sliding doors

[drache]

I've been looking at some of your set-ups and I noticed that many of you have vivaria with sliding doors.
I have those for my lizards, but I'd been concerned with smaller snalkes hanging out in the rail part, or even somehow squeezing through the overlap.
Has anything like that happened to anyone?

[Stefan-A]

I've heard stories about snakes doing that (including juvenile ball pythons), but it has never happened to me.

[adamanteus]

I've been using paired sliding doors for ever and I've never had a snake squeeze between them, but then I don't house juveniles in that type of viv.

[Snaky]

I had the problem once. Fixed it by putting something between the glasses, so it couldn't pass anymore. This was a baby of a few weeks, so very small. So you've always hav to be carefull with babies...

[drache]

I can keep babies elsewhere (not that I have any right now)
It also occurred to me earlier that I can use airline tubing to plug the inside rail and just mostly use the door that slides on the outside rail.
Airline tubing works well around the top of the tank when a screen top is not a good fit.
It might even work in the overlap although that may be tricky.
What did you use?

[Gijs & Sabine]

We also had this problem, especialy with babies from ribbons. They crawl up between the overhanging part and then they are on the glass in the rail part. The problem is you don't see them, but you notice they're there. But lucky we never had any damage to a garter by that.

Now we use some kind of brush-thing on every slidingdoor.
By placing this on the behind glass (b), the front glass (a) will slide directly alongside the brush, so there is nolonger a gap and the babies can not crawl up anymore.

http://img176.imageshack.us/img176/6900/p1010225mediumdz9.jpg

[adamanteus]

Those brushes are a great idea. Are they self-adhesive?

[Gijs & Sabine]

Those brushes are a great idea. Are they self-adhesive?
Yes:) very handy

[adamanteus]

I'm going to use it on my new vivs. It would stop anything getting out, even crickets if you were keeping insectivorous lizards. Thanks for the tip!

[Gijs & Sabine]

It works really good. We also use this on our paludarium (?) with phyllobates bicolors (poison frogs) and they eat tiny flies.........:p

[adamanteus]

Does it start to scratch the glass after a while?

[Gijs & Sabine]

It doesn't, the brush is quite soft. Maybe after 15 years, but so far we have no scratches and we already use this for about 7 years.

Good luck with your vivs, James:)

[adamanteus]

I'll post pictures again as soon as they're done (complete with brushes)!

[drache]

where would one get those?
I know I've seen them on things . . .

[adamanteus]

Looks like self-adhesive draught excluder (on a roll). Any hardware store, I guess.

[GarterGirl]

It would be a big problem if a snake squeezed through the sliding doors!

[ClosedCasket88]

heres my three slidignglass customs, this is an overall picture, hard to see the glass and the track it sits in, its pretty nifty simly n nevr had a problem
http://i17.tinypic.com/43nw290.jpg
heres a picture of the glass slid open a few inches
http://i15.tinypic.com/2s66bua.jpg
heres a close up of the track that the glass sits in u can also see the locks too wich i rarely use, nothing gets outa these maybee baby garters could get outa the vent holes n such but with this style of slidign glass i never had a problem .http://i19.tinypic.com/29v1awh.jpg

[Boots]

It really depends on the design of the setup if the snake can escape. My roommate at the time once lost a Boa Constrictor due to the fact it could squeeze through the overlap of the glass in the middle of the cage. Of course after the second time he escaped, we renamed him Houdini. :)

Jason