Tom's Snake Enclosure

[jitami]

LOL... it'll be a race then

[snakeestate]

Gotta love snakes going after fish .
Nice terrarium setup tom.

[Didymus20X6]

Thanks, everyone!

Today, I did a bit of work on the substrate. It was smelling kinda funny, so I thought I better do some work on it.

First, I took out a good portion of the clay and mulch that were in there before. About half of it. Then, I gave the remainder a good wetting down and mixed it up really good. Then, to top it off, I gave it a good layer of hardwood mulch (has a very strong hickory/mesquite smell to it). I figured since it wasn't a heavily resinous wood like pine, it'd be okay for the snakeys.

So that's basically still doing a two-layer substrate. Layer one: clay and leaf/grass mulch mixture, and layer two: hardwood mulch.

What do you think? Is this a good substrate combination?

[drache]

I don't know
myself, I always go for something that's easy to clean, but I do like looking at the more natural substrates

[SNAKEKEEPER]

I would consider a different substrate. You don't know what beasties and possible mould problems these leaves could contain.

I agree for the substrate might fave paristes.

[Didymus20X6]

Actually, I bake everything I put in my enclosure. Not only does this help to dry them out, but it pretty much kills anything. Those branches, the bamboo, the leaf mulch - all baked.

[suliman]

hey, im seriously considering using this method for an enclosure, not really because of cost, but it looks to be more spacious and would be easy to expand the enclosure by adding more compartments. This seems really good but i have to ask if there are any disadvantages to doing this instead of using a glass tank.

please reply with any issues that you might have had with care of your snakes while using this type of enclosure. also wondering why the two containers are diffrent sizes?

[ConcinusMan]

She's a beauty. I say she because that is a female. She looks an awful lot like elegans but you're on the east coast so i don't think so.

I would consider a different substrate. You don't know what beasties and possible mould problems these leaves could contain.

Definitely. That's a poor choice. I always used large pine shavings, but I had to make sure I take them out of their enclosure for feeding. Don't want them swallowing that stuff. My garters were so large after they were 6 or 7 years old, and so tame, they didn't care about a place to hide. They would greet me when I walk in the room.

I used a Plexiglass box, fairly low profile but large area. Heating pad and low wattage basking light on one side, water bowl and full spectrum flourescent on the other. That gave them about 90 degrees on one end, 70 on the other. They seemed happy. In 21 years, they grew from about 10 inches long to 3 1/2 feet.

[Didymus20X6]

Could have sworn I already posted these, but here they are again.

Updates to the snake enclosure.

[guidofatherof5]

You did. Unless I'm having a senior moment......................again.