I'm Back/Ideas?

Hey guys, I don't know if you remember me, I went home for the summer and never go online at home. But anyway, I'm back at school so I go online more.

I just moved my little snake into a nice new place, a 20L as oposed to his 10 gallon. I decided that I'll leave that one at home for when I'm home on breaks, and leave the nice one here, that way I won't need to take up half the back seat of my car with an aquarium.

Anyway, it is looking pretty stark, it just has a log to hide in, a cream cheese container to hide in, and a water dish (I recently changed over to the cheapo kind for cats & stuff, that have the little openings on the side, so that can be hidden under as well).

I'd like to add some height and fun. I don't want to buy a $20 branch at a pet store, which doesn't even look that fun. I'm looking for ideas for things so my snake can climb and enjoy his new home.

I was thinking that constructing something with legos or Knex might be cool. Though I am worried that legos might have corners that are too sharp. I think Knex could be super cool, because I could just build a simple box or something, and the open holes and cross bracing could give the snake endless climbing options.

Any thoughts on this?


Oh and the kittens are adorable, I am so sad that I had to leave their cute little faces. I'll upload pictures of them later. So cute! Such troublemakers though.

I've seen people make jungle gyms out of PVC pipes.

Or you could just go out and cut a branch off of a tree and then sterilize it in your oven.

Amanda E said:

I've seen people make jungle gyms out of PVC pipes.

Click to expand...

PVC jungle gyms (link) are being torched to look more natural. saw the linked picture over at faunaclassifieds then saw some for sale at herp show the next weekend. Not quite as expensive as the real wood petshop stuff.

Oooooh I like that!

I'm gonna head on down to the hardware store today!

I am curious about that new plastic paint that is suposed to bond molecularly to plastic......I could make it green and more natural looking or something. I'm just wondering if it would be snake-safe. I assume it would once it stops stinking of fumes.

But then again, at the moment, my viv doesn't look natural at all....the closest is the one log.

Yay now I have something to do today (I moved into my new place yesterday and all my friends are out of town for the weekend).

stuff to use

I use fake plants, and leaves. I also have a log or small tree, that my snakes use to shed. If you hang fake viens $1.00 at the dollar store along the back of the aquarium it looks more jungle. My snakes are in a 50gallon, I am planing on building a 140gallon soon. For the bedding I use grounded coconut shell $9.99 for three bricks mixed with water. All you have to do is ring out the water then place in the aquarium. It give a more natural look. The water bowl I use you can buy one for $2.99 at any pet store. It looks like a small pond. I will be posting pics of my aquarium up soon. I want people to see what I am trying to say. For their hide I use a half log aswel. The bedding is 3 inches deep all along, because corn snakes do like to burrow.

newt

Well $16 and about an hour later, I have a jungle gym for my snake.

The PVC itself costs about $4 for a 10' 1/2"diam piece (barely fit in my car) and a bag of 10 elbows. I didn't have a hacksaw or cutter, so i bought a little pipe cutter, $8-$9 (and a blister on my thumb), and I decided to go all out and buy the adhesive and primer which was like $4 for the pair (my fingers and deck are all purple now).

Though with the adhesive, it is slightly off square, which bothers me a lot.
I am washing it off just in case, then I'll put pictures of it in the viv.


Its weird, I used to be all about the natural looking viv. but now I don't care as much as long as all of the needs are met.

Photo 1, you can't see the upper part too well.

I'm thinking the adhesive was a mistake, the purple primer doesn't wash off and looks ugly, plus my angles aren't as perfect as I'd like.

Photo 2, a view from the top/side-ish area.

This way you can see the upper bar.

Of my 10' piece of PVC, I have about 2 feet left, just in case you were wondering.

Nice project! Let us know how your snake likes it. Isn't it funny how they can command so much of our attention? They probably look at us and wonder why the heck these weird humanoids fuss so much!

