Posted by:
3y3c3
at Wed Jun 25 22:56:20 2008 [ Email Message ] [ Show All Posts by 3y3c3 ]
Thank you for the cautionary advice Sir Happy Hillbilly. I have been on this post for a while under two or three names, and have read your posts for that entire time. Your words are accurate, tried, and true, and I appreciate you trying to give me a perspective other than what everyone else says.
I have been considering this massive cage for a while, I won't lie. I've been interested in reptiles for my whole life, and always wanted or had them. I started simply, with the garters, ribbons, gophers, pines and bulls (all the pituophis), and even had a few lizards and amphibians, but no pet has even compared to the passion I feel for snakes.
I've had dogs, scorpions, tarnatulas, insects of all kinds, arachnids most people have never heard of (i.e. windscorpions and vinegaroons), cats, been around horses a lot, donkeys, goats, chickens, rabbits, hogs, buffalo, llamas, ostrichi (an inside joke), and much more than people would have been able to do just a few hundred years ago, but is all too common and simple these days. But once again, an all-consuming passion for the serpents is what drives me. Maybe it's because when I was a kid I loved dinosaurs, and they were like dragons to me, because of their size more so than their scales. Giant snakes are the last of the dragons in my opinion.
Since I have been woodworking for a while, and keeping snakes for a while, I have been testing theories out for a while as well. I've tried keeping water setups of smalle nature in the tanks of other snakes, and my burmese pythons to see what they would do to it. Predictably, the defecate/urinate, and smash by sheer gravity alone anything that is not built to support. I played legoes, I know how to build things for support! lol! after about five models, I think I got the basin down! I've gone through at least 200 dollars in filters/pumps/tupperware/air tubing/air stones/silicone/etc.. in creating this final culmination I have. It's nothing fancy, or pretty for that matter, but I have discovered flat pond rocks, the kind used for making those scenic cascading waterfall trickling streams things, in smaller more burm cage sized mangeable sizes, make for an excellent cover and weight. I use portland cement to form fit everything, and have been using and acrylic binary compound "foodsafe" film to cover the cement with, for ease of cleaning since the stones take up 99% of the surface area, I didn't want to scrub the cracks with a toothbrush. I leave the rocks bare for shedding, and scratching, and gripping and the likes. Plus, concrete is so much more porous than stone.
All that it is a tupperware a pump an air pump, and an air stone, are simple little things that are chambered off to one extremity of the basin. there is a plastic wall aquarium siliconed into place, with supports on the mechanics side, as opposed to the basin side, where the snakes find great joy in wedging them free. This basin has a large drain valve on it, for most fecal matter to be able to pass through, and thus make it easy on me to clean. The basin lasts for anywhere from 5 days to about a week and a half. I monitor the water daily though, just because i'm like that, and even though it's filtered and oxygenated and pH adjusted does not make it sanitary to sit in the same water for long. I clean everything on the weekends, it's just part of my routine, unless a mess is made, I clean on the spot most, but regular maintenance on weekends.
The grass test was the easiest, a big tupperware with organic everything. First layer coars rocks for drainage/ventilation, then in the corners of the box PVC tubes with screen caps on the tops, these are for drainage, and the screen is necessary not only for the snakes snouts, but the bugs that will settle there and cause infestions of gnats or whatnot (that experiment sucked). Then organic soil w/perlite, then organic soil, then a very light layer of sand just to keep everything matted down while the grass seed takes. Then the roots fill the box, and you spirnkly organic soil on it every six months, water it into the grass over the course of a couple of sunny days, and voila, a grass box. Theres not a lot of other plants that'll survive a burm, so until I figure out large scale bonsai done quickly (thats gotta be a myth) i'll stick to replaceable, cheap, abuseable, and colorful grass. And all plants make some fresh oxygen, that's got to be appreciate by a beast whos head always seems to be resting on the ground!
Finally the last third of the tank is just a hide box jungle, no weird shenanigans here, just disguised tupperwares and a few large black PVC 10" tubing. Gives them a maze to call home and somethings to keep them moving about their cage, excersize is important for all living things, even plants have to strengthen against the force of the wind. And multiple snakes are exponentially more and more difficult to get excersized manually! I will someday have an outdoor enclosure on warm summer months for further excersize and something new for my friends (the snakes, not the humans). Top it all off with a simple to adjust misting system on another auto-timer.
All in all the cage's simplicity of operation is what makes it most attractive to me. There are three roller platforms (due to the casters) that can be maintained individually, one at a time, or all at once, or as one section needs it. I've been keeping a journal on snakes since the purchase of my first burm, and have been writing out ideas and plans and drawing out schematics and theories now for almost a decade. I'm finally at a place in my life where I will be able to put my final results into action. Should they work, I will have accomplished a goal I have set for myself long ago. Which brings me to the final thing you mentioned I wish to address.
I know there are cool people on this forum, including you! You yourself have helped me with mite problems i've had in the past, and your methods work. That's why i've been posting lately. I'm trying to turn over a new leaf, now that i'm finally home, where I consider home, I'm going to make things happen for me. And I want to be able to tell people who will appreciate the efforts and thoughts that I have put into all this whimsy. People always say follow your dreams, and then they themselves dont. I'm following my dreams, no matter how much resistance I encounter, and you guys all understand that, because every snake owner is scrutinized in some way by some crowds, and we all have to deal with the occasional nay-sayers to our hobby. All I want is to breed exceptional animals, and sell them at exceptional prices, and to do that you need exceptional animals. I'm not going to be paying for that unless I am going to be taking care of them the way I think is necessary. I'll admit, i'm going to lengths that are not necessary or necessarily the best, but I feel the things I am giving them are vital to their longevity. I want them to live a good long healthy happy stress free as possible life, and I hope that is what I accomplish.
Again, thank you HH for your words of wisdom and support, as well as information, and insights as to what may come to pass. I appreciate you guys a lot, and will be keeping you all appraised of my situation as it progresses. I'm not the fastest or highest funded fellow, so dont expect pictures of anything too soon, but things will be underway here shortly, and I am so excited about it all I lose sleep thinking about it!
Bleesed Be everyone, thanks for reading!
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Thank you, HH - 3y3c3, Wed Jun 25 22:56:20 2008