Thanks, I'm glad that you like the setup, and thanks for the compliment. I think I've done pretty well with it, and it feels good to hear others say the same thing.
Mostly, my guy hides. He spends about 90 percent of his time under a blue water dish. When he was still in the store, he didn't have a good dish and was getting ready to shed. I asked them to give him something bigger, and the salesman put this one in his cage. When I bought him, I bought the dish with him. He has loved hiding under that dish ever since he got it. I can see his sides when I want, but he doesn't come out much.
When he does come out, he'll often poke his head out from under something and look at me. I'll be sitting here typing and look over to see his face. He'll watch for a bit and then go back.
He also likes to burrow in his substrate. I don't see him moving into or out of the substrate often, but I see new tunnels every few days.
I don't think that cleaning is all that hard. The worst part is usually soaking the furniture in bleach and then re-soaking until I'm comfortable that the bleach is removed. The whole process takes a couple of hours right now, but that time is going down. I don't soak the wooden stuff in bleach but use a "safer" germ killer for that stuff. I really don't think that having more stuff to clean adds that much time. I'd have to soak the same amount of time regardless of how much I soak. I soak things all together.
Spot cleaning isn't any harder in this cage than any other. I've seen (or found) no evidence that he's defecating in the deep substrate. He's always defecated on the side of the cage with shallow substrate and often on top of the water dish or a tile hide. Strangely, I can always smell it when I walk in the room but quickly lose the ability to notice it. I have poor sense of smell anyway, but I'll walk into the room and know. Sometimes, I have to search a little bit, but I can find it quickly and remove it. He's good about not crawling through his mess. He'll usually do his thing and then burrow.
He also has a bad habit of doing his thing when I try to hold him. If I hold him for about forty-five minutes, he'll be active enough to work stuff through his system. He'll be sitting there very quietly and then raise his tail. I've learned to keep paper towels in my lap when I know that he's full. When he gets that look on his face, I move the paper towel under his tail. This habit isn't the nicest in the world, but it does cut down on cage cleaning.
Bill
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It's not how many snakes you have. It's how happy and healthy you can keep them.
