Petco $1 per gallon sale?

[Loren]

I'm getting there... All the lids are done, tanks are on the shelf, and most of them have snakes in them now. Maybe today.

[Loren]

Here you go Wayne.

I am not done yet, still putting animals into the tanks and getting everything arranged the way I want. A few cage decorations will be added too.

I still have lizards in a few tanks too- eventually the plan is to move them somewhere else and have these 36 tanks house one of each species/subspecies of native snake in my collection. I hope to label each tank.
I'll keep upgrading tank sizes as needed- might end up putting the smaller snakes into the 20's someday and putting the larger ones into even larger tanks. Luckily, many of the natives dont get real big.

4" Flexwatt runs under the rear of the tanks(10's and 20 longs), hooked to a Herpstat ND proportional thermostat.

I also still need to get all matching bricks. Big bricks for big tanks, small brickes for small tanks. Gonna lose the encyclopedias too.

Then some under shelf flourecent lighting...



Making lids.


A bunch of them done.


Twenty 20 longs on a shelf. I built the shelf too.


Sixteen 10 gallon tanks next to the twenty 20 longs.

[infernalis]

Very nice Loren..

At the moment I'm trying as best I can to keep all the tanks in the "display" orientation, Close to impossible with 36 tanks

How big is that room?? bottom row, second over from the far right, what is that in the tank?? the zebra stripe looking thing..

Those lids are sweet, nice work Since the frames are wood, you could easily fabricate latches that grab up under the frame of the tank and eliminate bricks.... (just a thought)

You have a very steady hand to do those cuts with a circular handheld..

Very cool about the indigenous species display, almost there myself.

When I first got "bit" by the snake bug I had little money to spend, so I slowly collected one specimen of each species that frequented my back yard.

[Loren]

Thanks.

Cal king - southern ca. desert color phase (higher white with a white face).

[Stefan-A]

Damn, I wish tanks were that cheap over here. I've never seen anything cheaper than 1€/litre in any pet store.

[Snake lover 3-25]

wow very nice setup!!!

[jitami]

Very nice Loren! I still love your lids! I like them better than anything I've seen commercially!

[Loren]

Thanks- I was fortunate enough to have a buddy give me 8 full sheets of really high quality 5/8'' fiberboard, which also has a very nice outer surface.
I have been building shelves and lids with that wood for 2 years now and still have a couple sheets left.

[jitami]

Thanks- I was fortunate enough to have a buddy give me 8 full sheets of really high quality 5/8'' fiberboard, which also has a very nice outer surface.
I have been building shelves and lids with that wood for 2 years now and still have a couple sheets left.

Nice! Can't beat that!

[Loren]

Very nice Loren..

At the moment I'm trying as best I can to keep all the tanks in the "display" orientation, Close to impossible with 36 tanks

How big is that room?? bottom row, second over from the far right, what is that in the tank?? the zebra stripe looking thing..

Those lids are sweet, nice work Since the frames are wood, you could easily fabricate latches that grab up under the frame of the tank and eliminate bricks.... (just a thought)

You have a very steady hand to do those cuts with a circular handheld..

Very cool about the indigenous species display, almost there myself.

When I first got "bit" by the snake bug I had little money to spend, so I slowly collected one specimen of each species that frequented my back yard.

Well, I'm back to reply your comments better- was in a hurry this morning.

The one down side to my arrangement is that the animals arent displayed as well with the tanks set with short side facing you. But, its the only way to fit them all into a 9' x 15' building. I have snake racks for the other snakes and rodent racks/tubs on the other side.


The position they are in also makes lid clips difficult as I cant reach the back outside of the 20 longs too well. My weighted lids make for really fast in and out feeding.
I hand them their food with a 24" long hemostat. Almost all of them accept food right from them.

For cutting like this you need a steady hand with a strong grip. Cutting like this with a circular is very dangerous, as sometimes the blade starts fighting you and wants to kick back. I have been told by a carpenter that its a good way to get hurt. I try to keep my body out of the way.

I love natives, and hope to soon have at least one of almost every legally obtainable species from my state, with the exception of a couple that are extremely difficult to care for due to only eating slender salamanders(2 hour drive to find those) or lizard eggs(then again, I do have a few leopard geckos I could breed...). With some, I will have more than one subspecies as well- depends on the species, the law, and how much visual difference there is between the subspecies.
I would love to put on a few presentations being able to state that I have the most complete collection of natives you will see outside of a zoo. (other than the protected ones)

I started out growing up on the family dairy, catching mainly gopher snakes, and the occasional valley garter. Used to always have 3 or 4 gopher snakes around. I'd keep them for a while, let em' go, and catch another. Had a 3' x 3' x 3' home made cage in a shed that I kept them all in.
Actually raised a baby goat in that cage once too. (without the snakes).

Here is the reptile building from the outside. It was here when I bought the house, but I remodeled it to suit my needs.
Foam panels rated at R-13 cover the windows, the walls are 1.5" thick concrete and stucco with R-13 behind the sheet rock, and the ceiling has 6" deep of blow in insulation which I spread out by hand. The door is a new prehung door from Home depot- also insulates well. It has an air conditioner set to 80, and in the winter a space heater on a timer. A digital thermometer records min/max for me at 2 locations.
Also a big fan blowing diagonal down from the ceiling to keep the top/bottom within 2 degrees of each other. I added something like 14 outlets. It runs off 2 - 20 amp breakers(2 walls per breaker), and has 12 gauge romex throughout. I added flood lights for the yard while I was at it.
So, I have been busy the last 2 years.