How to save money & have fun

[crzy_kevo]

in my baby tank i have an old small plastic flower pot that you get when you buy a flower or other plant at a sore i just turned it upside down and cut a rectangular hole in one side itrefered hide of my baby snakes and they love to peak out the small holes in the top(what was the bottom)

[NetBSD]

More recent finds to help save money.

Tilapia and Salmon 4 oz fillet $1 at local dollar store.

Dog bowl with openings on bottom doubles as hide $1 at dollar general. Use as water bowl for larger baby snakes, 6 - 20 months. Larger size available for bigger snakes.

small water dish - free on top of each yogurt that has sprinkles or other treats on top. Best for neonates (small babies) to about 6 months, then the snake will tip it over a lot.

We just saw a giant enclosure made from an old TV, tell us how you save money....

well if your talkin about my enclosure....

1984 floor model TV (25") ruffly 41 gallon: FREE

an old cream cheese container turnd upside down and fake plants from walmart ($1 each) put into little slices on the bottom of container, then fill with fish rocks to make the bottom heavy.

nice big branch found on a local road thats actually called "Snake road" (baked at 350-400F for 1 hour).

lenolium(SP?) tiles 12x12" $8 for a 30 pack at Ollies, makes for EASY cleanup.

for hides i like to look in walmart at the fish section, these fishtank decorations actually work well for my garter and ribbon so far.

for my ball python im still using an old fedex box with a side hole cut and a top hole.

thats all i can think of right now....

oh home depot has decent prices on plexiglas or lexan if you are building a wooden enclosure these work good for lids or i guess you could epoxy them together to make any size tank you want.

[Stefan-A]

You can make hides out of practically anything. The vagrans male's favourite hide is a cardboard box an energy saving lamp came in and the N. mauras just prefer to hide underneath a piece of paper towel. They don't need anything fancy. A maple leaf would work just fine for both. Don't know how much fun is involved though, if you don't consider saving money "fun". Leaves and pieces of bark are free and easy to dispose of.

lenolium(SP?)

Linoleum.

[NetBSD]

You can make hides out of practically anything. The vagrans male's favourite hide is a cardboard box an energy saving lamp came in and the N. mauras just prefer to hide underneath a piece of paper towel. They don't need anything fancy. A maple leaf would work just fine for both. Don't know how much fun is involved though, if you don't consider saving money "fun". Leaves and pieces of bark are free and easy to dispose of.


Linoleum.

thanks for the correction.

plastic conduit is also another good hide, i paid $1.50 for 10' when i only needed 3' for a project a while back, cut down some of it and shaved the sharp edges from cutting and its a good hide

[crzy_kevo]

never thought of buying lexan to make an enclosure even a single piece of it and some old 2x4's and a couple old pieces of plywood can make a good enclosure as well

and most of you saw some of my home made hides but for those who havent here is a link http://www.thamnophis.com/forum/encl...hide-idea.html
there are 2 different hides that i have made the last one being the adults favourite

[guidofatherof5]

Just got back from Walmart. I went into their lawn and garden area. Everthing was on clearance. I picked up ceramic plant pot bases for $1 each. They also had a lot of other item that wouuld work well with our indevores. I did notice that my Plains were very skeptical of the new water dishes. They were bright red. Can Garters see color? I guess I never thought about it before. It took about 30 minutes for the tank leaders to give it the okay. Then everything was fine.

[NetBSD]

Just got back from Walmart. I went into their lawn and garden area. Everthing was on clearance. I picked up ceramic plant pot bases for $1 each. They also had a lot of other item that wouuld work well with our indevores. I did notice that my Plains were very skeptical of the new water dishes. They were bright red. Can Garters see color? I guess I never thought about it before. It took about 30 minutes for the tank leaders to give it the okay. Then everything was fine.

thats a good question, i have no idea but i got lots of colour in my enclosure

[Stefan-A]

Can Garters see color?

Good question. To my knowledge, some diurnal snakes do have red/green colour receptors.


Edit:

SpringerLink - Journal Article

It is concluded that the garter snake has only a single class of cone pigment. The results from a curve fitting analysis suggests that this pigment has peak absorbance at about 556 nm.

I don't know much at all about vision, but green is 495–570 nm.

[guidofatherof5]

Thanks Stefan, I went and found that article.

[Lori P]

I'm currently looking for unique backgrounds... I'm tired of the fish tank ones. So I was at Big Lots the other day (it's like a salvage store) and I got a canvas transfer painting for $10-- propped it up behind the Puget's tank:





I love it! lol