Enclosure Opinions.. Dangerous Rock?

[Dorikin350Z]

Hey guys, I recently picked up my first BP at Atlanta Repticon a few weeks ago, a beautiful female Spider named Gaea. I believe she’s around 8 months old and seems quite healthy, looks like she should maybe gain a little weight so I’ve been feeding her medium f/t mice every 5 days. She’s great with being handled and feeds with no issue. I am a college student on a budget, so I wanted to get everything I could for cheap, while spending my money on the important stuff, so I bought her 20L tank from a guy on letgo, sanitized it as thoroughly as I could and spent my money on flexwatt, thermostat, day/night lamps. The tank used to house a bearded dragon, and as you can see, had been fitted with faux rock along 3 sides of the enclosure with two large pockets in either corner as well as a narrow one in the back, presumably to hold plants. I filled these pockets with substrate in the bottom, and despite the nicely regulated heat tape under her cave, she almost exclusively moves between the left and right pockets curled up. I assume this is because the cave is too large for her?

I am concerned about the jagged rocks, none of them are particularly sharp but they are quite rough, and I’m worried about her injuring herself. I handle her daily and inspect her and have yet to find a single imperfection on her, but I wanted to get you all’s advice as this is my first BP. It is inconvenient because I really cannot get her out of these pockets because she presses herself against the walls if i reach for her in there, so I just leave her alone until she moves because I’d never drag her across those rocks. She loves to climb across the branches and moves back and forth between the left, middle, and right pockets and I almost never see her on the floor of the tank except for after feeding when she’ll sit in her cave for the rest of the day, never touching it otherwise. This seems weird to me, but basically I just want some input, and hope I won’t need to purchase a new tank, but obviously would be happy to if you guys think this is unsafe for her. Here are some photos




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[Dorikin350Z]

I’m also switching to reptibark in the next day or two, I couldn’t really keep it humid enough in there with the aspen and had to soak her and help her shed last week and hope she’ll be able to handle it on her own with the reptibark bumping the humidity. I’d also like to point out that I have since covered that exposed metal mesh in the pocket with clay and increased the level of substrate in there. I also moved the thermostat probe to the outside of the tank between the heat tape and the glass in the center instead of inside the tank as seen in the photo.

p.s. yes that’s a mini-fridge the tank is sitting on, no it’s not plugged in searching for another piece of furniture to put her on but this is my temporary solution

[distaff]

I like the rock, but I can't verify safety from the photo.

As long as your BP can't get wedged in and stuck, can't crawl up behind anything and get stuck, as long as there are no pokey wires or sharp edges sticking out ...it should be fine. ( I would snip off that one vertical pokey bit of stick if it were my enclosure.)

Snakes have all day to think of ways to get into trouble - in ways you would never imagine.

[SquirmyPug]

I like the rock, but I can't verify safety from the photo.

I like it too, kinda wish I had something like it. I don't think it will be a problem, just make sure there's nothing that feels too sharp to you.

If you don't like that the snake can get in where you're unable to take her out then just remove it.

[Dianne]

It doesn’t look like it would hurt anything, as long as there are no sharp edges. You could try sanding it to smooth it out some, or adding more clay in areas you feel are too sharp or have exposed wire.

[Dorikin350Z]

Thank you guys for the input, I’m glad to hear it. I really like the look of it and like I said she seems to love it, I just haven’t seen anyone with an enclosure like this for their BP so I wasn’t sure if the roughness would be an issue. When I go to swap out the substrate I’ll go over all the rock and try to get rid of any of the sharper edges I can find. I don’t really have a problem with not being able to get her out of the left pocket (the right side one I can easily get her out of), because it’s her home afterall so I’m happy to be polite and wait on her to come out on her own.


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[Dorikin350Z]

I will probably have to just fill those up and maybe put some more faux plants in them when she gets bigger, wouldn’t want her squeezing herself across the rock too hard to get in and out when she gets big enough to fill those up completely

[VereMyth]

Thank you guys for the input, I’m glad to hear it. I really like the look of it and like I said she seems to love it, I just haven’t seen anyone with an enclosure like this for their BP so I wasn’t sure if the roughness would be an issue. When I go to swap out the substrate I’ll go over all the rock and try to get rid of any of the sharper edges I can find. I don’t really have a problem with not being able to get her out of the left pocket (the right side one I can easily get her out of), because it’s her home after all so I’m happy to be polite and wait on her to come out on her own.


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With such a lovely and understanding owner this noodle might just glitter with gold from the pampering LOL. That is a good thing, like many others have said the enclosure looks good. If your worried just sand over or add clay to get rid of the sharper edges.

She looks lovely.

[Dorikin350Z]

With such a lovely and understanding owner this noodle might just glitter with gold from the pampering LOL. That is a good thing, like many others have said the enclosure looks good. If your worried just sand over or add clay to get rid of the sharper edges.

She looks lovely.

Well I have wanted to own a snake since I knew what snakes were, but had to wait for 15+ years because my parents hate snakes (they are alot more accepting now that they’ve seen how sweet she is), so I treat her like a princess haha. Thank you! I didn’t know about the “wobble” in the spider morph until after I bought her, but she’s never shown any sign of it which I’m grateful for.