Enclosure Pictures [Archive] - Garter Snake Forum

CrazyHedgehog

11-04-2006, 12:21 PM

well have put some pics in gallery, will try and put here as well
http://www.thamnophis.com/thamphotos/data//500/medium/with_lights.jpg
thats the main 5 tanks..

Then there is my sons tank..
http://www.thamnophis.com/thamphotos/data//500/medium/bigmama.jpg

and the baby tank..
http://www.thamnophis.com/thamphotos/data//500/medium/babytank.jpg

and finally the temporary tanks while we are building more....
http://www.thamnophis.com/thamphotos/data//500/medium/temp_tanks.jpg

(hoping they show properly.....)

Stefan-A

11-04-2006, 01:07 PM

Since I only have one enclosure in use, I'll post the ones I have had earlier (since I got into garters). :)

http://www.thamnophis.com/thamphotos/data//500/medium/ver1.jpg
My first, all glass. Practically home made, but not by me. Size 80x50x45 cm / 180l. Weight empty: ~22kg.

http://www.thamnophis.com/thamphotos/data//500/medium/ver2.jpg
My second enclosure (and my first home made) at its best. Size 90x80x50 cm / 360l. Weight empty and without background: ~20kg (of which ~8.6kg is in the glass doors).

http://koti.mbnet.fi/thamnoph/extra/inuse1.jpg
My current enclosure, although not decorated like it is now. Second home made. Size 110x70x50 cm / 385l. Weight empty: ~8,9kg.

I have to say, I do enjoy seeing how people house their garters. It's not something you get to see on most snake forums, it's always corn/python/boa cages (or even worse; racks) that people post.

abcat1993

11-04-2006, 06:15 PM

I would hate putting any pet in a plastic tub, but the racks that for example: crazy hedgehog has would be wonderful to have. If only a thirteen year old could get that kind of money (and parents willing to get that kind of thing).

abcat1993

11-05-2006, 01:27 PM

Do you have any tips for making your tank look better. My tank looks like a gerbils

Stefan-A

11-05-2006, 01:31 PM

Switch to a more "natural" looking substrate, add a couple of branches for climbing and a couple of fake plants.

Beautifylgirl

11-15-2006, 12:37 PM

Here is my newest enclosure. It is my old 46 gallon bowfront aquarium. While the tank itself is not 'home made' the lid is. It is very hard to find a ventilated top to a bowfront so my husband fabricated one from black shelving units. He added a hinged door for the top and ventilation holes covered with wire mesh( small enough so noone can escape). The top also breaks into 2 pieces so I don't have to take the entire thing apart to access it( I'm very short so reaching into the tank I almost fall into it ;) ). This tank is my work in progress. I hope to get a nice background on it, so you can't see the wood, and add some more 'natural' look to it. Unfortunatly here in Washington everything ( plants) are dead for the season so he just gets twigs and rocks to hid in.

http://i90.photobucket.com/albums/k269/Beautifylgirl/Snake/pictures141.jpg

I am still trying to figure out what to do with the heat lamp. I think I'm going to attach it to the wall so it's not so close to the top. Fortunately I have not had an issue with it getting too hot.
Enjoy!
Brittany

greyhawk

11-15-2006, 12:45 PM

Nice setups guys. I love making a set up look nice and as natural as possible. However, about rack systems and plastic containers, I think they are good in certain situations. The snake does not care whether the tank is glass or plastic, as long as its got a hide and some water and such I'm sure it'l be happy. I have 2 baby water snakes right now, and although I'd like to give them a nice natural set up, it would be very impractical because the poop every day so it's much easier using paper towels while they are young. I also have to keep them in a plastic container because we arn't allowed to have pets on campus and a glass terrarium would look a little suspicious. Hopefully soon when they are a little older and calm down with the pooping I will give them a nicer home. I had a wild caught eatern for a short time. I didn't keep her long because she was 3 feet and the cage was only a 10 gallon, which is much too small. Heres a picture of her, its blurry because it's from a camera phone.

http://i90.photobucket.com/albums/k251/rhyion/garterintank.jpg

abcat1993

12-03-2006, 06:37 PM

What would be some good random junk to put in there that's common around your house? I'll take some new pics of the tank now, it looks a lot better with bark than aspen.
And it smells!
Good!

