Our garterroom

[Gijs & Sabine]

Here are some pics of our garterroom. And this spring we make the room almost twice as big !! Can't wait till it's ready:rolleyes:

here we keep our (almost)adult garters
http://img162.imageshack.us/img162/510/p1010223mediumwm0.jpg

and here as well

http://img162.imageshack.us/img162/9403/p1010228mediumuu8.jpg

these are for the young ones
http://img255.imageshack.us/img255/5353/p1010224mediumrh8.jpg

[Gijs & Sabine]

the enclosure of our melanistic group
http://img162.imageshack.us/img162/3246/p1010231mediumhc0.jpg

the elegans terestris group
http://img162.imageshack.us/img162/8628/p1010229mediumnp1.jpg

[Snaky]

Like already said on the Dutch forum, just marvelous:cool:
To become jealous of;)

[Cazador]

Those are simply amazing! I'm glad to see that with so many snakes, they're given such wonderful care. It's truely remarkable! A few questions, if you don't mind. How big is each enclosure? How big (what wattage) of a light bulb are you using, and have you ever had a snake get burned by one? Finally, how warm does it keep each enclosure?
Rick

[Gijs & Sabine]

@ Rick:
Thanks fot the compliment. And about your questions, the enclosures for the (almost) adult garters are 115x50x50 cm, and the enclosures for the babies are 75x35x35 cm.
We use in all the terrariums spots of 25 watt and we never had any burnproblems at all:) We also have a dimmer (??) on all the lights, so we can slowly turn down the lights. And if it's hot outside it's handy to drop the lights and with this the temperature.
Under the spot 30-35° C and elsewere in the enclosure 20-25° C. The garters can choose by them selves where they wanna be.
In the upper enclosures it's a bit warmer.

I hope you understand my bad english:o

[Boots]

Your English is fine. Thanks for the info, your setup is amazing.

Jason

[abcat1993]

All I can say is, I wish I was you.



But I'm still happy I'm me.

[Sid]

Absolutely fantastic. Maybe given enouth time and effort I can have my room set up as nice:) .

Thanks for sharing.
Sid

[suzoo]

WOW!!! That is SO AWESOME!!! I want a snake room too!!! Just like that!!! AWESOME!!!
Want to adopt me? :)

[GarterGuy]

Not that it hasn't already been said, but WOW!:D Hate to bug, but I've got some questions as well. When you say your "groups" are they same sex groups or do you seperate your sexes? Also, have you had any bad experiances keeping so many snakes together in the same cage. I'm still floundering a bit on exactly how to do my own setup....single snakes or multible ones. The clinical part of me wants to keep it to single snakes, but I really like how the setups look with multible snakes together, and it allows me to keep more snakes per space. Thanx ahead of time for any info.
Roy

[Gijs & Sabine]

All I can say is, I wish I was you.



But I'm still happy I'm me.

I think you're very happy being you, otherwise you were living together with Gijs and he snores really loud !!!:D

[Gijs & Sabine]

@ Suzoo: You're more than welcome ! But most people have an extra sleepingroom. We don't, we have our snakeroom. So the only place we have is between the garters:D

@Roy: We have breedinggroups aswell as a female group and a male group. When we don't want babies from a particular female we put her in the female group. This group contains different females from different species. Same with the males we don't want to breed with. We don't have any bad experience keeping different species together. But I have to say that any adult group, breeding, female or male, contains no more than 5 or 6 garters.

The young garter enclosures contains, depending how big they are, up to 50 garters. But when they get bigger we split them up. For example, one year olds we keep in a group of about 10 snakes.

We really prever to keep our snakes in groups, this stimulates them to eat. Here in Holland we would say: see them eating makes them eating;)
This workes aspecialy for babies. The first babies we had (eastern) we raised separate and a lot died. Maybe becouse this was the first nest, but also becouse they had no competition. There always strong ones who will eat right away and this will stimulate the smaller ones.
We have learned from that and now we keep the babies from each nest together.

And in our opinion they enjoy eachothers company.
And in breedinggroups it's good to have more than one male, so they notice competition between eachother and they have to "conquer" the female(s)

I hope you're alright with the answers.

Best wishes,
Sabine

[CrazyHedgehog]

Some of the best well reasoned arguements I have seen for keeping in groups, thanks for that, I may change the way I keep mine!

[Stefan-A]

We really prever to keep our snakes in groups, this stimulates them to eat. Here in Holland we would say: see them eating makes them eating;)
I have very little experience compared to most people here, but I think I can confirm that this logic works.

[GarterGuy]

Yes, thank you very much....it does give me something to really think about. Especially the fact that you keep different species together, that opens up all kinds of options for me.:D

[adamanteus]

I have read through this thread before, but I never posted a comment.... What an amazing set-up you have there! Can't wait to come and visit you in the summer.

