couple set up questions

[facepirte]

So I posted about the little fella I bought for my son in general and need to get his new home going. I have read and read and have a couple questions I would like to get cleared up before I waste time, money, and stress on the new BP. I want to try my hand at making his hides, my mom has clay and a kiln and saw some DIY hides made from different clay. I plan to use a food safe glaze so if it is safe for us to eat or drink from it should be safe for him to sleep in. I am more worried that they will be hand built and very similar but not identical which I have seen suggested. Would I be better off buying some that are the same or would small differences be ok?

My second question I may be over thinking. I have gone through the glass tank setup and read all 19 pages 2 or 3 times now. I am thinking of buying him a shelf from Home Depot or Lowes so he cam have some storage for some of his toys to go along with the tank stand. I understand that if it has a solid base to raise the tank to allow some airflow under it, but if it was a wire type shelf would it be too open and cause the UTH to have to work harder to maintain temp due to the glass dissipating the heat through excess air flow?

[Regius_049]

(1) A always suggest against getting hides or dishes made from ceramic, while doing it yourself certainly allows you the control over some key parameters such as glaze, I don't think it will ever be as easily cleanable and easy to disinfect as good plastic or glass. For ball pythons, these are cheap and effective. If you really wish to make your own, then what you have suggested should be fine in regards to shape. They really just need to be large enough so the ball python can get its whole body inside and have a small enough opening that the python can get through, but also feel enclosed (i.e. little light let into hide).

(2) Wire is actually better in my opinion, the top of the UTH will be in contact with the enclosure so you shouldn't lose much heat here. On the underside, the wire allows the other heat to dissipate into the air. While this *might* cause you to lose a tiny amount of efficiency, it is worth it for the reduced probability that you will enclose too much heat and create a problem. Most problems with UTHs result from either electronic failure or having the UTH too enclosed.

[CALM Pythons]

I wouldnt make them unless your just buying bowls & cutting doorway holes in plastic or flower pots. If you drop that clay in a sink washing it thats that... Also its a little heavier to take off of them when you want to take your snake out and I like hides that are light so i dont need to stick my finger in the door to lift..they sometimes tag something coming into their hide door hahahah

[facepirte]

Water isnt an issue, a good food grade glaze and it can be washed like any other bowl. The more I think about it now though I wonder if it would retain heat from the lamp and turn into a little oven. May be best to not get to creative and stay more natural.

[Coluber42]

A ceramic hide should be fine. It won't turn into an oven just because it's clay; and any heat source needs to be checked and regulated regardless. If you have a temp gun (and you should get one if you don't) you can make sure that the top surface of a hide isn't overheating under the lamp (maybe glaze it white if your worried?). But really, if the top surface of a hide is getting that hot, the lamp is too strong for a ball python anyway.

Go ahead and make them if that's your thing; just expect to make more later when the snake grows out of them. Since some part of it has to be un-glazed so it doesn't stick in the kiln, I suggest making them with an un-glazed rim at the top rather than having the un-glazed rim at the bottom, so there isn't an un-glazed rim sitting in a puddle if the snake pees there.

Also, they don't necessarily have to be identical as long as they are both nice and cozy. For that matter, you can have more than two hides to choose from, and the additional ones especially don't have to be the same. Two hides is minimum recommendation, not a maximum. For one thing, if the tank has lots of open floor area, filling it with additional hides (and other stuff) helps make it less scary for a young snake. And also, the snake might use different kinds of hides at different times even aside from temperature. For example, you might find that it prefers to be completely hidden while sleeping during the day, but moves to a more open hide that's better for lurking in the entrance of in the evening.

You will lose a fair amount of heat through the bottom of your cage if it is on a wire shelf. And not just where the UTH is, either. But that's easily corrected by sitting the entire cage on some insulating material such as foam insulation board or wood, etc. Again, your UTH should be on a thermostat and if it is, the heat will not build up. Also make sure that the substrate over the UTH is not too thick. You can even use just a paper towel in that spot, even if you use loose substrate everywhere else. The nice thing about a heavier clay hide is that it will hold the paper towel in place.

The thing about heat is, the more of it you can keep from escaping your enclosure, the less you need to keep adding, which means you can run your heat sources at lower power and lower temperatures, which is both cheaper and safer all around. If you're losing a lot of heat to the room, you need more wattage to keep the temperature up. So insulate under and around the tank, and run your UTH on lower power.