Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hi again.

Was wondering if anyone cared to share pictures/descriptions of how they've set up their king enclosures? I'm looking to explore various successful (i.e. comfy for the snake & aesthetically pleasing for the onlooker) terrarium set-ups.

I've read the basic summaries for kings and have set up snake enclosures in the past -- so what I'm looking for are specifics of what some of you may have done. Unique twists? Custom decor?

Also cool to point me toward any galleries/links that respond to this.

Thanks in advance!

I don't use a fancy set up for my Cal king, but you can if you want to. A simple set up makes it easier to clean.

1. Substrate - I use aspen shavings (Zoomed, T-Rex, etc. brand) about 2-3 inch depth. Getula are fossorial, and the aspen holds the tunnel shape pretty well. It also helps keep things pretty dry.

2. Decorations - I use some plastic plants (designed for reptiles not from a craft store) just for some general ground cover and a vine or two to give the snake a vertical option. It's not really necessary for a terrestrial snake, but I like to have it there.

3. Water bowl - one that won't tip over that's big enough for the snake to soak in. I place this on the cool side of the terrarium.

4. Cage Type - glass terrarium with a screen lid secured with clips (one on each edge) and weighed down if necessary.

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0.1 Banded California kingsnake - Zorro
1.0 Manx cat - Mako
0.1 RES - Chopstick
0.1 Crested gecko - Hiyori
1.1 crazy dogs - Tumnus, Jet

decorations are for the keeper and not always for the snakes best interests.

Most snakes are fossorial, live under the growndor objects and are secretive. Sometimes hiding is a tight place is what is best for the snake. If you want a visual setup then anything really goes. You can get as fancy as you want with plants, rocks, lights, waterfalls etc. Most of the time it is hard to manage as kings usually tear that up. So what would work best is something that is less delicate and easy to clean.
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www.Bluerosy.com

A king may move a man, a father may claim a son. But remember that, even when those who move you be kings or men of power, your soul is in your keeping alone. When you stand before God you cannot say "but I was told by others to do thus" or that "virtue was not convenient at the time." This will not suffice.

Hi,

So I already know how they behave, and how much easier a basic set-up is. As I said, I've set up snake enclosures in the past.

What I'm looking for are specific success stories from people who -have- done something a little unique with their terrarium set-up.

I plan on using a suitable substrate (aspen seems most consistently recommended) and providing more than adequate "hide" space. But with such a pretty animal, I am also looking to have a pretty enclosure.

I get that the "fancy" set-ups aren't necessary. That said, that is what I plan on putting together. I'm out for advice from folks who have done similar -- not just to hear the same advice I've read a thousand times in the limitless care-sheets and habitat summaries.

Individual case studies on successful, good looking enclosures is what I'm after. Pics are helpful. Thanks!

I plan on using a suitable substrate (aspen seems most consistently recommended) and providing more than adequate "hide" space. But with such a pretty animal, I am also looking to have a pretty enclosure.

yes i nunderstand you want to display the animal.

There is a poster here who uses small fine gravel (he calls it sand, but it is course) as a medium that has worked for him in the past years. He has some pretty nice living room setups . Maybe he will chime in and post some of his pics.

IMO you need a better medium than aspen to make it "nice". If for anything just to view the snakes since they will just tunnel in it.. But nobdoy can tell you what looks/works best to you. Try the small gravel (I forget the size #). It absorbs well enough and is easy to scoop up dry feces. I see several zoos use this size gravel in their displays.
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www.Bluerosy.com

A king may move a man, a father may claim a son. But remember that, even when those who move you be kings or men of power, your soul is in your keeping alone. When you stand before God you cannot say "but I was told by others to do thus" or that "virtue was not convenient at the time." This will not suffice.

Just use Carefresh for substrate. It comes in a couple of different colors, it's great for cleanup, absorbs very well, keeps down odor, looks nice, relatively cheap, and if your snake accidentally ingests it, everything will be ok... for the most part. Very good for burrowing too, my snakes have whole tunnel networks setup in it, like that movie tremors lol

Thanks for the tips -- this is helpful for me.

I'll look into gravel options and see what there is locally -- if you find out what the specific #/size you were thinking of is, that'd be great too.

