Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hi Guys,
I ordered a cage and a snake not too long ago. My snake will arrive on Tuesday and my cage was supposed to arrive thursday. I figured i'd give the cage another day so today (friday, it;s like 12:00 at night) it never came. I called the guy and he informed me that the cage wont arrive until next thursday (he was out of town for a funeral ). That leaves 2 days that i wont have a cage. And it'll probably take me awhile thursday to setup the correct temps with the porcelin light thing. So what should i do? I have a small 5 or 10 gallon aquarium (1' x 6" x 8" about) but it's tiny. The snake is (from my guess) 16" long (it's almost a yearling???) i need to provide it witha water bowl and a hiding spot but those two things combined take up 80% of the tank! Plus i wont have a heater for the snake. The snake by the way is A Leuc. Tex. Rat. Any and all suggestions are welcome. Thanks a bunch!
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-Doug Daly

Here's a quick fix if you don't want to use your little aquarium. Got to your local Walmart, Target, Sears, etc and pick up a rubbermaid/sterilite container of the appropriate size. This should cost you no more than $7 or $8. At the same superstore you can pick up a human heating pad for around $14. Drill plenty of ventilation holes in the container, wash it out with soap and water, put your substrate, water bowl and shelter in and finally, put the heating pad under about 1/3 to 1/2 of the cage and CHECK YOUR TEMPS, and your good to go!! To be honest, if you're getting the snake from a breeder, this probably a very similar setup to the one the breeder was keeping it in, so it feel "just like home" to your new snake. Good luck and post pics of your leucy up when it comes in!

>>Hi Guys,
>> I ordered a cage and a snake not too long ago. My snake will arrive on Tuesday and my cage was supposed to arrive thursday. I figured i'd give the cage another day so today (friday, it;s like 12:00 at night) it never came. I called the guy and he informed me that the cage wont arrive until next thursday (he was out of town for a funeral ). That leaves 2 days that i wont have a cage. And it'll probably take me awhile thursday to setup the correct temps with the porcelin light thing. So what should i do? I have a small 5 or 10 gallon aquarium (1' x 6" x 8" about) but it's tiny. The snake is (from my guess) 16" long (it's almost a yearling???) i need to provide it witha water bowl and a hiding spot but those two things combined take up 80% of the tank! Plus i wont have a heater for the snake. The snake by the way is A Leuc. Tex. Rat. Any and all suggestions are welcome. Thanks a bunch!
>>-----
>>-Doug Daly

I agree with the previous post. If you have a warmer place in the house that is around the high 70s/low 80s then you can probably scratch the heating pad. A couple of days, it will be fine until you get your cage.

Thanks for the help! I have a human heating pad (i think) and i may have a good sized container around that i can wash out. Thasnks for your help and i'll post pictures of her when she arrives!
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-Doug Daly

Just another thing: Any good things/ways to make hide boxes at home. I made a standard cardboard cave type box but any other more interesting ones i could make at home? Thanks!
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-Doug Daly

I recycle cardboard boxes I use for food, such as cereal, Hot Pockets, etc. by simply putting them in with the snake. I toss them out when they get soiled and replace them as needed.

Bry

I would just take a cardboard toilet paper thingy and staple one end shut. or you could go down to the walmart pet section and get a "reptile ranch". These things run about $6.99 or 7.99 or something, they're about 7" x 11". i used them for my neonates.

But what I would do is call that breeder up early on monday morning and ask if you can defer the shipment, and explain your situation. Any decent breeder shouldn't have any problem with that.
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-Chris

The reason mainstream thought is thought of as a stream is because it's so shallow. -George Carlin

A fool doesn't learn. A smart man learns from his mistakes. A wise man learns from the mistakes of others. Which one are you?

My Website
N. American Rat/Corn snake care sheet I wrote
Information on substrates

Current snakes:
0.1 Licorice Stick Black Rat (Lola)
1.0 Black Rat (Frankie)
0.1 Texas Bairdi (Rosa)
0.1 Blue Beauty (Brunhilde)
1.0 Green Tree Python (Monty)

I have a setup for the snake (its a sweater box type thing very big) i figured after i get her setup in her main cage on thursday i would just use this rubbermaid thing for a feeding cage. Thanks for your help guys!
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-Doug Daly