Stefan-A

12-03-2006, 11:27 PM

What kind of random junk do you mean? No strong smells, no sharp corners (molded plastic usually have some, but they are easy to file down) and nothing that can get stuck to the snake or its food then it should be safe enough. Childrens toys, for example, should be pretty safe for the snake and plastic toys are easy to keep clean. I know one guy who has a toy castle in his rat snakes' cage. It looks out of place, but it doesn't bother the snakes.

Spiderqwan

12-05-2006, 04:35 AM

I need to make this vivarium more interesting too look at, my son Joel was worried the snake would be lonely so he added a couple of his jurasic friends. A branch or two and some foliage wouldn't go amiss.
http://www.thamnophis.com/thamphotos/data//500/Rocky_and_friends.jpg

Stefan-A

12-05-2006, 05:37 AM

Branches, fake plants and maybe a one or two extra hides can do wonders. :)

Spiderqwan

12-05-2006, 06:15 AM

There are 2 hides in the tank at the moment. The one at the left which is in the cooler gradient, is quite large and covers about a quarter of the floor space do you think the snake would prefer even more hides than this. I was going to try and add some branches and foilage this weekend. Is it something I can simple hack off a tree or should I buy it from my local dealer to make sure it's bug free, do you think.

Stefan-A

12-05-2006, 08:37 AM

Just avoid pine trees and remember to heat the branches so that you kill everything still living in it. Pouring boiling hot water over it should do the trick, but if you have the opportunity to heat up the entire branch and not just the surface, then that would be even better. If you hack it off a tree, let it dry for a while before you bring it indoors.

Buying it from a dealer probably doesn't guarantee that it's bug free, it's possible for diseases to spread through the store from one of the reptiles that have passed through there. Either way, it's recommended that you thoroughly clean everything you put in the tank.

abcat1993

12-05-2006, 06:45 PM

By random junk I meant things commonly found in households that could go in your tank. Just a thought though.
Spiderqwan, you could add some green to your tank or another natural color. I used to have aspen in my tank and after I switched to wood chips it looks a lot better.

Cazador

12-05-2006, 07:03 PM

Two hides are plenty, but they blend in so well that you can't see them. I think you would appreciate the look of a vertical structure or two. You can make simple structures by making a tripod out of branches by hot-gluing them together. Then you can hang things from them or slant other stick across the tripod. You could also just take a walk in the woods and look for forked sticks with a lot of character. I normally heat new wood in the oven at about 150 degrees F for 15 minutes or so. I also bleach them afterwards. Then rinse them thoroughly with clean water and allow them to dry. Untreated wood might introduce mites, which you really want to avoid. Just a few ideas.

Stefan-A

12-21-2006, 02:53 PM

http://www.thamnophis.com/thamphotos/data//500/medium/modified1.jpg

Made some modifications to my first home made enclosure (see page 1), that has been empty for the last few months. All it took was 5 minutes with the circular saw, 2 minutes with hammer and chisel and 1 minute with a drill. It's now 25cm (just under 10") lower than before and now I can actually get to fit in the back seat of my car. Lost about 110 liters of volume in the process, but it's not that big a deal. It was unnecessarily high for ground-living snakes anyway.

Now to decide what to do with it. Keep it as a backup cage, sell it (cheap), get more snakes (if so, Thamnophis or Nerodia), take it and one of my snakes with me when I move back to the city where I study, or do something else with it.

Cazador

12-22-2006, 12:29 AM

That really looks nice, Stefan. In fact, I like it even better now.
Rick

Stefan-A

12-22-2006, 09:09 AM

Should have made it right the first time. Pretty much everything is/was wrong with it. The design, the materials, the color etc. But I learned a lot from it and that's the important thing. ;)

Snaky

12-22-2006, 09:25 AM

Here's a picture of 2 of my enclosures:

http://gallery.dierenparadijs.be/data/500/medium/183_8342_klein.JPG

http://gallery.dierenparadijs.be/data/500/medium/183_8347_klein.JPG

The first 1 is normal, the second 1 was when I had the mail die. I move the female to my backup enclose, changed everything and put her on newspaper.

Cazador

12-22-2006, 01:40 PM

Hey Stefan,
I noticed that you added sliding glass tracks instead of the hinge for your door. Looks nice! After seeing some of the awesome enclosures that people made, I went to a local glass replacement shop and learned that you can buy knobs that glue onto the glass to help you slide it from side to side. They were pretty cheap, too.

Stefan-A

12-22-2006, 01:54 PM

The original had sliding glass doors too. My second home made, which is now my primary terrarium and still in its original condition, has swinging doors.