>>I'll look into gravel options and see what there is locally -- if you find out what the specific #/size you were thinking of is, that'd be great too.

Alot of people have spoke of bad view points on sand in the past, I don't know if its experience or hear-say.
Myself, I've had great success with these setups for the past 16-17 years and have never had a problem with this type of sand.
Do use fake plants, the live ones won't last a day.

Here are my view points on sand; I’ve been housing, snakes for about sixteen years now on sand. I have tried different kinds of sand. The play sand has too many fines in it, could be harmful if the snake ingested to much at once. Be careful when feeding that the mice aren't damp where the sand will stick to the rodent. another problem with fine sand is the fines absorb up to much moisture, so a 1” feces spot will turn into a 3” spot, big coarse sands,(gravel)don't absorb anything, In my tanks, I use a cleaned (dust free) Monterey #2/12 grade kiln dried sand about 1-2 inches deep,(its a smooth beach sand more or less). It’s kind of hard to find, I buy it at industrial supply stores, or sand and gravel supply. It’s used for sandblasting, it’s about 10-20 dollars for 90 lb. Bag. (I've also seen it in pet shops, $10.00 for a 10 lb bag. lol); Retains heat well, doesn't dry out reptiles skin like wood shavings might. I think it’s easy to clean, all I use, is a plastic spoon and paper plates, just scoop it up on to a plate and try to pick up most of moisture. I also use sand in my racks, but only about a 1/2 inch deep where I use a wet-wipes after spoon cleaning the box, put the plate in plastic recycled grocery bags, tie a knot, and drop it into the trash can, EASY. I clean my tanks completely, about twice a year, remove all sand , and clean the tanks with bleach and water. I recycle my dirty sand, by putting it into a bucket and letting it soak in bleach and water for a few days. Then I stir it up with a stick. Push a hose to the bottom of the bucket until water runs clear on the overflow. I then pour it into sandbags and let It dry out till the following year. A lot of people have talked against sand on the forums, and I just wanted to view some of my thoughts. I have never had a problem with any of my snakes getting sick or dying yet. Just be careful when feeding
(sand cont.)
that they don't digest a bunch of ANY substrate. Some of the general care and maintenance books view sand as, (quote; a attractive, natural-looking and easily changeable ground medium.) They only talk about certain types of wood shavings (Quote: cedar, redwood and some snake keepers have suggested pine shaving are potentially harmful to snakes) Maybe I'm missing something here but I believe most snakes live on and in dirt and sandy soils. Bad Sheds; I work construction, and the Three worst things to dry out my hands are, working in dirt, wet concrete, and believe it or not, handling lumber like 2by4s for a day or two. The sand that I use has no fines in it, and doesn't dry out the snakes skin. I very seldom have snakes with a bad shed. I've also had emails from snake owners of snakes with problems that went away once they switched them from aspen to sand or other non-wood product - a grayband with runny nose and 2 different rosies that were reguarging. The owner truly thought these individuals were sensitive to the aspen (or the conditions it created) because of their rapid turnaround once removed from the material. Another owner emailed me; I have to say I totally agree with you about the sand. As well, I have had several problems with my kings on aspen or pine bedding. Especially if it has broken down into little bits - it seems to give my snakes allergies. I have now had three kings that, while on the aspen, with cage temps ranging from 70 - 81 degrees, get alot of mucus in their throat and noses. When I have switched them off of that to the turf, two days later they are fine. Anyway I just wanted to view a few good points about sand.

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R.Bichlers Colubrids
http://www.webspawner.com/users/rbichler/index.html

paticularly Like that 4th shot down of the GBK.

This is not "Unique" by anyones standards but provides several hides in cool and warm areas also has a small water bowl in a hide to elevate humidity. Simple to clean, Beats looking at a boring Tub...

but I do those too LOL

>>paticularly Like that 4th shot down of the GBK.
>>Bob S

Thanks Bob, she is a "07" CB. F1 E.Sanderson 10 mile locality I pick up from Tod Smith (Y-Knot Reptiles), But Robert Pelaez Produced her, which he comfirmed with pictures of her. Now I just have to talk Robert P. into parting with a nice male for her.Lol.
YA! Love those Pyros,
Bob Bichler

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R.Bichlers Colubrids
http://www.webspawner.com/users/rbichler/index.html

good luck with her, she's a beauty!

