Lola's new home

[justme]

Greetings Laura and everyone here,

Nice tanks and finds! I think your snake will enjoy her new home. My garters have always utilized height in their enclosures and will bask way up high. Sometimes I could swear they were arboreal. ;-) I have tanks of all sizes including exoterra (although on past threads it appears most members here are not fond of them due to various reasons). Make sure to seal the tubing and wiring holes on your exoterra so Lola doesn't escape. I have built 2nd level platforms in my exoterra and used fish airline tubing around the edges. My tanks are still under construction. Hehe... Make sure everything is safe for falling and don't be afraid to get creative. Congrats on your new enclosures! Below are pics of my exoterra that is still in progress.

Link to my Oregon Red Spotted video (anyone here with youtube video.., friend request and subscribe please!) ;-)

Karen

YouTube - Flesh of the Red Devil (Garter Snake) Part One
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[Laura]

Wow your setups are absolutely stunning! Where ever did you get such a massive piece of drift wood??
I'd love to see pictures of them when they're done
I've still got some bits and pieces in the mail for mine too, lol don't worry about me getting creative, I'm just getting started on this one :P

[justme]

Sorry, going to repost the pics one more time so they're not tiny thumbs...


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[justme]

Thanks. I bought the wood from reptile stores. In the smaller tank to the right, I used two pieces of wood. I used Great Stuff expanding foam to secure the pieces together. After that dried (to cover the foam) I put a thin layer of aquarium sealant over the hardened foam and sprinkled it with fine saw dust from the driftwood and dusted off excess. Looking forward to seeing more pics of your setup when it is finally finished! ;-)

[Laura]

What a great idea, how have you secured it to ensure it stays upright?

[mustang]

nice setups mines drying now ill get a waterfall flown into a 6in. deep pond in a 4ft tank! ill post some pics when it dries

[drui9201]

As for basking bulbs, I'm going to need to go with ceramic right?

No, you don't need to use ceramic. Ceramic bulbs emit no light, so I'd go with a basking bulb that produces light as well as heat, just make sure your temps stay good; don't get one too high wattage.

[ConcinusMan]

Very, very nice Justme. Great setups.

No, you don't need to use ceramic. Ceramic bulbs emit no light, so I'd go with a basking bulb that produces light as well as heat, just make sure your temps stay good; don't get one too high wattage.

Good advice. I do use ceramic on my albinos and they get no additional light other than ambient natural light from the room window. They hate light and mostly come out at night anyway so I leave ceramic heat emitters on for much of the day and night. I also use ceramic heat emitters just to give the light-loving snakes a nice warm night but saves much energy. For about 10 hours a day, all but the albinos do get UVA basking bulbs to create a hot spot that gets up to around 85 degrees F but ambient air temperature away from the basking area doesn't usually exceed 74 degrees. That's what you want. Also, keep your water dishes very clean and on the coolest area of the tank. An 8 hour drop in temperature (turn off all heat and light sources) at night down to 70 degrees F is a good idea for adult garters. Use timers! have the day and night cycle naturally like it would outside.

[drui9201]

What he said. ^^ The ceramics are great for night as well as any kind of animal that can't tolerate very bright light, however, since you've got an undertank heater the ceramic probably won't be needed for night and the day time basking light will be a good choice as the light cycle helps psychologically.

[ConcinusMan]

Yup. What "the newbie" said.^^^ . Ceramics are very efficient and very good for radiant heat from above. Can be combined with a small florescent tube also. No energy wasted on light. but heck, for normal garters that love to bask in the sun, a good basking bulb with UVA output and sun-like heat and light is good during the day. It really helps them feel more at home and helps to keep them active, alert, and stimulates appetite.

If for some reason you need or want to keep your garters (or any herp) warm at night in darkness, ceramics are great but I also use them on light-loving garters where a little more heat is needed. If you're using undertank heaters make sure they aren't getting too hot under the substrate. If they are, you can place them vertically at ground level to provide a warm wall. If your undertank heater only covers a fraction of the bottom or side like it should, you can leave it on 24/7 and just provide basking light/heat in daytime.

My opinion is that for breeding or gravid snakes, don't use surface heat. Provide radiant heat / basking bulbs from above to warm the snakes and ambient air, and let the temperature drop a bit at night. "drop the shades" (provide complete darkness) and cool them down at night. They'll sleep better, and have better appetites during the day.