[Sputnik]

Incredible!

I love melanistic garters! Would really like to buy one someday.

[MoJo]

Wow! What a beautiful snake room.

I find your reasoning for keeping the snakes in groups very interesting. If my girl Tiger is gravid I still can't decide what to do with the babies. When you have them in a large group how do you know who is eating and who isn't?

Joanna

[drache]

yes
I'm really glad you revived this thread, James, because it happened before i joined, and this is the first time I'm seeing it.
this is an amazing, inspiring snake room
I am so itching to build . . .

[GarterGirl]

That is one awesome room! I wish I had a room like that!
Maybe we could have one when we move!

[adamanteus]

I think Gijs and Sabine have something there that many of us would aspire to. It looks so proffessional.

[ScimitarX]

We had a conservatory built specially to put snake enclosures in. It has solar reflective blinds to reflect some of the suns heat so it doesnt get too hot, and each of the enclosures has a mini fan in it which is controlled to come on by a thermostat when the tanks get too warm particularly during summer. We have about 50 snakes including the garters.
Heres a pic, we moved things round abit since it as taken.

http://www.thamnophis.com/thamphotos/showphoto.php?photo=1279&cat=500

I would like to see pics of other peopples reptile rooms.

[ScimitarX]

forgot to mention hoe good your garter room looks. its really impressive!! :)

[adamanteus]

Looks very nice Claire. You know you can put pictures directly into your posts. Try this link to learn how.

http://www.thamnophis.com/forum/site-feedback-suggestions-questions/181-posting-pictures.html?highlight=posting+pictures

[ScimitarX]

Thanks, i'll try that next time.

[adamanteus]

Thanks, i'll try that next time.

You're welcome Claire.:)

[Gijs & Sabine]

Thanks everybody for the compliments !!

I'm not sure if I posted it before but we've had a rebuilding last few weeks and now it's almost ready. So that means our garterroom is twice as big:D
I will post pics later.

So now you really have to visit us, James;)

[adamanteus]

So now you really have to visit us, James;)


This September I plan on going to the Hamm show. Maybe I could visit you at the same time? But I would need feeding!!:D

[Sputnik]

Do you prefer pinkies or are you ok with earthworms, James? ;-)

[adamanteus]

I'll eat pretty much anything that's put in front of me, as long as it's been scented with pasta!

[chris87]

very nice setup. have you had them built or did u build them yourselfs, would love something like that

[Gijs & Sabine]

Hi Chris, we build it all by ourselves. A lot of work, but it's worth it :rolleyes:

The rebuilding in our house is finaly ready, so our garterroom is a lot bigger now. I will post pics someday soon.

[chris87]

ok thankx cant wait to see it

[adamanteus]

I'm looking forward to seeing the pictures of your new room. I bet it's sensational!

[Josh]

very
amazing

[Gijs & Sabine]

It took a while, but finaly here they are......the new pics of our larger garterroom. We hope you all like it :rolleyes:

http://i134.photobucket.com/albums/q85/gijssabine/ter26-06-07Small.jpg

http://i134.photobucket.com/albums/q85/gijssabine/ter26-06-071Small.jpg

http://i134.photobucket.com/albums/q85/gijssabine/ter26-06-072Small.jpg

[Gijs & Sabine]

http://i134.photobucket.com/albums/q85/gijssabine/ter26-06-073Small.jpg

http://i134.photobucket.com/albums/q85/gijssabine/ter26-06-074Small.jpg

http://i134.photobucket.com/albums/q85/gijssabine/ter26-06-075Small.jpg

In our garterroom we have now 33 enclosures, beside the quarantaine enclosures we have in a different room.

[Stefan-A]

Truly amazing. :)

[Snaky]

Truly amazing. :)
I second that!

[northeastexotics]

can you please tell us who built those enclousers and how were hey built and what did you use for building material. I wnat to build ones just like those to house my entire collection of colubrid snake which are mostly african colubrids.

[drache]

yes, i concur
amazing

[MoJo]

Stunning! Fantastic! I could go on and on ....

Joanna

[ThamnophisManiac]

WOOOOOOOOWW WOOOOOOOOW WEEEEEEEEEEE WOOOOOOOOOOOW


thats all i have to say

[Lulu Bennett]

if i pay travel fare d u fance doing that for me? :l

[microsnake]

I'm curious about how keeping multiple garters together works. I have noticed that in the wild they do seem to like to sit in piles of snakes, and I'd be interested in observing their behaviour in a group setting. Lovely setup, by the way.

[Gijs & Sabine]

can you please tell us who built those enclousers and how were hey built and what did you use for building material. I wnat to build ones just like those to house my entire collection of colubrid snake which are mostly african colubrids.

