- Joined
- Mar 28, 2016
- Messages
- 158
Can I see some pictures of your snake enclosures? I want some ideas for my ball python. So whatever is ideal for an adult ball. I've heard terrariums aren't the best so if y'all have any better ones please post pics!
I keep my albino ball in a terrarium. Always have.
His first year he was in a 20gal long.
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I had a light on a timer, a CHE plugged into a thermostat for 80° and an UTH on a dimmer under the hide. (This room ran cold)
Then we moved and now I can keep the whole reptile room warmer. So, he's now in a 36"x 18" x 18" exto terra that he'll be able to stay in always. I use LED lighting on top and have the UTH on a dimmer under the hide.
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I mix coco coir and cypress mulch for the subrate. I keep live plants and use bark to make a hide. I love it. I think it's pretty and if my snake could talk, he'd say he likes it, too
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Terrariums, like the one Team Gomberg posted are ideal.
I like to have a humid hide box for all my snakes too. Its kind of ugly to have a plastic box with a big hole in the side, but it really works well to keep them hydrated, healthy, and to help ecdysis go smoothly.
On page 3 of this thread you can see one of my enclosures with a humid hide: https://tortoiseforum.org/threads/drymarchon-melanurus-unicolor.167850/page-3
I used Sani-chips because that is what the breeder uses and recommends. Because it is a closed chamber, it retains humidity very well even with dry substrate, as you can see on the hygrometer on the back wall. The water bowl and humid hide, coupled with the closed of nature of the enclosure keeps humidity nice and high.
My first choice for most snakes is coco chips. Orchid bark is my second choice and I've used it under many snakes many times.How do you feel about using orchid bark for a ball pythons? Some people say it’s fine, some people say it’s impossible to hold humidity with (we obviously don’t have trouble with that) and there was even someone trying to say that it was full of chemicals that would kill my snake, lol.
My first choice for most snakes is coco chips. Orchid bark is my second choice and I've used it under many snakes many times.
It promotes humidity as well as any other substrate. If I can easily maintain humidity in the 80-90 percentile with dry sani-clhips, then damp orchid bark should make it tropical rainforest humid. Whoever said it was full of chemicals needs to explain to me how I've raised hundreds of hatchling tortoises every year on the stuff for all these years, and I've not seen one single issue with toxicity due to chemicals in my orchid bark. That is just silly. Sounds like someone whose been reading internet stuff and confusing their details. Perhaps they read a comment about potting soil having certain additives that would be bad, and confused the two? I can only guess where misinformation like that would come from.