Corn snake owners not into making fake rocks?

My husband insisted on having one HUGE display tank for our first snake. We worked very hard to convert a 100 gal saltwater aquarium into a suitable habitat for a snake. I'll have to post pictures of it for you all to see. She has aspen substrate and up until recently, vines and lots of stuff to play with. I have removed everything but her hide and water bowl since she was due to deliver her first litter on Tuesday. (still waiting) We took down our entertainment center to make room for her--she is the main focus in our den!

I also have two 10 gallon aquariums, retrofitted to be suitable for snakes in two other rooms in my house. I use these as quarantine tanks.

Last but not least, I have a monstrosity of a rack that I absolutely LOVE! We built it out of desktops that were being thrown away and this sucker is HEAVY! It holds 41Qt. Sterilite tubs which is suitable for most of my snakes right now. The tubs only contain the hides and water bowls to make cleaning a breeze.

I plan on making my hides myself, especially for the big girl just like was mentioned with the grout and sealing it, I just haven't had the time to get started yet....

I love the pictures of Nanci's snake habitats! Mine are simpler with bunches of bad-taste silk flowers for the snakes to weave through, climb over and hide in, and cardboard rolls from the carpet shop, but her tubs are brilliant!

I make my own hides. I cut the top off of cereal boxes and use tp rolls once the paper is off. My animals are all in racks. My free time is spent taking care of them feeding, cleaning, etc... I don't have time or the will to make rocks.

Originally Posted by zamora

My husband insisted on having one HUGE display tank for our first snake. We worked very hard to convert a 100 gal saltwater aquarium into a suitable habitat for a snake. I'll have to post pictures of it for you all to see. She has aspen substrate and up until recently, vines and lots of stuff to play with. I have removed everything but her hide and water bowl since she was due to deliver her first litter on Tuesday. (still waiting) We took down our entertainment center to make room for her--she is the main focus in our den!

My husband has done the same thing. Our two oldest have 100 gal tanks and their hatchlings, the five that we kept, have 30 gal tanks. So definitely spoil our snakes past the point of spoiling to pure insanity. But since we have Mom in the spoiling Dad in the family room and the babies in the office, I have their tanks decorated with rocks, vines and plants to make them more of a decoration. However, I have noticed that if I don't put their decorations back in there then they don't move around as much. Now that is probably because they have less to play on instead of caring about what their tank looks like. Mine don't move their decorations around at all so it doesn't bother me to make them pretty.

Oh man, I REALLY wanted to make an enclosure with tons of fake rocks, a fale background made of great stuff, silicone, and cocobark, lots of pieces of wood, a water fall and a pond, and live plants galore for some Poison Dart Frogs.
It turned out to be very expensive. I got about half way there, but didn't really have the know how to set everything up. I ran out of money and was kind of intimidated to proceed.

I still have a ton of nice wood pieces from that endeavor though, that I use in my snake's bins. Mine aren't as elaborate as Nanci's, but hers are the model I'm striving after. I pick up fake plants wherever I can, and I always make sure there is enough cover in the tub. We have to consider what corn snakes need though and what we need. We like an aesthetically pleasing enclosure that makes us feel "good" about keeping snakes captive. Really, there's nothing natural about keeping snakes captive anyway, and I've noticed that the hides snakes seem to feel the most comfortable in are the "unsightly" cheap ones anyway.

Also, I'm not sure what the curing time is for silicone, but Don Soderburg warns against it in his book. Because we use heat for our snakes the silicone (or whatever else you're using) heats up as well and is more likely to emit chemicals. He recommends a curing time of at least twice as long as is recommended on the box.

All my snakes have coconut hides, fake vines, bark hides, rock water bowls & homemade wethides. We have our tanks out where people can go over & see the snakes. Even our 55 gallon is displayed. Yes my 6ft LittleDani has all this w/ him including trees to climb *need to get a hammock*
Its a lot of work to keep cleaned, yet I love the fact everyone gets to visit w/ them & see they are pets. I only have 8 so that makes it easier.

I will give you this Naci, you have some of the nicest looking bins I've seen. Most bins I see seem kind of barren.

Originally Posted by EsotericForest

I will give you this Naci, you have some of the nicest looking bins I've seen. Most bins I see seem kind of barren.

Yeah, I hate that. I always wonder what snakes think that come here to visit. The picture with Azaria- she now has a hammock (but doesn't use it, so it may get given to someone else!) and she will get an adult bowl this summer- she still has her baby bowl. Out of all the stuff they get, they love the paper towel tubes the most, followed by the flat corkbark.

Funny how they enjoy the cheapest things the most. Seems to go that way with rodents as well

Originally Posted by EsotericForest

Funny how they enjoy the cheapest things the most. Seems to go that way with rodents as well

lol, same way with cats. Fancy scratching post? Meh. Box it came in? Party time!