Pat the baby biak green tree python

[Sauzo]

Pretty cool that Pat comes down from his perch to use the toilet!

I totally understand the advantage of keeping enclosures basic and not display tanks. For all the reasons I mentioned, as well as the destruction factor! Caesar seems to get himself in a lot of trouble, huh? Vines, stuck teeth, etc.

My BP, Shayna, likes to climb, and hide, etc. but is not good at the climbing and does just fine with plastic hides. My RHP's in the new 6X2X1 boaphile tanks are covered with plastic on the sides, so the snakes cannot climb on them.

In Shayna's first enclosure (after she outgrew the ten gallon), a 4X2X2', I installed the RHP myself. No way she could get on that thing, she's too big! Well, she managed to get stuck/wrapped around the RHP (which of course was on a thermostat and not too hot) and in between the bolts/screws! That was a fun bonding moment for us too, unbolting the RHP to get her down. She is sooooooo tame though. She just sat and watched me. I learned my lesson quick. So, I sealed the holes between the bolts and, for a short period, before she got too big, she would climb up and wrap around the whole thing. I would randomly hear "thump" in the night when she feel a few inches down.

Anyway, most snakes do not exactly respect their environment. They will waste on everything, wrap anything, pull anything, and escape from anything, if possible! Plus, the bigger they are, the more damage they are capable of! A snake that can eat a rabbit can probably destroy anything we put in there, even if they weren't trying.

I will give my Leopard Geckos credit, they always poop in the same spot (well, 99% of the time). Very easy to clean their tanks! Also a big poop from them is penny sized! Frank, the BTS, usually goes on the hot side of his tank, but often and there is a lot. So, no bonus there.

Thanks for showing off your display tank Sauzo, and for being honest about not having all the tanks looking that cool!

I think sometimes people forget we care how the tanks look more than the reptiles most of the time.

A reptile checklist is pretty simple:

1. Heat (and proper temps)?
2. Humidity correct?
3. Hides (am I safe)?
4. Correct food?
5. Clean?

I don't think good looking enclosure is on there!

Haha yeah Caesar is by far the biggest trouble maker of the bunch. Ironically, the second one is probably Dottie my pied BP. She likes to sit on her shelf but sometimes she falls off and i hear the thud too. A few times she fell in her water dish so you hear a half thud/splash which is real fun as water splashes all over the front of the sliding doors. The boas are actually pretty good for the most part but yeah, them and the other snakes will bulldoze anything neat you put in the cage.

And yeah, i usually dont do the whole display cages as i believe in the checklist too. Plus keeping it simple makes cleaning and spotting problems a lot easier. Pat is different but it still is fairly simple. I dont use a substrate for the flooring for the the simple reason of paper towels is easier to spot poops and piss. I might switch him to something like Reptichips when he moves to his PVC cage as his poops and pisses will be a lot bigger and easier to spot but right now, a big poop for him is the size of an adult rat dropping.

Another reason for the paper towels was i wanted to make sure Pat was regular on pooping as the biggest issue with baby GTPs is prolapse. It's been about 2 months now and he is stuffing food in the toothy end and producing chocolate out the skinny end so everything seems to be going as normal.