Tom's Snake Enclosure

[guidofatherof5]

Not sure what minnows you are using but I would suggest Guppies. If you are using safe minnows than you're fine. If you don't know than Guppies would be the best bet.
Glad to see the little scrub is eating. It's a good feeling when they start.

[jitami]

Nice job getting the little one to eat I love the bamboo tubes My yearlings and adults all seem to love anything tube shaped. I don't know how they do it, but my two large adults cram themselves into a paper towel tube together all the time. There will be loops bulging out of both ends, but they seem content <gg> Like you, I pick up the whole thing and move it around, snakes and all. Will have to look for bamboo

[Didymus20X6]

Steve:

The only other feeder fish I can find in the area are rosy-reds and goldfish, both of which are not safe. For now, I'll risk the minnows until I can get a better food supply for them. After this batch is gone (the bait shop sells them a dozen for $1.35), I'm switching back to nightcrawlers for a while. For now, I'm just glad they're eating.

Tami:

Thanks! I still have one more section of bamboo I can use. I had saved me a good long piece to use as a staff - for walking or whatever - unfortunately, it fell off the back of the truck one night, and all but one section of it splintered. I'll cut it up later. I really wish I had looted their trash pile a bit more thoroughly: there's all kinds of cool things I can do with this stuff.

[Didymus20X6]

I'm working on an expansion to my snake enclosure.

Basically, I was concerned about the water splashing in the enclosure and making a mess. So I came up with an idea: why not have a separate enclosure as a water feature? That way, the snakes can go back and forth between a tub big enough for them to swim in and a nice, dry enclosure. I could even put my feeder fish in there, so they won't be eating the substrate.

Here's the basic gist of my plan:



Of course, I would need a way to connect the two so that, if necessary, I can separate them for transportation, cleaning, etc. I've already got a good idea how to handle that, and I've even got some preliminary supplies.

I even had plans to attach a spigot to it for easy draining, but I can settle for detachability for now.

So what do you think?

[Didymus20X6]

So what is this, might you ask? Is he building a new, improved version of his snake trap? NO! This is the water section of my enclosure, just completed!

The next thing I have to do is install a similar flange pipe on the current enclosure, hook them together, and fill this one with rocks and water, and we're in business!

[count dewclaw]

Looking good, Tom. I like the idea of a water section you can remove for easy cleaning.

Would you mind showing better pictures of how you attached the screen to the lid, please? Maybe an inside and an outside of the lid shot? I have put screen on a couple tote lids using hot glue, but the glue tends to pop after the lid is twisted or bumped a few times.....Thanks.

[guidofatherof5]

Very nice. You have a lot of time in this. You're not a cobbler. My first runs of anything new lean towards cobbled. The first one is just to get a feel for the whole project to see of it's worth the time to finish it to specs.
Nice job.

[Didymus20X6]

Supplies:

1. 3/4 inch #6 size machine screws with bolts.
2. washers to fit the bolts.
3. screen (of course).
4. screen trim.

The procedure:

1. Cut a decently straight rectangular hole in the middle of your lid.

2. Cut your screen trim to fit the holes. Be sure to allow for overlap on two parallel sides, or cut them slightly longer at an angle so they fit together.

3. Use cow clips to hold the pieces of screen trim in place on the lid. Make sure they are aligned properly.

4. Drill holes (about 9/64 or 5/32 bit size) about every 2 inches, making sure you go all the way through the trim and the lid. Suggestion: start by drilling a hole on each end of each piece of wood, then use the bolts and nuts to hold them securely in place while you drill the rest. Leave the cow clips on, as they will help keep the holes drilled straight.

5. Remove the pieces of wood. Make sure you know which piece went with which side of your lid, as you need the holes to match up later.

6. Put your screen on the top of the lid. If you give yourself plenty of slack, you could use cow clips to hold it tightly in place.

7. Put your pieces of wood on top of the screen, making sure you pull it tight as you bolt them down. Just push the bolts firmly through the screen, with a washer in place, and the nut on bottom.

8. Tighten the nuts firmly, but not too tightly. Trim any excess screen, if you like (I always leave just a bit of slack on each side, just in case it tears).

[Didymus20X6]

Very nice. You have a lot of time in this. You're not a cobbler. My first runs of anything new lean towards cobbled. The first one is just to get a feel for the whole project to see of it's worth the time to finish it to specs.
Nice job.

Actually, that's pretty much how the main enclosure went. I tried stuff, figured out what did and didn't work (drilled holes don't work nearly as well for ventilation as a screen). It started out with a smaller screen at first, with screws instead of bolts (didn't like those sharp points too much, though). Then, once I kind of had a feel for what to do, I replaced the smaller screen with a bigger one.

By the time I got all that squared away, building that snake trap went pretty smoothly. And as you can see, the water enclosure drew heavily from what I learned from the snake trap.

[Didymus20X6]

Okay, I got the flange pipe installed in the old enclosure. Probably traumatized the snakes in the process.

(I had to transfer them to the other container, and they were not the least bit cooperative. I'm surprised they didn't escape: when I was done, I discovered I had left flange pipe uncovered. They could have just crawled right out, and I would have never been the wiser. But thankfully, they all just stayed in the hides.)

Now all I need to do is put some water in the enclosure, and maybe get some more rocks to go in there. Also, decorate it with some plastic leaves or something, to give it a more natural feel. So it's not entirely complete, but all the really hard stuff is done!