Simple cage division

[gworfish]

Hi everyone,

I'm sure this is so common as be be tedious for many, and it is far from the custom jobs I've been seeing here in the DIY forum, but I felt like sharing it with others, especially Marica, who was kind enough to donate to us the big tank.

Basically we recently picked up a pair of young females who were housed together in a 29 gallon aquarium (which came with them). We didn't want to keep them together, and were planning to buy two new smaller cages for them after pay-day. But then while browsing a local pet shop we bumped into another couple who keep corns, and who had two gigantic tanks they would be happy to get out of their place.

Our initial plan was to move our adult snake into the 40 gallon, and deal with the girls later, but some quick research into the cost of and ease of working with plexi and suddenly Operation: Duplex was launched.

Just a simple piece of plexi cut to size and fixed into the 40 gallon tank to turn it into two 20s. A single UTH in the middle, some end-tables we didn't use as a stand, and suddenly the girls went from being room-mates to neighbours in a duplex. :)

Framed in:
http://www.cornsnakes.com/forums/picture.php?albumid=449&pictureid=3007

Occupied:
http://www.cornsnakes.com/forums/picture.php?albumid=449&pictureid=3008

We just need to get some more plants in, but currently each side has 3 hides and lots of substrate to burrow in, so I'm hoping they'll be comfy.

Ian.

[CrousesCorns]

great job and it looks nice!!!

[Asbit]

Very cool Ian. I have two questions.

1. How does the plexi glass in the middle go high enough that they can not just slither over top of it?? Is there some sort of barrier that works with the screen top and the plexi glass?? I have considered doing this myself but could not figure out how to solve that problem.

2. Did you just use aquarium silicone to put in the plexi glass?

Last not so much a question as a comment. Snakes, esp. corns are not social animals, they do not like to be near other ones. So seeing the nieghbor on the other side of the plexi glass may still cause stress. What about using window tint or Aquarium picture backing to solidify the common wall and make it an even more secure individual environment for each.

Just my thoughts.:idea:

[Lennycorn]

Great job you did on you set up.
It's the KISS theory at it's best.

[gworfish]

1. How does the plexi glass in the middle go high enough that they can not just slither over top of it?? Is there some sort of barrier that works with the screen top and the plexi glass?? I have considered doing this myself but could not figure out how to solve that problem.

The plexi goes up as high as I could get it without interfering with the sliding lid. And yeah, when I checked, the screen still provides enough flex to allow them to get up and over (if they were long enough to get up there, which I don't think they are right now, at least until we get some more furniture in for them). My fix right now is in the "ugly but effective" category: I've got a piece of the plexi that I'd trimmed laying on top of the screen, with a fat hard-cover book providing weight.

2. Did you just use aquarium silicone to put in the plexi glass?

Yes. I'm also planning to use some of that to stick the thermostat and thermometer probes to the bottom - an idea I found somewhere else in this forum.

Last not so much a question as a comment. Snakes, esp. corns are not social animals, they do not like to be near other ones. So seeing the nieghbor on the other side of the plexi glass may still cause stress. What about using window tint or Aquarium picture backing to solidify the common wall and make it an even more secure individual environment for each.

I thought that seeing each other in such close proximity might not be a hit with them, but wasn't worrying about it too much right now given that until Friday evening they actually lived on top of one another. I mean literally, they both had the same favourite hide (one of those hollow rocks with the lid), and more often than not we'd find both of them in it!

Initially I didn't want to make the divide opaque at all, because where we had originally planned to put the tank it would have messed up the natural lighting on one side. But if they'll be stressed by seeing one another too much I'll definitely want to look into something, so long as I can be sure they won't find a way to peal off a corner and get stuck to it. I'm not familiar with window tint per se, but I've had many a bathroom window with some funky translucent adhesive stuff on it that doesn't dim light much, but makes it impossible to see through.

Ian.

[Marica]

Great idea Ian. I'm sure Thelma and Louise are enjoying their new digs...and Johnny too.

[gworfish]

Yeah, well I'm hoping they will. But they are expressing their enthusiasm in the usual way for a corn snake: hiding! Still haven't seen any of them yet. :)

[Asbit]

If "ugly" as you put it is effective then that is all that matters....by the way great to see another Canadian on the site.

[ratsncorns]

I did a more ghetto version of yours LOL. I cut up a piece of cardboard and used silicone to seal the sides (cheap and they couldnt see each other). Instead of the sliding lid, I had one of those split lids where you could open one half of the cage at a time. Which worked great because it sealed off the top of the cardboard, essentially making it snake-proof.

Great job!

[gworfish]

Yeah, I usually put effective over appearance. But sometimes I go through bouts of OCD where I just can't stand to have things laying about not put away (which can sometimes be a challenge with an 11 year old boy in the house). Seeing my copy of The Silmarillion laying on top of the tank is a challenge. :)

[gworfish]

Oh, and yes, always nice to see "local" folks on the site - for all the land we have it is a "small" country. Marica above is also out here in the West.

Ian.

[gworfish]

I did a more ghetto version of yours LOL...

Yeah, I'd actually seen some pics of a jcage partitioned with cardboard (actually might have been yours lol). But we decided to go with the plexi for ease of cleaning, and to maximise the flow of natural light; we'd originally been planning to put the cage in a location where most of the natural light would be coming from one end, and I didn't want one of them to always been in the shade.

Ian.

[Khaos]

Hey Canadians!

[gworfish]

Hey Canadians!

Tee-hee, this is taking on the flavour of a "welcome Canadians" thread. :)

I wonder if reptiles are more or less popular in colder climates than warmer, because of their prevalence in the natural world around us. I know I wish I could fill my house with them, but even more so I wish I could live somewhere where the geckos just turn up on the walls. :)

I.

[The_Thunderer]

Great job, Ian. I had planned on doing that... then did some more planning... and more planning... then decided to go separate... LOL. Still got the plexiglass in a corner somewhere. LOL.

[gworfish]

Great job, Ian. I had planned on doing that... then did some more planning... and more planning... then decided to go separate... LOL. Still got the plexiglass in a corner somewhere. LOL.

Well you know you'll end up finding a place for it sometime, so hardly a loss. We're also into a crazy planning spiral right now - coffee table vivs, large stacked solutions, etc. - but we had to roll on the first project ASAP to resolve having two snakes living together and one that didn't hardly have room to turn around. But so far this whole corn snake trip is proving to become quite addictive, and I'm starting to wonder about just going with a dedicated room. I'm sure my step-son could be comfortable sleeping on the couch....

Ian.