Areas you'd like to improve upon/explore within your husbandry and collections?

[jmcrook]

Came across this great blog by Scott Borden the other day and made me think a bit more in depth about my approaches to keeping and how I've changed over the years, as well as what I'd still like to be better at.

https://medium.com/@morelialife33/to...1-84523abb8bd1

Maximizing my useable enclosure space while also diversifying the range of micro climates within that space is something that interests me and I'd like to explore more fully. Different varieties of hides, perching, heat/cool options, means of providing humidity, tactile sensory enrichment... These are many of the ways I'm considering tapping into these areas of improvement/change/etc. Humid hides that can also act as a perching shelf on top, cork bark hides that also provide some interesting textures for the animals, sky hides mounted under shelves and on ceilings.

Another consideration I'm making is how to do all of these things in a way that is also efficient and easy to manage and clean on a day to day basis. Storage totes as hides with holes cut in the side so animals can be removed for enclosure cleanings without having to disturb them unnecessarily is an idea I picked up from listening to Morelia Python Radio. I've actually done a variation on that with Thai takeout containers in two of my Morelia enclosures currently and I must say, it's a very nice feature once the animals decide to use them. My Rockhampton coastal carpet likes to perch on top of hers and uses the hide feature of it from time to time as well. My female Brisbane coastal carpet has recently decided to use hers as a hide and spends much of her time in there. She's also pretty shy so that makes it much easier to remove her for enclosure maintenance without stressing her.

Temperature stratification and using heat transfer to my benefit is something else I want to make better use of in my room. Cooler climate critters near the bottom of enclosure stacks, using heat transferred from lower enclosure's heat panels to the enclosures above them. Using that transferred heat to reduce the amount of power needed for heating elements in enclosures higher in the stack. Ordered a bunch of new enclosures today with this exact concept in mind.

What are some things that y'all might be considering exploring in greater detail or from a different angle this year? Curious to see how other folks' gears are turning in this regard. Cheers!

[GoingPostal]

This year I hope to get some new enclosures in too and will have to rearrange my stacks. I didn't overly consider heat transfer either and have some cooler animals and cages without RHPs up top that should be at the bottom or middle of the stack. My other main goal is to do more enrichment, I want to do some sort of cage/area with climbing spots and textures to be able to put the snakes in while I'm cleaning or for exercise. Find some different hides for the cages so I can swap those around and more options for burrowing and soaking for the short tails.

[EL-Ziggy]

I want to get larger enclosures for my scrub and olive pythons, add some arboreal hides for my carpets, and upgrade to a couple of Herpstat 6 thermostats.

[Hugsplox]

Another consideration I'm making is how to do all of these things in a way that is also efficient and easy to manage and clean on a day to day basis. Storage totes as hides with holes cut in the side so animals can be removed for enclosure cleanings without having to disturb them unnecessarily is an idea I picked up from listening to Morelia Python Radio. I've actually done a variation on that with Thai takeout containers in two of my Morelia enclosures currently and I must say, it's a very nice feature once the animals decide to use them.

This is something I never thought about, but would love to be able to remove hide and snake for cleaning, instead of pulling a hide off the top of a sleeping BP and then having to grab him before cleaning. Plus it's a cheaper option then ordering pre-made hides and you can customize them to fit whatever you need.

My BIG goal for this year, is getting my guy in his T10 when it gets here. Ordered back in September so I'm hoping I'm getting close. I picked up a Herpstat 2, and plan on running the T10 with it's installed Proheat RHP for a week or so before transferring him over. My hope is, with the heat and humidity retention, my husbandry overall will not only be better, but easier to maintain than my current glass set up.

I'm also excited to be transitioning to a proportional thermostat vs. the Jump Start on/off set ups that I've been using. I'm also going to take the enclosure upgrade as an opportunity to try out a new substrate, just to see what works well and what I can use long term.

[wnateg]

I want to get larger enclosures for my scrub and olive pythons, add some arboreal hides for my carpets, and upgrade to a couple of Herpstat 6 thermostats.

Same. I want to make 6x6x6 cube enclosures for my retic and scrub.

Also my snapping turtles dirty their water within 15 minutes of cleaning it, so i want to get them setup on the water line for constant cycling of fresh water.

[jmcrook]

Same. I want to make 6x6x6 cube enclosures for my retic and scrub.

Also my snapping turtles dirty their water within 15 minutes of cleaning it, so i want to get them setup on the water line for constant cycling of fresh water.

Interesting dimensions. Any reason why you’d like this size over a 4x8’ footprint? You may be able to make fewer cuts and maximize use of standard board sheet sizes. I’m sure they would both make good use of spacious and tall enclosures


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[wnateg]

Interesting dimensions. Any reason why you’d like this size over a 4x8’ footprint? You may be able to make fewer cuts and maximize use of standard board sheet sizes. I’m sure they would both make good use of spacious and tall enclosures


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The dimensions are not set in stone, but it's to use up as much of the reptile room wall as possible. The 6' width for the 12' wall and the 6' height so I can stand in it, but the depth has some flexibility.

