Trying a new idea for a hide...

[Hoomi]

I took Dixie out for a few minutes yesterday afternoon, and noticed that she had an abrasion about an inch long on her back. Apparently, the hide that I had in her enclosure is a bit too rough, and she scraped herself against it. I applied some neosporin to the wound and purposed that it was time to find a bit less "hazardous" a hide for her.

We had to stop at the local Wallyworld for a couple of things, and popped into the Petland next door. My wife bought some crickets for her dragons, I admired the pretty little baby burmese pythons they had (marveling that something so little had the potential to get so blasted big), and generally browsed a bit.

In the rodent section, they had some "mini-igloos"; little plastic houses similar to the igloo dog houses that are sold. They're a semi-rigid plastic in varying opaque colors, starting at about $5 for the smallest size. The smallest one was a bit larger than Dixie's old hide (which wasn't quite as large as it really needed to be), and the price was acceptable.

The plastic should be easily washable, especially since it's non-porous so any contamination should remain on the surface where it's easily removed. They seem fairly strong, so if the lightweight igloo and semi-transparent sides are less than desirable, it could be placed under some stone pieces or other heavier, obscuring additions to keep it in place and block light/vision. Best of all, it provides a solid wall around 320 to 340 degrees on the sides, with the entrance tunnel large enough for the snake to crawl in.

I'll post updates on how she seems to like it, and any problems I might encounter using it. Right now, the biggest problem I anticipate is that, as light as it is, it'll move around easily unless I weight it down with something on top of it.

I think the coolest idea would be to use plaster and mold a natural looking "rock" over the igloo, with the igloo able to be removed from the rock for easy cleaning. I don't know about the rest of you, but I like having things in the enclosure that are easy to clean and sterilize, if need be.

[sophie42204]

sounds interesting, can you post a picture of it?

[Smulkin]

Indeed - know exactly what you are talking about we had one for my sons' mice (before they were food items hehe). Big fan of plastics as well for the easy clean and non-porousness. Wood falls on the other end of the spectrum - might look natural - but just soaks up all kinds of nastiness and could possibly retain some bleach after trying to clean thoroughly.

Have bought small cat litter pans, sandbuckets, plastic planting pots, tupperware, plastic cereal bowls, containers left over from them huggie-style wipes - whatever i happen to pass that's uber-cheap and plastic.

[Tigergenesis]

I have some and use them in my quarantine tanks and with young/smaller snakes. Work well except how lightweight they are - so you'll probably have to weigh them down someway.

[led4urhead]

I definitely like having something easy to clean, esp if its eye catching. I use some bottoms to planters now, but am always on the look out for something cool that would make a good herp hide