: it scratches more easily than glass, and cheap extruded acrylic or PET fogs after a year of misting. Cast acrylic, which is what our enclosures are cut from, is harder, clearer and does not craze the way the cheap sheet does.
The comparison that matters
Material is a proxy for the thing you actually care about: can this enclosure be ventilated properly, does it close without gaps, and can you open it a little rather than a lot? A tub with well-placed holes beats a beautiful glass box with a mesh lid and a swinging front, for an arboreal.
What we would choose, by animal
- Spiderling: a small tub with pinholes. Cheap, replaceable, easy to find prey in.
- Juvenile: acrylic, sized to the animal.
- Adult arboreal: tall cast acrylic with intake low, exhaust high and a sliding door.
- Terrestrial display animal: glass, if you like the look and can live with the weight.