Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Here is the indoor outdoor cages start to finish. Hope you enjoy. The snakes love it. The doggie door is soft foam with an x cut in the middle for easy back and forth action and it keeps the weather out of the cage. Pipe is slanted down on the outside to keep rain out.

-----
"Life without risk is to merely exist."

Here is two black rat snakes sub-adult from Chase County Kansas.

-----
"Life without risk is to merely exist."

Hey Bill,
Those are nice. Thanks for the pics.

I've got to say that's one of the coolest enclosures I've ever seen. Gives that professional zoo-esque feel.

The snakes must be thanking their lucky stars, as they have the best of both worlds. The outdoor option with food and security provided.

The reason I am doing indoor-outdoor caging is to collect data. How hot will a snake get before retreating into a cooler environment? How long will they remain at a given temperature? Will eggs from a female that gets real sun differ in quality from those that don’t? What temp will a gravid female bask at and in general and do they behave differently than when they have no outdoor access? I am sure I will discover other areas of research that I can benefit from such as hard to breed snakes such as Black Headed Pythons, Bolin’s Pythons, Diamond Pythons and the list goes on. Most of the large colubrids that I work with are sun lovers and I have never gotten the results I was after with artificial lighting.

-----
"Life without risk is to merely exist."

Saw these on the Indigo forums. I really like the set up and hope you generate a lot of useful data.

Europeans have data suggesting some arboreal colubrids benefit from exposure to ultra-violet light. Or so I've been told. I have some translated articles but not dealing with that topic specifically.
-----
Current snakes:

0.0.1 Gonyosoma oxycephala - Java locale (green)

0.2 Gonyosoma oxycephala - Malaysian locale (green)

1.2 Gonyosoma oxycephala - Java local (green)

2.2 Gonyosoma janseni - Seleyar locale (all black)

1.2 Gonyosoma janseni - Celebes locale (Black & Tan)

Yes, I bred Parrot Snakes outside and they keep a very high body temp. They had an average body temp of 100F in the summer they bred and their offspring were healthy. They also ate like horses. So many times we generalize body temp by keeping them around 80F with a hot spot but in the wild they can go underground to cool down to 55F anytime they want. My body temp averages on collard lizards is around 112F in the wild. When I offer a 120F basking sight in captivity they will bask at 112 for quite some time run around eat bask at that temp some more and cool down in the evening. The important info is that the wild lizards thrive in this setting but listen to the books and you have a dead lizard unless it is captive hatched. By spikeing body temp I am convinced parisites have a much harder time establishing themselves.
-----
"Life without risk is to merely exist."

that is the coolest enclosure i've ever seen. what a clever idea.

tom k

-----
"Life without risk is to merely exist."

WOW! Very cool idea! Best of luck with your research.

-Toby Brock

-----
"Life without risk is to merely exist."

If they decide to try this themselves to initially use animals that they don't really care about.
How many animals have failed to thrive during these experiments?
I can think of a dozen, or more, just offhand.
If the temperatures are going to be extreme (either too hot, or too cold) bring the animal(s) inside & seal off the door.
Also, be aware of fire ants, dogs, racoons, & other potential predators (including humans).
In addition, make sure the outdoor section is "bomb proof" - It sucks to have escapees
Good luck with them,
Max

It’s true. I have had setbacks attempting to do outdoor enclosures and indoor-outdoor. This set up seems to have evolved from trial and error. Max brings up a good point and that is close monitoring and sealing tube when weather extremes present themselves. The enclosures that have worked best are my outdoor enclosures with underground sump. Snakes will go down when too hot and underground. Max has fire ants so these will not work at his house and like I said there will be updates on the success or failures of this updated version. The breakthrough seems to have as stated earlier the foam doggie door that insulates and seals completely keeping the weather on one side or the other. There are many other variables other than fire ants so it is best to heed Maxes advice. I have been doing this for since 1995. The most interesting ,successful experiments was allowing snakes to deposit their eggs in one of my underground sumps without removing them. They Hatched! Again I will keep you posted………..Bill
-----
"Life without risk is to merely exist."

Awesome job ..

Nothing like a basking snake in the sun ! Was that a coachwhip in the image ? Also .. why did you use the wire mesh on all sides?
-----
Safari Tom
See'em Touch'em Save'em
www.SafariTom.com

Yes that is a coachwhip I hatched in 1997, he likes sun. Wire on all sides is easier to build and hang, there is a door on the outside.

-----
"Life without risk is to merely exist."