Amanda

I like Amanda's idea. I cut branches and put them in he oven at 200 degrees for 2 hours. For me it works the best. REG

I found an old log that fit perfectly in my viv and gives her tons of climbing fun. I washed it in hot water and bleach, rinsed well, and nuked it in the microwave on high for 2 minutes to kill any bugs. It's been in her viv for almost a year with no problems. She climbs on it almost every night.

pvc pipe

Well leia, I dont mean to insult you but the pvc pipe looks really cheesey. You could use drift wood that looks more natural. I'm big on the natural look. Drift wood is free, so are top branches from a tree. Instead of papertowels, use grounded cocnut shells. You can get three bricks of it for $10, that would be anough for 1 year. Try to give it the jungle look with plants and viens, and an earthy ground cover, then your snake will love it. I'll post a pic of my viv to show you what I mean, ok. Isent the pvc pipe very slipery, It doesnt look like it have much trackson it will be hard for your snake to climb on it with ease.

newt

Leia, (re: being cheesy) I don't think the snake is going to care much about aesthetics, as long as he enjoys it! Many people use old butter containers or boxes in their vivs and their snakes seem to like those better than some of the fancy stuff we buy at the reptile store. It might be kind of fun though to add some vines wrapped around it or something.

I don't think it looks cheesey necessarily..just bare. =P

I think my snakes fall into the same category as my cats...the cheapest, most homemade thing you can find they like better than the store bought stuff. If it's cheap and you can use it, more power to ya.

Snake example: When I got my first snake, I spent $40 on sandblasted grape vine decorations for her to climb on. She never climbed on it at all. I use it in my anole viv, and give her the piece of wood that I thought was an unusual shape from a dead tree out front, and voila..spent most of her waking moments on it.

Cat example: No store bought toy rivals the ring that comes off of milk containers, nothing. Nothing beats a free toy that you have 3 cats fighting over.

As far as the adhesive making the angles off, did you do it like the directions on the adhesive bottle say to do? Swipe it on the inside of the joint, insert pipe and rotate to fully coat? Anyway, do you think your snake is going to be out there with his Craftsman laser level checking to make sure it's perfect? Just put some fake vines on it, and that might help to offset the "un-even-ness" of it to you.

And as far as the PVC adhesive, it's not like you're going to use it for what it was intended for and you could have just used Elmer's glue. That would also give you the freedom to soak it in water and remove the joints and redo it at any point. =)

And Newt, $10 for 3 bricks of coconut bedding seems expensive for me. Especially when I can buy an $8 bag of aspen that lasts my 25 snakes and 3 mouse colonies for 6 months or more.

Don't worry Leia, everyone has to start somewhere when they're improvising. =)

Actually I did end up buying fake folliage and hot gluing it on the PVC. I agree that it looks bare, but now there's tons of branches for him to hide in.

I know my setup does not look as good as many of yours but it is good enough for me and good enough for my snake. Eventually I will get real substrate, but this is just easier right now.

I think it will be great Leia! Snakes are not particular about what they climb on. My amel loves her log, but she also likes to use the thermometers stuck to the side, and tries to climb the plant. The leaves aren't strong enough to support miss piggy, but she tries anyway. When you've finished putting the branches and stuff on, show us a picture. Better yet, take one with Snoogins in it!

Yeah, he's grumpy right now since he's nearing a shed.

But I held him briefly and when I put him back, he played for a little while. The branches barely fit in the tank (the top ones are sorta smooshed to get the lid in), but they make it much less open, and give him all kinds of fun ways to climb and try to hide.



And definetly, he loves his cream cheese container hide out, and $1.50 cheapo water bowl (with hiding underneath) much more than his $10 log hide, and the old expensive water dish (which sucked royally).

sorry

Your all right everyone has to start somewhere, I had no right to say it was chessey. Hope you can forgive me. Personaly I have tried the aspen but it just doesent make it for me, but thats me.

I've tried a lot of different things with my viv, but I was thinking of what looked the best to me, then I choose what looked best for my snakes. Use Canadians think a little different then our cousins in the States. But I didnt mean anything bad for what I said.

newt