A new palace for Cleopatra!

[Krynos]

Yeah I know... I don't post much. I leave that to Cass

So, as Cass has hinted at previously we've been looking for a new enclosure for Cleo. She had just out grown her 20L that we were keeping her in. The biggest natural looking rock hides we could fit in there just were not big enough for her to get her butt in... She would often leave it hanging out... big ol' butt loop - poor thing.

So we went to the Anaheim NARBC show to find her something better.

First up is a photo of Cleo chilling out on top of her new warm hide. She's been in this new enclosure since last Saturday, it's taken her this long to get used to it and get back to her old slithering ways. She does so love a good evening slither...




We bought her a Critter Condo (a local reptile enclosure builder, seen there work in two local reptile shops they have recently re-fitted) at a great show-special price. It's 4x2x2, with storage underneath. It came with a fitting and cage for a lamp, and also a florescent fitting. We put a 20W full spectrum tube in there for lighting, and put a CHE in the cage. We also bought the next size up hides for her, one for the cool side, one for the warm side, finally she fits!

We used her existing water bowl, and other cage furniture. Cass also got her a much bigger grapevine, and decorated it with more fake plants and jungle vine for her to climb on, also there are few more smaller grapevines and plants. The back of the enclosure was bright white board... so we bought some 3D foam rock backdrops (exo-terra) which I cut to size to span the back, this also closed off the vents so I drilled some holes for air flow.

The florescent tube was far too bright, so I built a shade for it, no direct light in Cleos eyes now. The light is on a timer from 6am to 6pm.



There are four heaters in the tank, three UTH's and one CHE above. The design of the Critter condo didn't allow for belly heat or UTH's as the floor is 3/4" board. But the original floor was 4" below the level of the glass doors. So we bought a piece of glass to fit the floor, and I raised that up with a wooden frame, the UTH's are applied to the bottom of the glass. Then the glass was sealed in place with silicon.

There is a large UTH beneath the cool-side hide, a large UTH beneath the warm-side hide, a small UTH beneath the water bowl, and the CHE up above. These are controlled with our newest gadget - a HerpStat Pro (I love this thing – it even emails and text-messages us should the temps get out of a range specified by us…!) four zone proportional thermostat. It keeps the cool side belly temps at 82, the warm side belly temps at 92, and using the CHE keeps ambient air at 85. Due to the size of the enclosure humidity was a problem, therefore the final UTH is under the water bowl, and the HerpStat keeps it at 85, by varying the temp of that UTH we can control the evaporation rate from the bowl and control the humidity in there!



When we first put her in there, as to be expected she wasn't best pleased. She explored for a couple of hours, then proceeded to curl up in the cool-side hide. On Sunday she did eat in there without problem. Since then she's been in the cool-side hide and we didn't take her out until tonight. This evening though she has been exhibiting her normal Cleo like behavior of a good evenings slither, but at the moment she has decided that basking on top of the warm-side hide is the best place to be.





We know that technically this enclosure would seem too big for a Ball Python. But then Cleo hasn't exhibited many other standard Ball-Pythoney-behaviors (balling up, picky eater, and she is often to be found out and about in her enclosure).We're pretty pleased with her new set-up, and I would say that she is too now

[cassandra]

Queens do deserve the very bestest...=)

Carmen is, as you can guess, jealous. We told her to keep pounding ratters and some day she can have a big girl cage too!

[JLC]

Looks beautiful!! I'd love to have a showpiece like that in my family room someday...

[Liquid Snake 06]

absoulutely beautiful. i plan on builing a tank with a realistic enviroment myself. awesome setup!

[Sapphire7]

Absolutely Beautiful! I love it. Its great! Who ever says large tanks are not good for a Ball Pythons is wrong. Unless you have a new born snake in a very large tank, but I dont see much problems to that either unless you have very little amount of hides and big open spaces. But that tank there is PERFECT for her, looks like if she wanted to she could stretch out. What is the demensions of that tank? Looks like its 4ft long and a couple ft wide and high. Am I correct?

[rjks325]

That is a gorgeous enclosure. Now I've gotta get crackin' with mine! Thanks for motivation.

[MedusasOwl]

Gorgeous! Her own private little grove!

[Krynos]

Looks like its 4ft long and a couple ft wide and high. Am I correct?

Yes, it's 4'x2'x2'

Just got another new gadget for it. It's an Acu-Rite indoor / outdoor weather station... the good thing about it is that the probe measures both temp and humidity and it's wireless. I wanted another humidity gauge to verify the reading on the Flukers we have.

It's a bit much... alarm clock (with snooze... get up yah lazy snake!), radio atomic clock setting, calendar, moon cycles blah blah blah. But.. you can buy extra probes separately - it can read up to three at once independantly. Pretty handy $23 at Walmart.

Oh and we're currently setting up another enclosure... I just couldn't say no to Cassandra any longer... I'm sure she will post about it soon enough...

[cassandra]

Thanks for all the compliments guys!

Oh and we're currently setting up another enclosure... I just couldn't say no to Cassandra any longer... I'm sure she will post about it soon enough...

HEEHEE!

[BD1]

Krynos, I love your cage!!!!

I'm also a fan of a natural looking cage. Great job and awesome setup.