Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I want to furnish the inside of my snakes tank with some plants. I'd like to use those grafted cactus they have (moon cactus) because they are cheap but still give the effect im looking for. Does anyone know if they are toxic though? I can't find anything saying Gymnocalycium mihanovichii is, but I wanna make sure ebfore I go sticking it in there with my king.

can do the trick but if you wanna go the extra mile you should stick to artificial cages "furniture" ... your king will most likely dig up any plants you add to your cage... what IS dangerous is soil and sand (if you plan on feeding your snake on a substrate that can sustain plant life)

surely a natural habitat is nice to look at but you can achieve similar results with the artificial stuff and be assured your snake will be healthy and comfortable...

kingsnakes require basic care

warm side
cool side
Hide
Fresh water
once weekly feedings (at least)

~ZF
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Royal ReptileZ
Home of Bklyn's Finest Brooksi

I do plan on replacing those with artificial plants as soon as I find some that look nice. Most of the ones ive seen are for the lack of better words...cheesey. I just wanna make sure these dont hurt my lil guy for now. I've had em for over ten years and dont wanna loose em for something stupid like cage decor. Why does aspen have to be so damn ugly =p, other wise id just keep em on that

I use fake plastic/rubber plants and cactus. If you look around the web or in stores you can find some fairly realistic ones. Both big and small. Stay away from items that are coated with velour flocking as it's hard to clean and will flake off. I drill mounting holes in 1/4" plexiglass and attach the plant/cactus to the plexiglass using a glob of strong fixative like gorilla glue. Make sure to sand down or radius the edges of the plexiglass so the snakes scales do not catch in the base. Kingsnakes are strong animals, so you'll want to make the base about 8" square to keep it from tipping. Also glue all joins on the plant/cactus so they don't come apart as the snake brushes or crawls on them. I then cover the bases and entire bottom of the tank about 1 1/2" thick with and absorbent substraight litter such as Colorfresh. It's made from a recycled cardboard and the colored pellets are quite attractive and won't stain the snake. You'll have to re-arrange the litter occasionally as snakes will borrow and move it around. I'm a landscape oil painter, so bacdrops are fairly easy for me. I just paint my background on canvas board and place it behind the tank when it's dry. You can do a similar deal with a desert scene poster or something. If you need a custom background contact me in private messaging. I'll help you out and I'm reasonable.
Art in Indy

Art, interesting post. Would you happen to have any photos of the tanks you've set up? We're upgrading to a larger size for our Florida King soon and I'd love to get some ideas on how to make it look great. Thanks. Ed.
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0.1 Lampropeltis Getula Floridana

Thank you...I need to get a digital camera. Many times I've wanted to take shots of my "snakeariums" and send .jpegs. I do have some .jpegs of my desert scenes if it's ok to post them here....let me know. I suppose it would be ok, since I use them for backdrops and they are perty nice.

Art

I'm thinking if it's okay with you that they're posted here, they're okay to post here! But if you'd prefer to email them to me you can send them to ejfelker@verizon.net.

Our aquariums (currently one for lizard, one for snake, and soon to be a larger one for snake which means I'll have to get a snake to fit in the small one!), are in our main living area, they are furniture. I'm an artist too, so how stuff looks is important to me. I want my snake to be comfortable and secure, but if I can achieve that and have it be the centerpiece of the room, all the better!

Thanks.
Ed.
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0.1 Lampropeltis Getula Floridana

I'm sending an E-mail Ed....Thanks Art

if you wouldnt mind id like to get one of those emails = )

I sent you a private message in your Kingsnake.com mailbox.

Art

I don't know anything about your setup, or even what kind of king you have, but I would bet money that its not big enough.

People here would be quick to tell you that plants and kingsnakes won't work, but they can if the environment is spacious enough that the king isn't directly on top of one poor plant 24/7.

I kept a small male call king, maybe 30 inches, in a 75 gal naturalistic enclosure with several type of succulents. The plants were all potted, but you could hardly see the pots since I used a deep sort of rocky substrate

2 bits of advice, only fill pots halfway with dirt and then around the base of the plants put a few layers of river rock or other large pebbles to discourage constant digging in the roots. 2nd, if possible, set up the plants and give them a few weeks to establish before adding the snake. If you just throw a pot into the snakes tank, the snake will be curious about the new object and dig around in it. Combined with the stress of a new environment, most wont make it.

I have seen a custom vivarium (about the size of a 180 gal tank) for a milk snake and it used a fully dirt bottom with plants directly in the soil. The snake killed a few of the more delicate ones but many survived just fine.