Life Hack for Giant Snakes

[bcr229]

tl;dr A child's sleeping bag is great for holding your giant snakes during enclosure cleaning.

I feel like a twit for not coming up with this idea sooner, but as they say, necessity is the mother of invention.

A few of my adult retics are housed in large enclosures on the first floor because the enclosures are just too big to be moved upstairs. Typically when these guys need cleaning it's a two person job, one to clean, and one to keep an eye on the snake as it is loose on the first floor (we kick the dogs out in the back yard or lock them in a bedroom during this time). Sure you can try - TRY - to stuff it into a VE-175 tub temporarily to secure it while you clean, but it's not easy.

Also, you'd think that an adult giant python would be happy just cruising around, glad for the chance to stretch out and roam a bit. Nope, they get into, under, or behind everything, because they want to hide behind the toilet, or behind the piano, or under the couch. In that respect they are no different than ball pythons.

So I figure... give the snake a secure place to hide for a few minutes and it will stay put and be happy. But what to use? No one makes snake bags that big, and even a king-sized pillow case is too small.

And then while cleaning out my daughter's room it hit me - her old sleeping bag. She has outgrown it and I was going to give it away, but I figured why not at least try to see if the retics would use it? So, it was put to the test today and I couldn't be happier. All three adult retics practically raced into the "cave" I created at the opening, they stayed calm and even more importantly they stayed put voluntarily through the cleaning process, and when I was done I simply unzipped it to open it, pointed the snake's nose back into its enclosure, and guided the snake back into its home. It also meant that two of us could work simultaneously which made the job go a lot faster.

[DLena]

That is the most amazing idea! Thank you for sharing. I’ve got to try it with my Cubans. They get into EVERYTHING! Crazy worms! Lol

[CALM Pythons]

Well I never had 3 giants to contend with so that sounds good if your taring down dor than one enclosures at a time. Id hate to have one of them mess in Bag though. Its hard to fit those sleeping bags in a washer lol. I always used the Bath tub. My Burm couldn't get enough of it.. He would come halfway out here & there but always went right back in & didn't want me to take him out


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[SDA]

Next time I am at a sporting good store I am going to ask if I can buy one of those little sample sleeping bags for my not so big snakes so I can pretend I have big snakes!

[bcr229]

Well I never had 3 giants to contend with so that sounds good if your taring down dor than one enclosures at a time. Id hate to have one of them mess in Bag though. Its hard to fit those sleeping bags in a washer lol. I always used the Bath tub. My Burm couldn't get enough of it.. He would come halfway out here & there but always went right back in & didn't want me to take him out

Fortunately no worries about the snake making a mess - it was just done in the enclosure!

[baldegale]

Next time I am at a sporting good store I am going to ask if I can buy one of those little sample sleeping bags for my not so big snakes so I can pretend I have big snakes!

they have em at walmart too


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[Sauzo]

What happens when the snake decides it wants to poop or piss in the sleeping bag lol? That is something i totally picture Caesar doing as i swear, he goes out of is way to make trouble, be it parking his keester over my bare foot and pissing on it and deciding to poop on the floor . But overall, a good idea. Lucky for me, Caesar is pretty happy to sit in his tub as he is only 7-8 feet still.

Bah!! I read farther down and seems someone already brought up the poop issue lol.

[CALM Pythons]

What happens when the snake decides it wants to poop or piss in the sleeping bag lol? That is something i totally picture Caesar doing as i swear, he goes out of is way to make trouble lol.

Thats what I was thinking. Aren't Tics known to Musk too Sauzo? Lol yuk


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[cchardwick]

I actually shelled out the money and bought a third enclosure for my two retics. It works fantastic, you can clean up the spare enclosure and move your snake just one time. And my enclosures are close enough so that you don't even have to pull out the whole snake, just guide his head to the empty enclosure and guide him along. Plus if you are in a hurry and your snake makes a mess you can simply move him to the clean spare enclosure and leave the mess until you have some extra time. I used to try to put them on the table or hold them and try to clean, that turns out to be a nightmare as they get bigger LOL.

[Prognathodon]

If you sew, or know somebody who does, you could make a giant pillowcase the size of a kid’s sleeping bag easily enough - two rectangles of denim or cotton duck, sew three sides together, and hem the third. Or if the width of the fabric is right for your target size, fold in half and just sew up the sides. No need for a zipper, but even that’s not too hard to do. Without the extra layers of fill and lining it’ll be much easier to wash and dry than a sleeping bag.

If I was using my standard everyday sewing machines I’d probably sew the seams twice, the second time an eighth inch or so away from the first. If I could get to my big industrial machine, once would do.

Big Duck Canvas Warehouse (bigduckcanvas.com) has multiple weights and widths of duck and canvas at good prices.

Note, if using cotton duck/canvas: Definitely pre-shrink - run it through the washer on hot/cold then in the dryer on high (and if you’re doing something else where shrinkage would be a problem, do it all a second and maybe a third time). I’d probably live dangerously and not pre-wash denim, since normal shrinkage with that is no biggie for something like a snake bag, where perfect fitting isn’t a thing.

Erm, my Opinionated Seamstress personality seems to have popped out.


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