I like the little office clip trick to ID the contents
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"Many men go fishing all of their lives without knowing that it is not fish they are after."

Henry David Thoreau

Doug L

Thanks doug. I saw Ball Python guys do that.

np

Thanks for this -- cool to hear a different side of the sand subject. I've heard a lot of nay-sayers with sand but it sounds like you've found a good direction to go with it.

Very nice set ups! If I only had two or three snakes I would make their cages look nice but when you get upwards of 50 or 100 it's just not practical. However I may choose to set up one nice display cage in the future.
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King Snakes! Who can make a better mouse trap?
J Sierra

Thanks. You've got to do what you feel is best for you personally.

There are many of us here that work REAL hard at not keeping a lot of snakes. We are not new, just trying to keep ourselves in check. Many of us have had big collections and hatched out babies and just don't want to do it anymore. Keeping fewer allows you the time to spend time with family and friends and other pursuits and to try different things on the few, like cages etc. Also keeps you from burning out and ditching your hard worked for collection which is a very common scenario in this hobby.

The way I personally look at it, and it's just my view, is that anybody fortunate enough to have a decent job can pretty much buy most anything out there and breed it etc. The rewarding part is finding the few select ones YOU choose to keep because YOU like them and don't mind cleaning their cages hundreds of times. Theres a lot of nice stuff out there. You can't keep it all.

Happy herping

Very well said Bob1 I am just getting back into it after years of going cold turkey, lol. I am getting some of the snakes I wish I had before but never could afford them. The prices have dropped enough to where we can enjoy just about any flavor we want. I'm sure I'll learn my lesson too in a few years. What I want to do is slowly end up with a moderate collection of Cream of the crop specimens. Thanks for your insight, Jorge
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King Snakes! Who can make a better mouse trap?
J Sierra

Bob,again I would have to agree with you too. It has been a long time for me with multiple snakes. I had upwards of 75 snakes about 15 years ago and just lost interest after 10 years of keeping. Now I am a single father with 2 beautiful daughters, and they are old enough to learn some of the things I knew way back when. Also, learn some of the new tips and tricks of the hobby. When I was a senior in High school all the money I made went to purchasing animals. Collection grew to large to quick. Back then it wasn't about the quality but the quantity of animals kept.

Now as I am older I still have a decent amount to buy but I am more selectful in my purchasing. My favorites earlier in life were corns, California kings, and hognose. Now I am mostly tricolors and after being away for some time I have a whole new appreciation for you guys that stuck through it for years and produced some of the most beautiful animals in the hobby today!

Thanks again, ol' timers for keeping this hobby as personal and enjoyable as I remembered.
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Jimmy Tintle

I figure it's like music. Theres a niche for all of us whether you play arenas, festivals, little coffee houses, know three chords or are a schooled proffessional or just listen to the stereo. Life is too short. Happy herping

Look in the rat snake forum, for a post by mzillig on Oct 24, 2009. I have included the link, (if it works!)

This might not be appropriate for a kingsnake, but shows what can be done with some creativity.

I'm too lazy, and just use aspen, a cereal box for a hide, and some branches for climbing.

Link

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Kent

0.1 Hypomelanistic striped cornsnake
1.0 Lavender cornsnake
1.2 Gray-banded kingsnakes, blairs phase

Awesome link! Thank you. This is the kind of thing I was hoping to see some examples of.

That set-up is beautiful -- and I'm sure that the snake absolutely loves having that sort of environment all to itself.

I like that it is not simply focused on aesthetics/display but also very utilitarian -- designed with the animal's health, habits and general behavior in mind. Also it seems fairly capable of holding up to anything the snake can dish out!

Do we know what materials were used?

Thanks again.

No I don't know what he used, but you could email him from his original post.

