24 Hour Cam Inside Enclosure

[Charles8088]

I was thinking of eventually putting a small video camera inside the snake enclosure, one with night vision.... so, that I could look in on her on occasion without disturbing her. Anyone here do anything similar? Any pros or cons? Night vision has that infrared light always on... think that would stress the snake?

[skiajl6297]

While I did not put the cam inside the enclosure, I have had a Nest cam directly pointed at the front glass of our enclosure for Goldie's first several weeks with us. So far without any adverse effects. It is incredibly interesting to see their behavior without bothering them, and to learn patterns to timing, movement, shed process and behavior (or lack thereof), drinking, yawns, etc. Bottom line, in my very short experience with my very first snake, having a cam with IR recording has been a blast and very informative, allowing for a feeling of knowing what is happening at any time with minimal disruption to the snake. Good luck!

[Charles8088]

They have the BLINK cameras and the ARLO cameras which are pretty cool... they're wireless and battery-operated. Would be handy to just drop one in there. However, have to read up a little more on it... I think the BLINK can only be set to activate with motion-detection (not able to just turn it on at will, or leave it on 24 hours)... and the ARLO may be the same. Actually... for a battery-operated camera, 24 hour operation probably isn't good anyways. And, the next issue with these cameras, if they were to work, would be if dropping them in the enclosure would be too close to properly focus. Your Nest cam probably works pretty good with that, not being in the enclosure.

[Randall L Turner Jr]

I've known many people who have set up this sort of thing when they had a female about to lay, or a pair breeding etc. Never seemed to adversely effect the animals. I many many years ago (back around 2008 or so) removed the filter from an old camcorder to make it an IR camcorder for the purpose of checking on animals without turning lights on, never seemed to bother them.

[zina10]

Someone on a facebook group I belong to did that.

Its to funny. He had about 20 hours of nothing, then the snake came out and with the tail towards the camera went #1 and #2. LOL. Then it went back into the hide.

[Charles8088]

Someone on a facebook group I belong to did that.

Its to funny. He had about 20 hours of nothing, then the snake came out and with the tail towards the camera went #1 and #2. LOL. Then it went back into the hide.

Yep, sounds funny. But, man, how cool is that if set up correctly. And, with the right set up, you can log in and view from anywhere, via the phone.

[Craiga 01453]

I honestly know nothing about these cameras, so this may not even be a concern, but...

would the humidity inside the enclosure be an issue if you decided to put the camera in the enclosure?

Sorry if I'm way of base, but that was one concern that popped into my head. I'm guessing the cameras are made to handle that though?

[Polemarchus]

I've also been contemplating this idea and came across some pretty awesome pan & tilt cameras that would look great. You can control them from your phone or have them lock and track what's moving. My only concern with that type is that they're substantially larger than the static ones. I go away most weekends and am currently looking for a method to keep an eye on cage conditions while I am gone in case I need to come back a little early. If you find something that works well, I'd be thrilled to hear about it. I have set up a time lapse video inside the enclosure before and it's pretty funny to watch him get up to no good. Compressing the whole night into a short clip is great.

[Charles8088]

I honestly know nothing about these cameras, so this may not even be a concern, but...

would the humidity inside the enclosure be an issue if you decided to put the camera in the enclosure?

Sorry if I'm way of base, but that was one concern that popped into my head. I'm guessing the cameras are made to handle that though?

Not sure about the humidity... but, anything I would use would definitely something be a camera intended for outdoors, or one with a covering of sorts.Probably outdoors would work good.

[Charles8088]

I've also been contemplating this idea and came across some pretty awesome pan & tilt cameras that would look great. You can control them from your phone or have them lock and track what's moving. My only concern with that type is that they're substantially larger than the static ones. I go away most weekends and am currently looking for a method to keep an eye on cage conditions while I am gone in case I need to come back a little early. If you find something that works well, I'd be thrilled to hear about it. I have set up a time lapse video inside the enclosure before and it's pretty funny to watch him get up to no good. Compressing the whole night into a short clip is great.

Or.... they have those dome cameras with the tilt and zoom, can probably be affixed to the top (maybe harder on a glass tank). But, for me, I'd probably be satisfied with like a wide-angle static camera. Something like a GoPro would probably work great... though a little pricey for this project. And, not sure if they can be remotely controlled.

As soon as I get my enclosure all set up, and all other things within working, and a happy snake, THEN I'll start playing with some ideas. Will be cool.