I don't really like sliding doors, you can't have both open at the same time and you'll always have a few millimeters of space between the two doors. Not exatly perfect for juvenile snakes. Swinging doors aren't perfect either, as they need room to swing. Maybe I'll try vertically sliding doors in my next project. ;)

Cazador

12-22-2006, 02:03 PM

I've started to make a triangular enclosure made of white malamite to fit into a corner. I have the base and sides done, but now I'm debating whether to put sliding glass for the front or some sort of hinge. I would like to be able to access the entire front at the same time, without having to slide glass panels from one side to the other, but the hinge seems more complicated to make and find. I think I'll also add a hinged door to the top, so I can reach in from above when I want. Where did you get such a large hinge, Stefan?

Stefan-A

12-22-2006, 02:24 PM

Got the hinge from a local hardware store. They sell them as "piano-" or "furniture hinges". It was pretty cheap.

The roof on my terrarium is basically a wooden frame with a metal mesh (also from a local hardware store), that fits inside the terrarium walls and is held down just by friction and the weight of the spotlight and the aquarium light fixture. It's heavy enough for garters, but a bigger snake might be able to move it. So when I need to get a big branch or something similar in or out of the terrarium, it's easy to do it from above. If I wanted to secure it, it would be easy to just grab a drill and make holes for pins.

Markus18

01-04-2007, 01:34 PM

you can see my tank in my photofolder!
i can give you the tip that the tank looks good when you put stuff in your tank thats come from the nature!and when you have plants in it that are the same species.and nice looking substrat.i dont have tropical plants in my tank just ivy!and my substrat is darkpine.and a skull:-)

NexXx

01-04-2007, 01:49 PM

I know i don´t post that much, just felt like putting some pics here of my 2 enclosures. (1 for my snake, the other for my Anoles)

http://img461.imageshack.us/img461/3176/pic0151ur2.jpg
http://img61.imageshack.us/img61/527/pic0154oa9.jpg
http://img20.imageshack.us/img20/7573/pic0156wu8.jpg

abcat1993

01-04-2007, 04:02 PM

The pictures, aaaaaaaaa. They're so big.
PS: Nice tanks
2nd PS: Make your pics smallish, it's kind of annoying.

Elliot

01-04-2007, 04:33 PM

Not the greatest, but it works for me....

abcat1993

01-04-2007, 08:22 PM

Is that astroturf/fake grass/something else for your bottom? How easy is it to clean?

Elliot

01-05-2007, 09:44 PM

It's astroturf, it's redicuously easy to clean, it's cheap, and it lasts forever. I perfer it over aspen bedding or something similar because there's no mess, it pays for itself over and over again, and the ease of cleaning it.

abcat1993

01-06-2007, 01:34 PM

Really? I heard it was hard to clean and not recommended.

Elliot

01-06-2007, 03:11 PM

Hmm well I've never had any problem with it, and my snake has done well on it for 10 months now so I won't be changing back to bedding anytime soon.

Sid

01-06-2007, 04:22 PM

This is a room shot. It shows the majority of my enclosures.
http://www.thamnophis.com/thamphotos/data//500/medium/Snake_Room-1.JPG

Elliot

01-06-2007, 04:26 PM

Wow. That's a lot of reptiles...

abcat1993

01-06-2007, 04:41 PM

What other snakes do you have in there besides garter snakes?

Sid

01-06-2007, 09:59 PM

What other snakes do you have in there besides garter snakes?

Currently there's one Western Hognose, one JV Black Rat (rescued yesterday) and six Rough Green Snakes. The remainder are Garters. In my basement are my three adult female Easterns and two Easter Chain Kings (burmating).

Sid

Gunthar130cl200

03-19-2007, 02:34 PM

I'll just up this thread with a couple of pics of my enclosure.

