Everyday Items.

[Kasturi]

Wow, this thread has staying power. It's right up my alley for sure! My favorite water bowl is a type of dog water bowl. It has a cut out for your fingers to fit in to pick up the dish. So, it serves as a water bowl and a hide. They come in various sizes, colors and design. I was lucky enough to find a few really cool ones at Petco on clearance. They were bamboo, came in great colors and had a great design. $1.50 each! However, you can regularly find the plastic ones for a few bucks. All my girls like them for a cool hide.

[guidofatherof5]

Here are a few items that come in very handy in the snake room. The syringes are a very handy when a sterile needle is needed. No need to burn one or get out the Isopropyl alcohol. I get mine in bulk at Sam's Club, a 100 of them for $12
On another syringe note. Most pharmacies give out dosing syringes for free with many meds. I have also explained I needed one for my animals and they were glad to give me one.
The other items usually get put out in the trash. I usually grab a couple extra condiment cups from the local restaurants when I'm there. They've always let me have a few extra when I ask. Buying 10,000 of them at Sam's Club is not cost effective.

[ConcinusMan]

I get mine in bulk at Sam's Club, a 100 of them for $12 I have also explained I needed one for my animals and they were glad to give me one.

Jeez, cheapest place around here is nearly $30 for 100 and no pharmacy / store will sell single bags or give out single syringes anymore. Cases ONLY. Had to get a couple from my vet when I needed them. However, there's a needle exchange just down the road. They'll give you new ones for your used ones, free of charge. I know that's not what they intended the program for, but heck, I did it anyway after I got done treating bertha for that RI so I'll have them handy. Perfect for injecting meds into food.

[guidofatherof5]

The free syringes where the non-needle type for dosing oral meds.

[ConcinusMan]

Oh, OK. The ones the vet gave me had removable needles. Leave them on for injecting antibiotics into food, or I would just pop the needle off and give it to her that way.

[Buck]

Well, if you like crafts and can't find a suitable water dish, here's something that I did last night:

1. find a topless box of appropriate size (this may require you cutting or taping it into the right shape)
2. take a piece of plastic wrap (or other thin, flexible, leak proof plastic) large enough to cover the entire inner area of the box plus an inch or two
3. drop some liquid glue into each corner of the box (note that hot glue will melt through the plastic unless slightly cooled)
4. press the plastic properly into each corner, fold over edges
5. glue to outside of the box, allow to dry

Viola!

[guidofatherof5]

Photos please. I'm a visual learner.

[ConcinusMan]

Well, if you like crafts

Of course I do. Especially when the end product is useful and makes use of **** I was going to throw in the trash anyway.

Photos please. I'm a visual learner.

Yeah, me too. having a hard time visualizing the process, and end product.

My brain has always been in a "Show me state" and I don't even live in Missouri. Never been east of western Texas.



Excellent. Now people can see what I mean when I say "shallow, easily accessible water dish". While these dishes probably hold less than a few "spoonfuls" of water, these are essential for baby garters... particularly in the first few weeks of life. Check the "dish" several times a day. Make sure there is always at least a small pool of standing water in it. Newborn snakes can, and will, just "stumble" into it. Don't expect them to find water otherwise. Very important! Make it not only easy, but inevitable, that they will "stumble" upon standing water, even if it's only a millimeter or two. So long as they keep "stumbling" into it. Sour cream, yogurt, whatever... you get the idea. Try to make sure that nothing dry is laying in the water... it will suck the water out like a straw, (not unlike osmosis) and deposit in on the substrate. Yes, water can flow uphill. Anyone who has siphoned gasoline from a car knows that. Works the same way when siphoning any liquid. You CAN make water go uphill. The path of least resistance is not always down with gravity.

A sour cream lid is great for baby garters. But like any baby, you must be there often to make sure their "bottle" is full.

DEHYDRATION IS THE #1 KILLER OF CAPTIVE NEONATE GARTER SNAKES.

I'm kidding. I just made that up. But it's pretty important to keep them hydrated.

[Selkielass]

Clear glass dishes and saucers are my favorite garage sale finds. (Ash trays, relish dishes, shallow flan or custard cups.) They work like the disposable alternatives above, but the clear sides allow the snake to be attracted by food movement. Clean up *is* required, but they are sterilizable.

Speaking of sterilizing dishes, microwave baby bottle sterilizers are great if you happen upon one. (a I don't like crossing pet utensils and human kitchenware, even for final sterilization of clean dishes.)

[Greg'sGarters]

Plastic Chinese takeout containers as soaking containers/shipping cups. dollar store hair cutting scissors as food choppers.

If you have a soldering iron, taking any plastic shoebox or container and using the iron (outdoors only) to cut a u shaped hole into one side, then spray paint it black and turn it upside down for an instant hidebox!

I have a gas stove. I just take a butter knife, heat it using the flames from the gas stove and melt it out.