i'm suprised no one mentioned Mr. Hayward Clamp's pits here in SC...he has two pits,one for venomous and one for non...the water flows around the edge, with little creeks that also feed water from the islands...they apear to be sunk about 2ft and come up about 4 ft, making a 6ft wall... no entrance just jump in...he released live rats in the inclosures the first year and they dug tunnels all over the islands...he did not want this so now he feeds the large animals dead rats in the inclosure...he also releases live mice in the inclosure for the smaller stuff...the rat's tunnels did do one good thing,the snakes now use the tunnels, but if he had kept using the live rats,they would have eventually destoyed the pits...the walls are made of cinder blocks covered with stuck-o, to give it a smooth surface...they are shaped like a kidney bean and maybe 80 ft long...one would fit in my back yard,easy...would love to put my coppers in one,maybe one day...the water is kept clean and the walls scrubbed weekly...the mote looks to be pained with a pool paint...paul moody has some pictures on his web site Easterdiamondbacks.com...under Edisto Serpentarium....supprised you have not been to Hayward's before Chuck, it's just south of charelston....it's nice!!! love to just watch the animals in the pits and just look for how many you can see...the non venomous pit has kings,corns,water snakes(banded,brown,& red bellies),rat snakes(yellow,greenish,grey,and black)coachwhips,racers,and possibly a couple others...and there are like 20 snakes in each tree...you can even see the rattlesnakes climbing trees and bushes,something you don't expect to see...chuck you need to come this way and check em out...i believe hayward has pictures of how it was built on the walls on the inside building...hayward and teddy built the pits themselves,probably with some help....and he could help you out tremendously....jamie

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