Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Welcome to kingsnake.com's message board system. Here you may share and discuss information with others about your favorite reptile and amphibian related topics such as care and feeding, caging requirements, permits and licenses, and more. Launched in 1997, the kingsnake.com message board system is one of the oldest and largest systems on the internet.

Click here to visit Classifieds
https://www.crepnw.com/

help please...laying and enclosure questions

dmlove Jun 24, 2003 03:10 PM

ok well i have a 6 ft by 3 ft outdoor enclosure for my boxes (actually, it was meant for a sandbox under a swingset, but we never used it as that, lol) well it is grown with grasses and plants of the sort, with dirt/mud as the mainsubstrate. We have had no problemof turtles escaping, or predators coming in, as it is well secured. I have a concrete waterfall that i made, that goes into a little pond type thing in the middle of the cage. The thing is, i dont have any electrical thing there, just an elevated bucket w/ hhose that pours in. Is this ok? or do you recomment making anytihng else. SUGGESTIONS PLEASE! umm and.. i have a 1.1 ratio, 1 male 1 female, and i was wondering when she lays eggs how i could find them!?!? how far down do i dig? (there is no set bottom.... :/ ) thanks
-----
~David - KDRKreatures
My Main Herps-
1.2 Bearded dragons (Ralph, Artemis, Cheech)
1.0 Veiled Chameleon (Chiquito)
1.0 Ringneck Snake (Striker)
1.1 Eastern Box Turtles (Athena and Mercury)

KDRKreatures-Home Page
My Email

Replies (3)

Rouen Jun 24, 2003 05:25 PM

the waterfall should be fine, just make sure you change the water atleast once daily, I dont know about the eggs, sorry

StephF Jun 24, 2003 05:40 PM

I can tell you a little about my setup's pond arrangement: I dug for a pond that has a surface area of roughly 3x4 ft. In cross section it has a "deep end" about 18-24 in. deep, tapering to a shallow end of 2". I bought a 250 gph pump (much more than I really need) which is submerged on the deep area. I have a tube coming up to an ornamental spout for circulation/oxygenation. The whole pond is nearly filled with lavarock (lowes garden dept.), which is a very porous, lightweight rock, which is acting as a huge filtration system. The pond empty of rock would probably hold alot more water, but this way its only about 4 in. deep, stays crystal clear, sounds great and is easy for turtles to to get in and out of. I paid special attention to this last aspect because two of mine are amputees. Pumps are getting better and better: mine uses no oil, so there is no risk of a spill.
As for finding the eggs... I have a female digging as I write this, and another layed last week: my advice would be to watch her carefully and make a note of where she's digging, because unless you see them digging it can be darn near impossible to find evidence of a nest after the fact. I kid you not: I've stumbled across wild females in the final stages of covering up, and they do an excellent job of making it look as though nothing had ever taken place.
Good luck!

StephF Jun 24, 2003 05:46 PM

I should also mention that I used a rubber pond liner (sheet form), and all wires and tubes are concealed under rocks etc.
If your arrangement circulates water regularly and isn't too deep or steep, you ought to be just fine.

Site Tools