[/URL]
************************************************** *********
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Hi Marc,
I've deleted the pictures you posted because the site they're posted on is on a list of sites known to be related to spyware. Anyone who has accessed these sites might want to delete their cookies. If it isn't too much trouble, Marc, would you mind reposting your pictures according to these directions (http://www.thamnophis.com/forum/site-feedback-suggestions-questions/181-posting-pictures.html#post1244 (http://img104.imageshack.us/my.php?image=terra03jx1.jpg)). Thanks, and sorry for the hassle.
Rick
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[URL="http://img104.imageshack.us/my.php?image=terra04qz3.jpg"]

Size: 100x45x50cm
There are two water tanks: a big one for some swimming time (seems they like to do that from time to time) and a smaller one for feeding.
Still needs a bit more plants but it's starting to look about right.
I used a swinging door because i hate sliding doors for the simple fact that I can't pass easily anything big through (I bought a sliding door viv for my phelsumas and it really turned me mad when I was trying to put some bamboo inside). But my female has perfectly understood how the door works and tried several times to escape just when I'm closing the door :D

Snaky

03-19-2007, 03:07 PM

Look like a big water bowl, do they use it often?

Actually, it does seem very nice for the garters to escape when you open/close.:D It's one of the reasons I like the sliding doors, you open just as much as you need.

Stefan-A

03-19-2007, 03:41 PM

That's something I dislike about sliding doors. :D I find that they if they just get past your hand, it's very easy for them to escape through the opening. Swinging doors still block most of the front wall if you open them just enough. They are also quicker to close imho. And you have to open sliding doors a lot more if you want to reach something in the middle.

ClosedCasket88

03-20-2007, 08:19 AM

sliding doors would be a NO NO for venomous reptiles for me .
i use glass tall tanks for venomous .besides that sliding doors & flip opens give the animal too much time to get a chacne to get away or tagg ya . even though just aboutall my cages are sliding lgass and flip opens .thats the only drawl back with me .venomous stuff, maybee elapids and such wouldnt be such a good idea in a sliding glass or flip open but crotalus n vipers r slower calm animals u might not have a problem changing n feeding stuff. but garters are very high strung and active .could be a pain when your cleaning a water bowl or such when there paired up in there . that gets fun , especialy with a trio trying to get out =)

Gunthar130cl200

03-20-2007, 01:18 PM

************************************************** *********
************************************************** *********
Hi Marc,
I've deleted the pictures you posted because the site they're posted on is on a list of sites known to be related to spyware. Anyone who has accessed these sites might want to delete their cookies. If it isn't too much trouble, Marc, would you mind reposting your pictures according to these directions (http://www.thamnophis.com/forum/site-feedback-suggestions-questions/181-posting-pictures.html#post1244). Thanks, and sorry for the hassle.
Rick
************************************************** **********
************************************************** **********

No problem, here are the pics (sorry for the new post, couldn't find the edit button:

http://www.thamnophis.com/thamphotos/data//500/medium/Terra03_ul.JPG
http://www.thamnophis.com/thamphotos/data//500/medium/Terra04_ul.JPG

About the big water bowl, they go for a swim maybe 3-4 times a week, from what we observed, maybe more. Since the feeding water dish is in the viv only while they are fed, they tend to use the big one.

About the door, I see another bonus about it, it's way easier to catch the snakes when it's wide open, because I can use both hands :D

Also, I inserted some plugs (is that the corret word) inside the viv (there's a second part underneath) so there's only one wire coming from the viv and I have 4 easily reached plugs for any electrical appliance I need.

rwgsnakes

03-20-2007, 01:55 PM

http://i56.photobucket.com/albums/g168/ribbonsnakeyy/100_1777-1.jpg

Pinky

04-08-2007, 05:19 PM

My husband is looking to build an encloser for Pinky---some good ideas on here!! :)

Any suggestions before we start?

Stefan-A

04-08-2007, 11:59 PM

Oh, so many :) Wouldn't know where to start.. Plan it well before you start building it.

Plastics (acrylic, polycarbonate) bend and warp from heat and humidity (and gravity), so be careful how you use it.

Cazador

04-09-2007, 01:37 AM

You'll find many great ideas throughout these web pages, but here are a couple of links with particularily good ideas for building new enclosures:

http://www.thamnophis.com/forum/enclosures/10-what-type-enclosure-do-you-have-2.html

http://www.thamnophis.com/forum/general-talk/131-new-house.html

Striking Serpents/Boa & Python Photo Gallery (http://strikingserpents.com/cage.html)

Pinky

04-10-2007, 12:34 AM

Thanks for the links!! I think my husband checked them out and found a site he really liked. He's already got ideas flowing through his head and drawing out pictures lol. Hopefully we'll have it done in the next month or so. Would love to see Pinky in a bigger surrounding and see her explore a bit more. I joked and said perhaps we'd had a #2 in there haha ;)