Sorry it took so long :o but it's a bit hard for me to tell this in english.
In the first place, we build all the enclosures ourselves with help from a good friend of ours.
We did use chipboard (?), this is not very expensive and easy to use. The enclosures on the long site are 3 different parts, so wenn you want to remove them they're not to heavy.

[Tori]

Did you draw it out before you built those, because I would love to see how they were made. Those are amazing looking! I build my own cages, but thats because I have to not because I want to. I enjoy building so it isn't a hardship.

Tori

[Zigmund]

a-mazing!!!!!!!!!!

[Lori P]

Gijs & Sabine, I was just looking through this post and I am SO IMPRESSED with your snake enclosures!! What an amazing job you did-- just beautiful, and so realistic and comfortable for the snakes. Very, very nice!!!!! You've given me lots of inspiration!!!
:-) Lori

[arzerkle]

Gijs and Sabine
I am curious about your breeding groups. Do you keep males and females breeding groups together all year and hibernate them together?
What is your procedure for hibernating the cooler species?
Do you drop temperature on the warmer climate garters at night only?
Thank you for any assistance
Amy

[Gijs & Sabine]

Because a member asked for pics of our whole garterroom, I want to give him the link of this tread. But than I saw that the newest pics are deleted, I've moved them in my photobucket ages ago....... :o sorry.

So here they are again, nothing really has changed so far.
Gijs together with a friend building the terra's. (Gijs is the one on his knees :p)
http://i134.photobucket.com/albums/q85/gijssabine/Thamnophis/P1010250Small.jpg

http://i134.photobucket.com/albums/q85/gijssabine/Thamnophis/P1010252Small.jpg

http://i134.photobucket.com/albums/q85/gijssabine/Thamnophis/ter26-06-071Small.jpg

http://i134.photobucket.com/albums/q85/gijssabine/Thamnophis/ter26-06-07Small.jpg

[Gijs & Sabine]

http://i134.photobucket.com/albums/q85/gijssabine/Thamnophis/ter26-06-074Small.jpg

http://i134.photobucket.com/albums/q85/gijssabine/Thamnophis/ter26-06-075Small.jpg

http://i134.photobucket.com/albums/q85/gijssabine/Thamnophis/ter26-06-072Small.jpg

http://i134.photobucket.com/albums/q85/gijssabine/Thamnophis/ter26-06-073Small.jpg

[jeanette]

wow i love your garter room, Gils and sabine. do you build all your own viv stacks?
could you give me instructions on how to build some like that?
how many garters do you own?
:)

[gregmonsta]

Fantastic!!!! I can't wait to see it ;)

[Gijs & Sabine]

wow i love your garter room, Gils and sabine. do you build all your own viv stacks?
could you give me instructions on how to build some like that?
how many garters do you own?
:)

Thanks Jeanette :) Yes, Gijs build everything himself, he is quite handy.
I'm sorry but I can't really explain how he did it, I'm not much of a technicus. But it's actualy quite simpel, what you see is how it's made. There is only a lot of calculating.

How many garters? Pff......without the babies it's around 125.

@ Greg: Looking forward to meet you, I hope it works out alright :)

[Zephyr]

How many garters? Pff......without the babies it's around 125.


...
Holy frozen tilapia.

[Josh]

*gulps and with the babies

[Gijs & Sabine]

*gulps and with the babies

Ehh.......I quess that would be around 300 :D
Wow, that's actualy quite a bit :o

[enigma200316]

Holy______ you fill in the blank batman!!!!!!:D

[Snake lover 3-25]

omg!!!!!!! where do you put them!!!!!!!!!!! i'd have to build a seperate house!!!!!!!!!!!! how do you feed them/care for them???????:eek::eek::eek:

[drache]

omg!!!!!!! where do you put them!!!!!!!!!!! i'd have to build a seperate house!!!!!!!!!!!! how do you feed them/care for them???????:eek::eek::eek:
they're in their garter room

[Snake lover 3-25]

300 in one room?????:eek: wow :D:D:D:D:D

[lestat]

Nice set up. One day i will have as many as you Hah hah(evil laugh)
Yes i have found that keeping Garters together does increase there eating.
Only 2 of my Garters are on there own at the moment and that is because one is very small but eating ok and the other is one of my Floridor Blues who have always been kept on its own. The other Floridor has since been put in with 2 Red sides and is ok. My common is now in with Lois and ate a Pinkie the other night. So being with others helps.

[infernalis]

With all the recent additions to the forum, I thought this would be a great thread to bring back.

anyone who has joined recently, go back to the start of this thread and be prepared to see the most amazing Garter set up EVER!

Just a sample of what it looks like. KUDOS to Gijs and Sabine for such a grand accomplishment.

http://img162.imageshack.us/img162/510/p1010223mediumwm0.jpg