Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I know this belongs more on the "building a cage" forum, but thought I would ask of those who raise Spilotes if any of them have built their own custom made enclosure for their beauties. I saw one over on the rat snake forum that looked very nice, made of 1/4" mesh (hardware cloth?) and pegboard. I'm thinking of making something like that with perhaps a live ficus tree and other plants that would make it seem more natural. Any suggestions or ideas on this topic would be great. Thanks in advance.
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~Sasheena

Hello Sasheena, hot...er....moe-joe (ha... you thot id say foe...errr) here in el today is it not? Troll unit; to help you "get it".....Ms S & I are in the same valley [small world eh]!
Me; i'd never use metal hardware cloth or any other hard screen, cuz I cant stand rubbed = raw rostrals.
That said tho...in my outdoor enclosure; my rockboas & other sonoran herps do very well w/ .25" hardware cloth, but the caveat is there is over 7000 gal. volume in my enclosure...
I prefer to drill ventillation holes (.25-.5" in plexiglass panels & open the cages daily for a full flush when possible.
If you stay on top of the feces removal, I've found most snakes can thrive despite (because of?) pretty stagnant airflow.
Attractive displays are a hassle but worth the effort.
BTW; thnx 4 your efforts thus far on the hopper front.
Aloha... rr

>>Hello Sasheena, hot...er....moe-joe (ha... you thot id say foe...errr) here in el today is it not? Troll unit; to help you "get it".....Ms S & I are in the same valley [small world eh]!

Yes indeed, a VERY hot eternity here in AZ. Thank goodness for Air Conditioning. Tho I'm NOT looking forward to moving in 3 weeks. {hey, wanna come do some grunt labor in three weeks? }

>>Me; i'd never use metal hardware cloth or any other hard screen, cuz I cant stand rubbed = raw rostrals.

Yes, I thought of that too. Plus I have a problem with double vision (Lasik eye surgery, if you love seeing the natural world, don't have this surgery}. So I can't see past hardware cloth... it's opaque to me. Plus with my spilotes missing scales that could cause her to seriously injure herself. thanks for helping me to think that part of my question through logically.

>>That said tho...in my outdoor enclosure; my rockboas & other sonoran herps do very well w/ .25" hardware cloth, but the caveat is there is over 7000 gal. volume in my enclosure...
>>I prefer to drill ventillation holes (.25-.5" in plexiglass panels & open the cages daily for a full flush when possible.
>>If you stay on top of the feces removal, I've found most snakes can thrive despite (because of?) pretty stagnant airflow.
>>Attractive displays are a hassle but worth the effort.

Yeah, I figure it will be a hassle, but also that it would be worth the effort. So does anyone know of any good plans or designs for a nice tall arboreal cage? I do know that it will be difficult to make, and probably have a lot of trial and error, but I also think that it will be rewarding in the end to do it. In the meantime once we move, we have a 40 gallon to move our Spilotes to from out of the 15 gallon she currently inhabits.

>>BTW; thnx 4 your efforts thus far on the hopper front.
>>Aloha... rr

No problem on the hopper front. (thought you wanted FUZZIES?!?). Better frozen than eating tons of food!

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~Sasheena

I can't be of much help with the cage design but I would recommend plexi-glass instead of hardware cloth for the sides. From my understanding, spilotes require relatively high humidity which would be difficult to achieve with screen sides.

Check out the cages section of the Kingsnake.com Photo gallery for a lot of neat ideas.
Good luck,
Chris