New bioactive update

[ThinkSta]

Hi all,

Thought I'd share a brief update to add to the small evidence base of experience with bioactive vivariums. Leo is a 15 month old BP, weighing 590g, and this is his 120cm (hopefully) forever viv.

The set up was finished shortly after Christmas and he's been in there about 2 weeks now. There are the normal clean up crew (springtails, woodlice and earthworms) and an "underground" hide at each end of the viv. Temps are at the appropriate levels, at 90f just below the RHP on one side, and a few degrees cooler on the other side. I have lights on (2 x jungle dawn LEDs) from 7am to 10pm and I reduce temps by 2 degrees overnight. Humidity is a little high at about 70-80 a lot of the time.

A couple of plants have been mashed and one is regularly slept on. I figured I'd put a load in there and see what survives snake /environment. Will need longer to assess outcomes from this.

Leo has explored thoroughly, and taken turns sleeping in a variety of spots although definitely prefers the hot side. He also prefers spending time on the surface or up high, although occasionally uses the hot side hide. He's eaten perfectly (twice so far) and is just about to shed. His interactions with the family (inc 3 small kids) are normal.

It's hard to know much how he feels beyond this, but so far it feels great being able to offer a natural (ish) habitat with interesting features and options for him to explore to sleep/bask. The viv is also a really nice looking feature in the house now, with "find Leo" being a good bonus game for the kids.

Cheers!

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[bex]

Beautiful! Leo is lucky. How is the viv working out? Any changes you would make? What kind of container/housing is Leo in?

[gunkle]

That looks great. Sounds like a really cool project for the family. Leo is a lucky snake

[ThinkSta]

An update now the enclosure is about 4 months old:

Leo appears to be very settled, eating like a champ (now 720g) and great shed last week. He regularly chills in a number of different locations in the viv, with his favourite being the raised Cork bark right underneath the heat panel (in full view on the left), and second favourite being out of sight at the back on the cool side (per the pics). The variety of locations actively used (as far as a BP can be described as active!) gives good evidence of the benefits of enrichment in my view.

Some plants have been squashed, and the fern was a bad idea, but other plants are thriving. I wonder whether the hot side will eventually lose most plant life, but I'll keep watering and we'll see. I had an issue with aphids and introduced a bunch of ladybirds as an experiment. This seemed to work temporarily although I think the ladybirds are now all gone and I saw an aphid yesterday.

Clean up crew are all ok, and appear to be doing good with waste (although I picked out most of an enormous dump last week).

The most annoying thing is that the doors mist up a little, I suspect due to the cool room vs hot viv. Probably not much I can do about this, although I would welcome any ideas.

Learning point for the next viv: Try to avoid fixed decor that the snake can loop around... Every now and then Leo is positioned in such a way that it's really difficult to remove him. This means that occasionally we don't get him out when we would otherwise like to. No biggie though, as it's handing power back to the pet, which I really don't mind!






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[TechnoCheese]

Beautiful enclosure!


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[AnnieHeart]

Love it!!