Vivarium Idea - Safe?

[Reznor]

Hi there! First post.

So, I went to an event held by the local Reptile Club and while I was there, I entered the raffle. I won a male Ball Python I have called Reznor and what I believe to be a 20 gallon long for him. I had considered getting a Ball Python and was overjoyed when I won him.

Now I am thinking of redoing his tank and I have an idea for it, but I want to make sure is is safe for Reznor before I do it.
For the substrate, I think I want to use Eco Earth. I do not feed in his tank (to avoid tank aggression) so the bedding getting into his food will not be an issue. Is it still safe for him? He likes to burrow a lot - is this going to be a problem?

The other thing I wanted to do was have a small pond with a pump in place of a water dish. Rez can swim quite well and the pond would be shallow, so drowning doesn't worry me. What does worry me is that it will take up too much space. What do you guys think?

Other things to consider: I have a rock hide (which he loves) and he's on a heat pad.

Any help is much appreciated!

~ Liz

[dr del]

Hi,

Congrats on your new BP

Cage aggression really isn't a problem with ball pythons - in fact you are more likely to be bitten when moving a BP in feeding mode from his eating container back into his normal enclosure.

The main worry I have with your plans for a naturalistic environment are cleaning and vibrations from the pump.

I have no doubt it can be done though - it'll just be a lot harder to setup correctly and maintain.

How were you thinking of stopping the water turning the whole substrate into mud?

It's important to make sure the substrate is never kept wet as this can lead to scale rot as well as mould etc.

I would also say that for the first 30 days (and probably for a couple of months ) at least you will want to keep the enclosure simple to monitor for problems like mites, check out his poop looks normal and get him started on a good feeding regime.

I would keep everything as simple as possible during this period so paper towel or newspaper as a substrate, a small waterbowl and a nice, dark, tight fitting hide at each end of the temperature zone.


dr del

[anatess]

And added to the good advice Derek gave...

20L tank is a wee bit too big for a baby ball python, so you can clutter it up with fake vines or even just crumpled newspaper to get the "ceiling" covered up and make it more cozy.

You can achieve naturalistic vivarium in a simplified manner. The thing I always consider when decorating my vivs is that I can take everything out and put everything back in at least once a month (I do mine once a week). This allows you to completely clean out your tank from feces and urates. Moving water is really cool, I've tried it before but it presents too many problems when cleaning the tank out so I ditched it.

Here's an old picture of when my ball python was a baby in a 10 gal tank:


With that vivarium - I can take everything out, dump the cypress substrate, wipe the glass down with reptile habitat cleaner, and put new substrate and everything else back in, in under 30 minutes.

And as you can see, everything is cramped in there - with a background that blacks out the glass from the back and hanging vines that blocks the sides and a block of wood that provides "ceiling cover" when she wants to take a drink or transfer from one hide to the other. Gets the baby feeling very secure.

It is heated by a heat mat taped to the outside bottom of the tank with a temperature inside the hide that is sitting on top of the heat mat set at 90. The room temp is 80. Humidity runs around 50-70% with the big water bowl sitting halfway on the heat mat.

I feed my snake in a feed box, not to minimize cage agression (that's a myth), but because I feed live rat - I can't have the rat running around in that set-up pooping all over and finding good hiding spots. So, I feed my snake in a separate container at the same time that I clean out the viv.

Hope this helps.

[anatess]

P.S.

Eco Earth is okay to use for substrate.

[blushingball419]

First of all, congrats on your new bp and awesome choice for a name!! I'm actually planning on using the same name for one of my snakes at some point.

To reiterate what was already said, feeding related cage aggression shouldn't be a problem. I feed all of my snakes in their enclosures and I've never had a problem. As long as you handle him a couple other times during the week, he won't associate his cage opening with food, and they mainly go by smell anyway. I also use aspen and eco earth coco fiber as substrates and I've never had a problem with that either. If you think about it, they eat off of dirt in the wild all the time, so their bodies are meant to handle it. I would be more worried if he got a mouthful of aspen, but even that probably wouldn't be too much of an issue. I would definitely recommend that you use eco earth as well since you're using a tank, and I've found that it holds humidity the best. And no, him burrowing in it is perfectly fine, and if he has some good hides he shouldn't want to burrow much at all (I noticed you said you only had one hide for him, he should have 2, one on each side of the tank).