Stefan-A

04-10-2007, 02:51 AM

Just spent about an hour and a half in the school cafeteria drinking coffee and figuring out a simple way to make sliding glass doors that don't leave a gap (they align when you close them) and I'm working on a way to make them hinged so that you could combine the best parts of both systems. :D The user would be able to choose if he wants to open the terrarium doors as swinging or sliding, depending on his needs at the moment. "These are the thoughts that kept me out of the really good schools." ;)

Next on my schedule: "Evolutionary biology & taxonomy". :)

adamanteus

04-10-2007, 04:38 AM

That would be pretty easy to achieve Stefan. You could simply fit an internal frame, hinged in two halves. (The centre verical stile would need to be off-set, so as not to impede the sliding operation of the doors). Fit the glass runners also in two halves and fix a strip of draught excluder/brush to the rear of the front glass to eliminate the little gap.

Stefan-A

04-10-2007, 06:21 AM

No center stile, no draught excluder necessary in my model. :) No tools necessary for removing the glass.

Making a 3D model of the system right now. :D

Pinky

04-15-2007, 11:30 AM

http://www.thamnophis.com/thamphotos/data//500/terrarium1.JPG
Thanks for the great links guys! this is it so far, hopefully it'll be done early this week!!

Sid

04-15-2007, 11:34 AM

Nice job. The viv looks real good.

Sid

Thamnophis

04-20-2007, 09:02 PM

This is going to be the terrarium for some of my garters.

http://www.doornstaart.nl/terrarium/terrarium5.jpg

It is a triangular shaped terrarium. The front is 180 cm and the hight is 59 cm. From the center of the front to the back is 100 cm.
I have to adapt it for garters because there are ways to escape for these snakes.

Before it was a terrarium, it was a fireplace.
If you want to see more details of how it is... look here:
Uromastyx - Terrarium (http://www.doornstaart.nl/terrarium3.htm)

I will post pics when I have adapted it.

Cazador

04-20-2007, 09:45 PM

Ohhhhh Myyyy Gosh, Fons! What an enclosure! It's beautiful. What is that tube in your first picture from the link?

Rick

Ameivaboy

04-21-2007, 12:09 AM

looks like a man made burrow with a nice lil chamber at the end to me, I've done the same thing with my tegus : ^ D

Ameivaboy

04-21-2007, 12:14 AM

Guess I forgot to add my garter cage pics

http://i60.photobucket.com/albums/h8/Ameivaboy/DSC02289.jpg

http://i60.photobucket.com/albums/h8/Ameivaboy/DSC02286.jpg

and a corner of my apartment

http://i60.photobucket.com/albums/h8/Ameivaboy/DSC02156.jpg

and another lil corner

http://i60.photobucket.com/albums/h8/Ameivaboy/DSC02172.jpg

Cazador

04-21-2007, 12:53 AM

Kevin,

There's a subtle bluish hue in some of your enclosures. Are you adding any colored light? It's probably just the photo, but it gave me the idea that it might be interesting to use normal lighting and include an extra socket for a single colored light bulb, like from a strand of Christmas tree lights, just to give the enclosure a different look whenever you turn the extra light bulb on. I might play around with that idea. I bet it would look cool.

Rick

Ameivaboy

04-21-2007, 02:16 AM

It's just the UV lights that give it that look, though i have one that i havent put a UV bulb in and still has the fish bulb it came with that gives it a purple look

http://i60.photobucket.com/albums/h8/Ameivaboy/DSC02159.jpg

adamanteus

04-21-2007, 03:24 AM

Fantastic looking vivarium Fons. There's some thought and work gone into building that!

Thamnophis

04-21-2007, 06:58 PM

Rick, that tube was for the Uroamstyx ocellata pair that was going to live in the vivarium.
In the box, at the end of the tube, was moist sand. That was meant as their burrow.
Worked reasonably well, but the lizards slept not only in the box, but also on other places in the vivarium.
So it was not necessary for them to sleep in a moist surroundings apparantly.

Yeah James, it was a lot of work.
The rocks were made with PUR foam. Layer after layer i assembled and than I stared to cut out the rocks with a sharp stanley knife. Cut my hands very often while I was doing that. :mad:
When that was done and I was content with the shapes, I started to put on tile glue. A kind of cement where you put tiles on the walls in your bathroom or kitchen.
I put a bit more water in the powder so it was kind of fluid. I put it on with a paintbrush. Three layers.
Than it had to be painted.

I will make pics when I start working on it.