alternative hides

we have switched from the corkbark hides to something more generic (we are dealing with mites right now and the corkbark seems to ba a haven for those darn creatures). so we cut out a hole in one of our plastic containers. for some reason, vernon has not taken to it. he hides out in the back of this. any other ideas for an alternative hide?

ed

Yep if you have mites you want your enclosure easy to clean. If no one has mentioned it get some Provent-A-Mite....use it exactly as intended as it's VERY strong stuff but there's simply nothing better to get rid of mites efficiently.

Basically what you want in a hide Ed is easy of cleaning, sturdy so the snake can't shove it around too much, very snug so it's barely bigger than your snake when it's curled up, dark in color, small entrance either on top or on the side. We've always found that our snakes thermoregulate best if both hides are identical in every way. If not they can and will pick a favorite hide then stay in it even if it's not the best thing for them to be doing.

It may be your snake is just not used to the new hide yet. They can be picky that way. Also check your temps inside the warm side hide. Sometimes depending on the construction of a hide it can build up a fair bit of heat inside the warm side hide and make the snake less than comfy in there. You may need to try a few hides to find the one your snake will use. We use everything from terracott planter saucers, to dark blue plastic cereal bowls to big black rubber dog dishes....cheap, easily to clean and the snakes love em! There are a lot of folks on here that use plastic planter saucers from Wally World that are dirt cheap and work like a charm! Jamie Glass I believe (jglass38) has pics of some so check out his threads for those.

Use the search function using the word hides and I believe you should find a fair few threads with some pics to give you ideas on hides.

I take no credit for the plastic flower pot bottom hides. Its all Adam and Vaughn. :) I got mine at Walmart (they seem to be the only place around here that sells them). They are sold separately from the flower pots and come in various sizes. Cost is between .40 and about 1.50 depending on the size. Go get yourself a 2" holesaw and itll make a perfect hole in the top for them to enter and exit. As Jo said, you want to get the smallest possible size that they can cram their bodies into. There are sizes that will be suitable for hatchlings all the way up to large females. Here are a few pics for size comparison. The first is a 500 gram male, the second is a 1200 gram male and the third is a 2300 gram female. So you can find them in all sizes! Hope this helps!

http://www.glassreptiles.com/pictures/2006/hidepic1.jpg
http://www.glassreptiles.com/pictures/2006/hidepic2.jpg
http://www.glassreptiles.com/pictures/2006/hidepic3.jpg

Been there, sorry to here, if you have any wood pieces you don't want to throw away, I had a half round when we had mites. Bake in the oven at 300 for 1 hr, no more critters.


Good luck gettin rid of them buggers!

oh yeah, strictly paper and plastic til the bugs are gone.

thanks for the tips everyone. i will keep a lookout for those flower pots. as for provent a mite, there is a reptile expo this weekend here in toronto (yahoo!!!) and i will look for some there. mites are a big blasted problem!!!! poor vernon is getting stressed out too from his betadine baths.

ed