[WrongPython]

One big thing I'd definitely like to improve on is seasonal husbandry. I more or less stumbled through the seasons this year and could have prepped the boas for their winter turn-down better. At the very least, this is more or less the case for the Sonoran (who's from a higher latitude/more seasonal locale) than the longicauda (who's more or less equatorial and seems to be doing pretty well right now). Currently in the process of drafting up a seasonal feeding, photoperiod, and heat-period schedule so I have something more definite to stick to.

I'd also like to improve upon the enrichment I offer the boas, particularly now that I know both of them better. The longi likes to perch and hide, so I'm planning on getting him a couple of different perching and hide options and switching them out throughout the year. The Sonoran's a bit trickier. She hasn't really responded to any of the "toys" I've given her yet, but she seems to enjoy time out of her enclosure, particularly when she gets to climb any "tree"-shaped things and watch TV (the moving images and sounds seem to satisfy the wallflower aspects of her personality). I've already re-arranged her cork so she has a ledge to sit on by her favorite enclosure door (ie. the one from which she can most easily watch the room, the TV, and I), and she seems to appreciate it. (Her pushing also stopped when I did so. Coincidence? Probably not.) Next on the list is to get her some branches/grapevines/what-have-you for some new perching and climbing options, and maybe a fake plant or two to spruce up her enclosure.

The longi's due for an enclosure upgrade, so there's also that to plan for. There are definitely things I'd like to do differently this time around. First off, I'd like to have the RHP be more of a auxiliary/ambient heat source, instead of a primary/basking heat source. For the latter, I'd prefer to have either a DHP or a halogen bulb for a few hours a day (think peak basking times in the wild). Secondly, I'd like to have a small strips of display LEDs installed and use those as the primary photoperiod lights, with the UV-B light only coming on during basking hours. This would simulate more intense sunlight around peak basking times. An enclosure like this has a lot of moving parts, but I think it would be a very enriching environment if done properly.

Finally, I'd like to continue avoiding reptile impulse purchases and grow my little snake pit in a controlled manner. I've actually done pretty well on this front so far and would like to continue that trend. At this point, things will go one of two ways: either I'll build boa pairs, or I'll get a carpet. Either way, I'll be putting a lid on things for a while afterword. Three/four snakes of the sizes I have is my maximum "easy pet load" capacity, and I'm not quite sure I'd like things to move beyond that right now.

[jmcrook]

This is something I never thought about, but would love to be able to remove hide and snake for cleaning, instead of pulling a hide off the top of a sleeping BP and then having to grab him before cleaning. Plus it's a cheaper option then ordering pre-made hides and you can customize them to fit whatever you need.

My BIG goal for this year, is getting my guy in his T10 when it gets here. Ordered back in September so I'm hoping I'm getting close. I picked up a Herpstat 2, and plan on running the T10 with it's installed Proheat RHP for a week or so before transferring him over. My hope is, with the heat and humidity retention, my husbandry overall will not only be better, but easier to maintain than my current glass set up.

I'm also excited to be transitioning to a proportional thermostat vs. the Jump Start on/off set ups that I've been using. I'm also going to take the enclosure upgrade as an opportunity to try out a new substrate, just to see what works well and what I can use long term.

You're going to really enjoy that T10 and herpstat. Most definitely easier to maintain than glass in my experience.

What I've found so far is that shorter enclosures are easier to dial in initially with RHP but can have a more dramatic gradient depending on the room temp. Fiddling with my 2' tall cages I can get the temps I want but the hot spot is on top of the shelf at 93-94 and the entire floor area is in the 83-79 range. Not terrible really, and I've been toying with the idea of more of an ambient temp overall with some micro climates within that. We'll see how it goes. My thinking is that they can handle a little cooler temps better than too warm of temps so I'm erring on the side of cooler.

The puzzle is never complete here and I keep adding pieces to the damn thing so who knows if it will ever come together. If the critters are thriving and I'm learning then I don't see too much of an issue really.

[Snagrio]

Sometime this year I'm going to get a T8 for my ball python. He's not quite big enough yet but he's growing steadily and the makeshift enclosure I concocted out of a 30 gallon fish tank has been proving to be a real pain in the neck maintenance-wise. For now though I'm ironically right in the middle of an ambitious aquarium project (125 gallon that I'm almost entirely overhauling to begin a live planted system, the tank itself is over the double the size of any aquarium I've worked with before) so snake stuff has to be put on the back burner for the time being.

Though, given how infamously long they take to ship (I know they take a while but Hugplox's having been ordered back in Sep and still not having arrived, geez) I might have to consider putting money down for one sooner than I planned...