My Bioactive Arid/Desert Enclosure for Trans-Pecos Rat Snake

[TofuTofuTofu]

Well here is an important update: I got my snake today! His prior owner said he purchased him at the 2015 Daytona show, so I'm guessing he is likely about 6 years old or maybe more. I did have him shipped, and thankfully everything went fine (apparently... I'm still in denial something won't go wrong somehow lol). The lady in the FedEx hub said I could check on him in the office, so I opened up the snake bag, poked at him a little, and saw this little face with two big eyeballs peek around a fold in the fabric. It was cute. All I did was verify he was alive, though; I didn't want to just take out a snake in a public place and stress him out.

He is in quarantine and I plan to leave him there till the end of the year and test him a few times for any issues. I only handled him long enough to take these photos, but he seems to be totally delightful. He moves very slowly (carefully, I would say?) compared to our Japanese rat snake, and will just sit there in my hand, which is something I really wanted in a snake to be honest, lol. He has been in one of his hides for the past few hours, but that is okay; he has had a weird 24 hours. Anyway, say hello to Chico! (and a cameo of my foster rabbit in the background lol)

















In vivarium news, I wanted to show a photo of the seeds sprouting right now. I can pick out three or four different varieties that have sprouted (the grassy one, Indian wheat, is the most prominent, but I am unsure what the others are as of yet). I have been reducing the plant light output because, last time, it burnt some of the seedlings, and they seem to be doing better with just the tube daylight bulb and only about 4 hours of my LED plant grow light per day. I mist directly over the seedlings every day and pour a small amount of water (like some droplets) every few days.