Decorations/Hides

[ArvadaLanee]

Hello, all. I was wondering if you could share with me how you like to decorate a BP enclosure, and what kind of hides you like to use. For our corn snakes, I like to make my own homemade hides. I use rocks, and toilet paper tubes, and all sorts of things to build little caves, castles, tunnels, and things like that. For now, I made hides for the BP using small, decorative gift boxes. They're round, and just the right size for her to curl up in, and feel nice and secure. Our corns love to climb, so I use driftwood, and make "trees," and use vines, and hang plastic plants from the top, and have hammocks, (which our boy adores,) but I'm not sure if BP's like to climb as much. Even though I make a lot of my decorations, I put a lot of stuff in the corn enclosures, and kind of make it like a forest. I even use different levels of substrate in places and put mosses, and different textures and things, in there. Do BP's enjoy a lot of decorations, for hiding and climbing and such, or is it better to use less for them? Are they fine with the homemade hides, or is there a reason to buy a certain type? How elaborate can I be with her set-up? Do they enjoy hiding in plants on the ground? Would a rock ledge or a hammock be good for her? I put a paper towel tube in her enclosure, and somehow she moved it so it was sticking up on an angle, and she was all stretched out in it, with just her head poking out the top, just chilling there. I thought that was adorable. Right now, she just has her warm hide, cool hide, one plant low to the ground, her paper towel tube, and a moist hide, filled with moist reptile moss. I'd like to get her more things and make her home as comfortable as possible, so any ideas would be appreciated. Thanks!

[Rob]

I like simplicity. Newspaper and two RBI hides on each end. Easy to clean and keeps husbandry simple.


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[Jon14]

It all depends on how much you want to clean I guess. If you don't mind the extra decor, your new BP would enjoy the various clutter to hide in. My BP seems to love artifical plants, and she knocks them off the walls so she can lay on or under them. Doesn't help her hides are a bit small, but I ordered some new ones from RBI.

[ArvadaLanee]

Okay. Thanks. It sounds like it's a matter of preference then? I tend to enjoy making the enclosures look nice, with lots of plants, and natural looking decorations. I just wanted to make sure that was fine for her, and wouldn't add stress or anything.

[Hypancistrus]

For small snakes I have dog-style water bowls, the kind that have the hidden space underneath. Many of my snakes love curling up in there, and the ones I bought from Ikea are big enough for even my adult colubrids to fit inside. I also use caves of various sorts. My ex used an old plastic drawer for our boa. He eventually outgrew it, but man he loved that thing.

[bcr229]

Okay. Thanks. It sounds like it's a matter of preference then? I tend to enjoy making the enclosures look nice, with lots of plants, and natural looking decorations. I just wanted to make sure that was fine for her, and wouldn't add stress or anything.

Nothing wrong with fake plants. If you go to craft stores they're usually much less expensive than the ones sold at pet shops. Just inspect them very carefully for protruding wire, sharp edges, any loops that your snake can get caught in, etc.

[Jon14]

Okay. Thanks. It sounds like it's a matter of preference then? I tend to enjoy making the enclosures look nice, with lots of plants, and natural looking decorations. I just wanted to make sure that was fine for her, and wouldn't add stress or anything.

If anything having clutter will help reduce stress especially in a young bp. Just make sure the artifical plants don't have small loops that she may become stuck in later on. As bcr posted above^

[ArvadaLanee]

I bought a bunch of plants and rocks and stuff from Hobby Lobby for our corns. I made some pretty cute stuff for them. I just have to remember how much heavier our little BP is. It's crazy how much heavier and stronger she is than the corns! I can't even imagine how it will be when she's an adult.

[cristacake]

May not be the best or most efficient way, but here is how I do Donuts' tub. I removed some flowers for the sake of showing the layout.



Flower bunches from the dollar store: $1 each is a great deal more economical than pet shop feauxliage (I just made that up! It's probably a thing already but I'm proud haha). Ignore the acurite readings, it obviously has some problems /: The other thermometer/hygrometer is under the darker pink flowers.

Here is how I keep them up off the ground and away from being dragged into the water bowl:



She only really climbed on them when I first gave them to her. They held up! They're even kind of hard to take out lol. I remove one or two before feeding so she has room to strike. They get washed weekly. I had leafy bunches but washing them kept making them lose leaves.



My hides aren't very fancy but she seems to love them. Not the prettiest but really easy to maintain- just throw them out whenever they get damp/soiled. And basically free since they're all from food I eat. The pic above, she's in a Raisin Bran box, cut to be shallow.

This was from her younger days. She loved the tube kind of feel to single-sleeve cracker boxes. Now she's just too big for them.



She seems pretty happy with her setup. She always has two different hides on each hot and cold side, so she can make the choice of where she wants to be without compromising either security or temperature.

[stickyalvinroll]

Waste of money imo