Here is a link to Jimmy Johnson's website, which has an enclosures page with some pictures of his cages.
Link

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Kent

0.1 Hypomelanistic striped cornsnake
1.0 Lavender cornsnake
1.2 Gray-banded kingsnakes, blairs phase

This was my winter break project for my graybanded king. She used to always use her log hide, but now she has a favorite crack on the second tier. It's kinda hard to clean, made of styrofoam and and grout that was sealed with grout sealant, so it's decently liquid resistant but stuff sure sticks and parts of it require taking it completely out of the tank to clean, but those are design flaws on my part. Sour cream container is humid hide till I can get my hands on one of those neat hollow rock thingies. gives range of hot-middle hard dry, and middle-cool humid and soft dry. Got the idea form some guy on the forums here who did a better job of it .

Edit: The idea came from mzillig, who's post was forwarded to you by a previous poster on this thread (with the baird's rat, he also has a similar one that he made for his GBK. Also, the middle tier is a drawer that she uses when not eating and not shedding.

This is a 29 gallon tank that I set up this year for my Baird's Rat Snake. It contains a dirt substrate, live plant and a couple of rock layers to hide in. It is heated by an undertank heater.

Tim

Third Eye

This is my Cali king Snakezoid in his 20 gallon tank. Hidden amongst the bark and rocks is a quart Glad container full of moist sphagnum moss. It is setting on top of the UTH. Sometimes the snake would go in the moss hide and other times go between it and the UTH. Or he would roost on top of the Glad container. So he could have a variety of temps and humidity.

He liked his big piece of drift wood.
Alas, this tank got broken and he is now in a 105 quart Sterilite tub with most of the same objects, although the baby bulls got the driftwood. Snakezoid got a cardboard soda flat over his moss hide instead of the bark when he went in the tub. I put everybody's water bowls in a pan of moss so the aspen doesn't get wet when they get frisky. I fixed the glass tank and gave that to my toads.

There are lots of great ways to house snakes, just use your imagination.

Here is a 10 gal viv that I keep a different hatchling in each year.

Here is a 20 gallon aquarium I used many years ago.

I tried this with a corn snake once. he loved it but it went through a lot of tubes. I have always wante to rebuild something like this out of PVC pipes for my racks

Wood cages sealed with epoxy.

That middle king is a 5 1/2 footer.

Current rack set up

If you claim to know their basic needs than just do what works best for you and your snakes. The advantages of a naturalistic vivarium are aesthetics, great temp gradient, humidity gradient, naturalistic behaviors observed. Disadvantages are that you can't take the snake out when ever you feel like it, they are hard to clean although I only do partial break downs on most of my vivs maybe once per year. Which means that they have to be large enough so that the animal can establish places to hide and others to defecate/shed etc.

Tanks are OK if you live in humid environments but if you live in a dry house than you will need a better top and a humidity chamber.

Racks offer convenience but don't let you see your snakes as well.

Some time ago I set up a naturalistic viv for a californa king and it worked pretty well. It was a 55 gallon tank. Substrate was a mix of sand and soils to a depth of about 8", with several different succulents (jade, aloe, snake's tongue) planted at different point. There was about 1" of fine gravel overlaid with window screening for drainage under the soil. I use some rocks as hides.

The substrate turned out to hold burrows much to the king's delight If I ever keep monitors again, I may use something similar for them.

Things I learned:
Give the plants time to get established BEFORE moving the kingsnake into the cage.
Get decent sized plants. Kings will climb in them (mine frequently climbed in the jade). Small plants will just get crushed.
Research the plants. Some of them tolerate different conditions better than others, even if they're both hardy in the same zones.
Don't expect to see your king very often...but it's pretty cool when you do.
It's a lot of work to set up.
They make great centerpieces for a room.
They provide *lots* more choices for the animal than racks.

I'm debating doing it with a florida king. I don't know what sort of plants I'd use though. When my turtles get moved to the pond I'm putting in I'd like to set up the large tank they're in as a naturalistic viv. I may do something else though, like a ratsnake or something. It's a huge tank, like 100 gallons?
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We wouldn't have 6 and a half billion people if you had to be beautiful to get laid.
6.6 African House snakes
3.2 reticulated pythons
.1 corn snake
4.2 Florida Kings
1.2 speckled kings
1.2 ball pythons
0.0.1 Argentine boa