More natural set up?

I got a pretty decent sized furniture I am wanting to build in to a snake cage. And use a more natural setup with like maybe a top soil and problely grass (since they are from grasslands). The enclosuse is aprox 4'.x3.5'x4'. And will end up being for a normal adult female.

Next time on the computer, im gonna draw up plans, and put it up here. I am just wondering what would be safe what kinda vegitation and what kind of soil would be safe

I think some problems you are going to run into are...

What lighting are you going to use? Most grasses require high lighting.

How are you going to keep the humidity down with watering the plants?

How are you going to remove excess water (water bowl spill etc)

How are you going to be able to properly clean the area?

I am not 100% sure of locality, but I would imagine that the grasslands they are from are pretty dry and the soil very compact. This is going to be hard to replicate.

I would get some nice fake plants that I can bleach every once and a while and then try to replicate the soil.

You may be able to use potted plants which you rotate in and out of the enclosure. I know a lot of zoos do this.

If you can work out those problems then you will have a really nice vivarium for her.

I used to have a vivarium setup. Here's how I did it.

Put 1-2 inches of pea gravel at the bottom of the tank for drainage.
Put a piece of window screen over the gravel, cut to fit.
Put some potting soil (without fertilizers) in.
Put cypress mulch on top of that (optional).

Plants you can use that don't require much light include Ivy, Pothos, Dracaena, and various Ferns. Make sure the soil is deep enough for the plants to have room for root growth.

Water every two days, and stir the soil at least once a week to prevent fungus and bacteria growth. Make sure you spot clean to remove feces and urates.

You can add a full spectrum light for the plants, but even indirect light from a window in the room should be enough for the species I mentioned.

Keep in mind that your ball python will likely crush the plants as it gets older and heavier, so you may need to replace them on a semi regular basis.

Yeah I have that about the fake plants but still using soil...

Not trying to give you a hard time but this just ain't gonna work.

They live in rodent burrows and termite mounds in the wild. What appears natural to you, isn't natural to them.

Do you understand how much liquid an adult can release when she goes? The setup you are trying to do would be a discusting stinky mess in a very short period of time, and would be a nightmare to clean.

the only way an enclosure this size can work is to go all the way or not at all. Either use a full bio-organic set up or a simulated one simulated ones will need to be shorter for sure and stick with conventional systems doing halfway alive substrate just is not going to work.

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Originally Posted by kitedemon

the only way an enclosure this size can work is to go all the way or not at all. Either use a full bio-organic set up or a simulated one simulated ones will need to be shorter for sure and stick with conventional systems doing halfway alive substrate just is not going to work.

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Ok im thinking not doing living plant but may memic artificial grass, us a realistic looking hide wich maybe a cave coverd in the substrate. For waterdish using one of the corner water dishes having like a little rock formatoin. But if I didnt use soil what would be a more natural looking substrate other then aspin (i despise aspin shavings, such a miss to clean up when it gets on carpet)

Here are some pics of a "fake" naturalistic setup that I used briefly.

http://i748.photobucket.com/albums/x...o/HPIM2010.jpg

http://i748.photobucket.com/albums/x...o/HPIM2013.jpg

http://i748.photobucket.com/albums/x...o/HPIM2035.jpg

Substrate is cypress mulch, plants are silk, the log and hide are plastic, and the water dish is also plastic. There's a sandstone rock over the heat pad because it transmits heat pretty well.

Now as I'm sure many people would say, this isn't an IDEAL habitat for a ball python. It does, however, work.

You can always put leaf litter on top of whatever substrate you want to use. That will hide it and make it a little more natural.

Thats nice but what I am turning into a cage is a dresser that im removing the drawers out. So im going for a look of their native habitat