Building Block Hides

Hey all

Was wondering if anyone has thought of, or has used kiddies building blocks to make a hide?

I used to be crazy over Lego when I was a youngster and loved building spaceships and building etc. The other day I was thinking back to my youth when I remembered my Lego and thought about using Lego or other building blocks to make a hide.

The main thinking behind it is that as your snake grows you can build it a bigger hide by adding few blocks. Now I believe that Lego these days don't come too cheap but if you made the initial outlay on a pile of building blocks then you'd have infinite flexibility, not to mention creativity.

I know that I've struggled to find hides that my balls can squeeze tightly into, they tend to be too small or too large and when my balls do fit snuggly then it is only for a few months until the grow bigger.

Maybe this would solve that problem:confused::D

you can do the same thing with plywood and 1x6's for way cheaper then legos.

How would that work?

Can you elaborate a bit for me pls:gj:

The only problem I see with the Bulding Blocks is at the time of cleaning. You will have to take it appart to make sure its clean .

well if you use legos i think a soak in some bleach water (10% by volume) would be okay for sterilizing. they aren't water tight when put together so the bleach water would get all in it. just make sure to rinse really well.....i would do another soak in regular water

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Originally Posted by Bundu Boy

How would that work?

Can you elaborate a bit for me pls:gj:

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Take the 1x6 and rip it down to the desired size. Usually the diameter of the snake plus half an inch. Make 4 of these to the length you want the hide to be.
Cut out a square or rectangle from a piece of plywood.
Glue and screw the 1x6's and make it look like a little house.
Next you want to waterproof the wood for easier cleaning. I use fiberglass resin for its long lasting durability and its awesome shinieness.

I know what you mean by outgrowing their hides! Someone posted a thread re: making hides with flour playdough I tried it and it works just fine my phoebe loves her hides here are a couple pics

https://ball-pythons.net/gallery/fil...ide2_thumb.jpg


Shes loves her hides

https://ball-pythons.net/gallery/fil...hide_thumb.jpg

do those palydough hides weigh a lot or are they pretty light? ive been wanting to try them for my larger girls but im worried about the wieght of them.

Hey, actually they don't 'bout the same maybe as the rock looking ones, one of these if you're in this part of town you need to stop be and check em out.

Hehe, this thread is worthless without pictures! I'm just kidding I'd love to see a lego hide though.

I say do it up man. As long as you pay attention to sanitizing it well on a regular basis it should work fine. There are a lot of nooks and crannies for bacteria to get into but a good bleach solution soak should take care of it.

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Originally Posted by Lucas339

well if you use legos i think a soak in some bleach water (10% by volume) would be okay for sterilizing. they aren't water tight when put together so the bleach water would get all in it. just make sure to rinse really well.....i would do another soak in regular water

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Standard Clorox is only 6.15 percent NaClO by volume. 5% by volume for thirty minues is recomended for killing bacteria.

Once you get the hide built you could use superglue to seal it, and let it dry for several days so you do not have to worry about off gasing.

man, I have a ton of old legos sitting around too, that's a pretty cool idea

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Originally Posted by Typical_08

Standard Clorox is only 6.15 percent NaClO by volume. 5% by volume for thirty minues is recomended for killing bacteria.

Once you get the hide built you could use superglue to seal it, and let it dry for several days so you do not have to worry about off gasing.

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i didn't know this. they still recomend you dilute it by 10% when using it for cleaning.

They do that to keep the ambient particle rate well below the LCT/50 of 200 ppm. It makes it so people who are not smart enough to do it in a ventilated area, or fail to leave to another area while the solution soaks are unable to kill themselves by inhaling too much.

If you take a look at the back of a Clorox container you will see a table at the bottom, it tells you that ½ oz of the solution in one gal of water will give you 200ppm. That is not 200ppm of NaCIO that is 200ppm of Clorox’s mix. Call it a CYA thing.

By diluting it to 10 parts water, one part Clorox (different mixes can be seen on the back of the container), it makes it so you would pretty much have to drink it to kill yourself. Unfortunately that low of a percentage of NaCIO will not kill some forms of bacteria. Which is why the recommend a 2400ppm mix to kill off blood and bodily fluids, and then autoclave it (talking about hospitals and what not).

Sodium hypoclorite is an odd creature. You can smell it at 3.5ppm, but has a LCT/50 of 200ppm (Lethal concentration over time, that time being thirty minutes, in 50% of those exposed). And an initial (lethal dose) is about a thousand ppm, meaning it can be lethal after only a few breaths at that level. A 10% mix, in a decent sized room with an open door could give you about 100ppm by mopping on a hot day, but even that is streaching it. PPM will be lower if it is suspended in a bucket because evaporation will be slower if it were spread on the ground in a bleach water mix. But we will not be getting these types of concentrations from normal household bleach unless something odd happens like they throw it on a hot surface and it flash boils, or something as equally as dumb.

But anyway. If you feel unsafe using the percentage I mentioned, go ahead and use their recommended mixes, but let it soak for a longer period of time.

wow are you a chemist? i think i'll switch to a 5% solution after reading your response.

Nope. A little bit of my time in the Corps has been spent as a CBRN guy.

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Originally Posted by Typical_08

Nope. A little bit of my time in the Corps has been spent as a CBRN guy.

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:salute::salute::salute::salute::salute::salute:

So will it make my soon-to-be lego hide cleaner quicker?

I actually have not heard of the chemicals you guys are talking about, here in South Africa I'm using something called F10CLXD (Quaternary ammonium and biguanidine compounds 1.16% non-toxic ampholytic surfactants and sequesterants/detergents)

Says on the back that it takes 2 minutes for bacteria at 1:200 dilution, the longest time and highest concentration is for Bacillis subtilis spores and parvovirus , 30 minutes at 1:25 dilution.

Don't know the technicals but it keeps my cages, bowls hides clean and fresh smelling:gj:

I don't really have much experience with quats. We don't use either in our decon processes because it is ineffective against endospores, mycobacterium tuberculosis, lipid-containing viruses, and pseudomonas spp. And they are deactivated by soaps and anionic detergents and some organic compounds.

Quats shouldn't be killing any type of Bacillis because they have such a robust endospore. Unless my brain is backfiring or something.

Sorry for the double post, I ran out of time to edit while I was bashing my head on the desk.

Using some types of antiseptics (biguanidine) may be why you get results against some things when used in conjunction with the quat.

The chemicals compound I was talking about was just regurlar old sodium hypochlorite. It may take longer on some types of bacteria than some antiseptics, but it kills absolutly every type. So in the end I believe it is more cost effective.