My Bioactive Arid/Desert Enclosure for Trans-Pecos Rat Snake

[TofuTofuTofu]

I'm aware this is supposed to be about the entire enclosure, but those beetles are super super cool. It's prompted me to do a little research on them. I'm wondering how it would look to just have a colony of them on their own, not as a clean up crew but just as stand alone pets. Thanks for sharing!

I do think this enclosure would definitely be suitable as a death-feigning beetle-only enclosure. They are so easy to care for. I feed them like, the equivalent of three small vegetable pieces a week (like, three pieces of corn, three peas, stuff around that size). There are usually one or two out and about throughout the day, and they are really fun to watch, and cute. I am not sure how old mine are, but I do like the fact that they can live 17+ years, because I would not like to be purchasing new ones to "replenish" my supply. It would certainly be a big bonus if mine successfully reproduced (like, not just larvae but ones that grew into the beetle stage) but I'm not pursuing that. There was a Youtuber (Aquaramix or Aquaramixpets is the channel I think?) who was the first to make a captive-bred one, but he incubated the larvae, which is more than I want to do right now. But maybe in the future, if I get bored.

Oh, I wanted to mention, they will eat rabbit poop. I have given them a few of my rabbit's poops, and they will chew on the outside and leave a sort of little hay ball, but now I no longer see the remains of the remains, lol, so they either ate it all or hid it somewhere--either would be good for my setup. I have only tried one or two "pellets" at a time, and it takes them a while to break it down.

My biggest concern with them would be whether they even break down snake poop (rabbit turds are more like, already dry balls of grass). I am okay with picking up snake turds and having them clean up any microscopic or little bits left over, though. That is what I will be most interested in seeing when I introduce my snake.