I would also advise against making a "pond" for him. In my opinion, I think it would be difficult to clean and maintain, and you would just be making more work for yourself. They do like a big enough water dish to soak in every once and awhile, but even though they can swim it doesn't mean they enjoy it. Obviously it's up to you though

Good luck with your little guy!!

[Reznor]

Hi,

Congrats on your new BP

Cage aggression really isn't a problem with ball pythons - in fact you are more likely to be bitten when moving a BP in feeding mode from his eating container back into his normal enclosure.

The main worry I have with your plans for a naturalistic environment are cleaning and vibrations from the pump.

I have no doubt it can be done though - it'll just be a lot harder to setup correctly and maintain.

How were you thinking of stopping the water turning the whole substrate into mud?

It's important to make sure the substrate is never kept wet as this can lead to scale rot as well as mould etc.

I would also say that for the first 30 days (and probably for a couple of months ) at least you will want to keep the enclosure simple to monitor for problems like mites, check out his poop looks normal and get him started on a good feeding regime.

I would keep everything as simple as possible during this period so paper towel or newspaper as a substrate, a small waterbowl and a nice, dark, tight fitting hide at each end of the temperature zone.


dr del

Heh, now that I've stopped to work everything out, I realize two things: The last time I set up a viv like this, I had dart frogs in mind and had to keep the viv humid and wet. Not a good idea for a snake.
There was then the fact that I realized that a pump could not work with his tank - it's a slide top. XD There'd be no way to get the cord to the pump to an outlet without leaving the top open a little, and Rez has already tried sliding it open already.

And added to the good advice Derek gave...

20L tank is a wee bit too big for a baby ball python, so you can clutter it up with fake vines or even just crumpled newspaper to get the "ceiling" covered up and make it more cozy.

You can achieve naturalistic vivarium in a simplified manner. The thing I always consider when decorating my vivs is that I can take everything out and put everything back in at least once a month (I do mine once a week). This allows you to completely clean out your tank from feces and urates. Moving water is really cool, I've tried it before but it presents too many problems when cleaning the tank out so I ditched it.

Here's an old picture of when my ball python was a baby in a 10 gal tank:


With that vivarium - I can take everything out, dump the cypress substrate, wipe the glass down with reptile habitat cleaner, and put new substrate and everything else back in, in under 30 minutes.

And as you can see, everything is cramped in there - with a background that blacks out the glass from the back and hanging vines that blocks the sides and a block of wood that provides "ceiling cover" when she wants to take a drink or transfer from one hide to the other. Gets the baby feeling very secure.

It is heated by a heat mat taped to the outside bottom of the tank with a temperature inside the hide that is sitting on top of the heat mat set at 90. The room temp is 80. Humidity runs around 50-70% with the big water bowl sitting halfway on the heat mat.

I feed my snake in a feed box, not to minimize cage agression (that's a myth), but because I feed live rat - I can't have the rat running around in that set-up pooping all over and finding good hiding spots. So, I feed my snake in a separate container at the same time that I clean out the viv.

Hope this helps.

Very cool tank!
Rez isn't tiny, though he's got a ways to go before he's an adult. I'd put him at just over a foot long (tried measuring him, but he doesn't like to hold still, LOL), but I will definitely follow your advice and give him a more cluttered look to his tank.

Ooh, your BP looks like it's an Albino - very pretty! Reznor is supposedly an Albino Het - I see a girlfriend in his future.

P.S.

Eco Earth is okay to use for substrate.

Awesome! I prefer Eco Earth - nice and soft.

First of all, congrats on your new bp and awesome choice for a name!! I'm actually planning on using the same name for one of my snakes at some point.

