Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Does anyone here have drums and snakes? I have a drum set and i am getting a kingsnake august.I am afraid of the vibrations bothering the kingsnake. Any Ideas?
All comments are apreciated.
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Thank You,
Brad S.

Brad,

I have never thought it fair to house snakes in the same room with music because the vibrations will certainly make them uncomfortable. Drums might even be worse.

Find a separate spot for the snake or the drums.
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Chris Harrison
San Antonio, Texas

The snake will be in a different room then the drums even on a different floor level but i still think thats to many vibrations.
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Thank You,
Brad S.

Being a cyclist, I like to use a magnetic trainer and rollers to train when the weather simply will not allow me to ride outdoors. Both training tools produce a tremendous amount of vibration and after noticing most all of my reptiles going nuts during such sessions, even when used on the opposite side of the house, I decided to move my stationary training to the barn, as the vibrations created by such were obviously an antagonist. I would imagine drums would be an equal, if not greater, antagonist…

Best regards,

Jeff

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Jeff Snodgres
University of Arkansas
snodgresjeffreys@uams.edu
501.603.1947

Hello--
My husband is a bass player, and when he turns the Ampeg up enough to create mild vibrations, my snakes get crazy, even though my herp room is attached to the other side of the house.
Fortunately, "the band" practices in one member's studio. If not, all of my animals would lose their minds.
rgds,
althea

climatic conditions and or earth rumbles. In that book that I have brought up before titled " When the Snakes Awake " very erratic behavior is recorded with rumbles of earthquakes and thunder on snakes. Even severe stress. Bass would be a great conductor of such in any form on stress. In my own observations of big earth movers and machinery, snakes are going crazy and moving erratically as to moving about. Several incidences involved snake dens of timber rattlesnakes of being forced out of den sites and the road machinery wasn't even that close to the den sites/s. Going back even after several days of completing the project, the timbers were still moving and crossing the road way in numbers as if they were still trying to get away from the vibrations. Did this have a residual effect in the central nervous system of the snakes ?
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I may be old , cantankerous, crabby, and cynical, but......

One of the big things about snake dens and heavy machinery is simply the fact that rock will conduct vibrations much better than other materials.
This is why you see coyboys in the old western movies listening to railroad tracks. The vibrations of the train travel faster through a denser material.

So in response to the problem at hand, I'd say the vibrations of drums won't be QUITE as problematic as they would be if the house was brick.

However thats not to say the snake would be ok. I'd personally try to get the snakes on the other side of the house AND on a different level if at all possible.

I'd also try to close every door possible between the drums and the snake.
I once had a roomate in college that was a drummer and it seemed to me that the majority of the vibrations are in the air. We always seemed to get complaints from people in the dorm next to us and not from people downstairs...so closing off the air flow might help. Maybe even muffle the drums a tad? I know they can get pretty loud, so maybe using the ol' pillow in the bass drum trick might work? Don't know if there is anything you could do to the other drums...

Maybe putting the cage on a dresser or table that has been placed up on some sort of styrofoam or other vibration reducing material? Sounds proof the room with that foam rubbery stuff?

My mexican black king is in my classroom where kids and classroom traffic can sometimes get a bit loud, so I put his tank up on a couple of piece of styrofoam...

I am being mindful of what all of you are putting forth( I have appreciated Jeffs advice in the past) and will continue to double check myself on the matter.

I play bass and have Tinnitus, so I play at moderate volumes. I keep my animals in a large basement and have been playing/practicing there for a good long time. I have a drum set in my cellar to make it easier to work on things on the spur of the moment with friends and have been mindful of possible harm to my animals and I have not noticed any stressed behaviour. Practice would normally run a few hours one night a week. Lower volumes allow you to hear yourself and others better and protects your hearing, excessive volume is unneccessary in MANY cases.I practice by myself with a small amp upstairs the majority of the time. I also listen to music a lot while cleaning cages and doing chores(at moderate levels)and have not noticed any erratic behaviours.

The equipment is on the far side of the cellar and I have recently put my cages on wheeled stands to move them even further away should the need arise and will cover them with those heavy moving blankets to muffle sound during practice.

As I said, I will be even more vigilant about looking for harm now,but so far, it's been fine.

Bob.

I know that some folks in loft type homes use a platform filled with sand with the drums on top to help muffle traveling vibrations to keep neighbors happy.Good luck. Bob

I'm certainly not saying we all have to go overboard. Sounds to me like everything you're doing is working fine.

I think the best advice is to just watch and see their reaction. If they get real nervous then use one of the numerous ideas we've all thrown out here (I never thought of the moving blankets...they should work rather nice for muffling sound...) and try a little at a time until everyone is happy...

As a classic rock man myself, I know quite a few tunes that are REQUIRED to be played loud (ex. Kashmir, Led Zeppelin). But For the sake of my kids, I'll break the rules a bit.
And I'm sure John Bonham will understand the drum predicament and not haunt us TOO bad when we do turn down the tunes a tad...

Thanks Nicodemus. I have to agree. SOME stuff is intended to be LOUD. I like a lot of different kinds of music. Life would be kind of boring for me if it weren't for music and herps. There are certainly much more important things in life but I am thankful to be able to spend some time with them.
Bob.

"Life would be kind of boring for me if it weren't for music and herps. There are certainly much more important things in life..."

BLASPHEMY!!!!!!!!

nm