To reiterate what was already said, feeding related cage aggression shouldn't be a problem. I feed all of my snakes in their enclosures and I've never had a problem. As long as you handle him a couple other times during the week, he won't associate his cage opening with food, and they mainly go by smell anyway. I also use aspen and eco earth coco fiber as substrates and I've never had a problem with that either. If you think about it, they eat off of dirt in the wild all the time, so their bodies are meant to handle it. I would be more worried if he got a mouthful of aspen, but even that probably wouldn't be too much of an issue. I would definitely recommend that you use eco earth as well since you're using a tank, and I've found that it holds humidity the best. And no, him burrowing in it is perfectly fine, and if he has some good hides he shouldn't want to burrow much at all (I noticed you said you only had one hide for him, he should have 2, one on each side of the tank).

I would also advise against making a "pond" for him. In my opinion, I think it would be difficult to clean and maintain, and you would just be making more work for yourself. They do like a big enough water dish to soak in every once and awhile, but even though they can swim it doesn't mean they enjoy it. Obviously it's up to you though

Good luck with your little guy!!

Thank you! I'm glad you like the name - it's the first one that popped in my head when I first saw him.

I handle Rez every day, except before and 24 hours after he eats. So far he's pretty tame a curious about everything - so cute.

I do need to find a second hide for him, yeah.Originally I had his rock hide and a small half log, but the log was too small for him. I'll look through my reptile supplies and see if I can find anything.
So due to pump issues, the pond is not an option, lol. However, I've seen some really pretty water bowls, so I'll have to grab one as well as another hide for him.

Thanks to everyone! You've helped me out a lot. ^.^

~ Liz

[anatess]

Ooh, your BP looks like it's an Albino - very pretty! Reznor is supposedly an Albino Het - I see a girlfriend in his future.
~ Liz

She's a cutie. She's a 2008, so she's breedable size now 1600g last I checked. Never tried breeding her, though. She's still a shy virgin. LOL.

Crazy thing with my kids - they "marry off" the snakes. So they refused to put our breedable male to her because he's "married" to the female pastel. LOL.

So yeah, wedding bells next year! That is, if your cutie travels to Florida.



And about the hide... there's a DIY homemade hide in the DIY section of the forum. I've made one before and it's pretty cool. It's basically home-made playdough shaped to form a hide that you can jazz up to match your decor. Maybe you can try it and see if it works for you.

[Reznor]

She's a cutie. She's a 2008, so she's breedable size now 1600g last I checked. Never tried breeding her, though. She's still a shy virgin. LOL.

Crazy thing with my kids - they "marry off" the snakes. So they refused to put our breedable male to her because he's "married" to the female pastel. LOL.

So yeah, wedding bells next year! That is, if your cutie travels to Florida.



And about the hide... there's a DIY homemade hide in the DIY section of the forum. I've made one before and it's pretty cool. It's basically home-made playdough shaped to form a hide that you can jazz up to match your decor. Maybe you can try it and see if it works for you.

I must say, I have never heard of a reptile marriage. Sounds.... weird. Very weird. XD

I wish I was close enough, but I'm in Cali lol. When I get my own apartment (living with mum ATM) I plan on finding him a girlfriend, hehe. I have a close friend who breeds BPs, and I really hope he produces a Spider. I LOVE spiders. XD Originally I was going to buy my first BP from him, but the raffle tickets decided Reznor was mine.

I will definitely check the hide thing out! I just put some Eco Earth in his tank today - he seemed... curious and pretty fascinated lol. He wouldn't stop burrowing in it and sniffing it. So funny to watch.

Thanks again!
~ Liz

[Jared2608]

I wish I could win a BP, lol!! Not to hijack, but do you guys the dry eco earth in a bag, or do you buy the bricks?? I was worried that the bricks would be too wet when you prepare them, and that would make scale rot?

[Reznor]

I wish I could win a BP, lol!! Not to hijack, but do you guys the dry eco earth in a bag, or do you buy the bricks?? I was worried that the bricks would be too wet when you prepare them, and that would make scale rot?

The stuff I used for Rez was the dry bagged stuff, yeah. For my Geckos, I use the bricks because they need the humidity, but not for Reznor, Too paranoid, lol!