Reptile & Amphibian Forums

My '04 Davis Mtn. girl

Very nice animal. I was wondering if you keep it on that supstate all the time??? I have seen bad results in pet stores with that stuff. At least I think it's the same. Desert Blend Right?? I had a couple of snakes die in my buddies shop on that stuff. We cut the second one open and it had a ball of that in its stomach. I guess they don't eat walnuts in the wild.
Later Jason

P.s. Thanks for posting

Desert Blend, aka crushed walnut. I only use it for pic taking since it looks better than most other substrates. I keep all my babies on newspaper. Too bad about the ingesting probs because I really like the stuff.

I'm gonna take a guess and say that animals was produced by Dan V?!?
Gorgeous animal by the way! Good luck with her!
Bill

You guess right. Dan V. let this girl go. What gave her away?

Bill (too)

Good to hear. I don't like telling people that they are houseing their animals wrong because they usually take it personally. But I hate to see snakes die because someone doesn't know any beter even more. Glad you do and I hope you didn't learn it the hard way. I still see people using Pine bedding even though there is a possibility though unproven as far as I am aware that pine can cause resp. problems. Why chance it when the cost differance to aspen is minimal. I still see pine at shows all the time. What can you do.
Later Jason

Actually I was looking for something other than the aspen look and don't care for carefresh. I picked this walnut stuff up and thanks to a couple buddies in the Mexicana Forum, I was warned of the hazards before using it. I like a natural look and walnut just fit the bill (no pun) better than the other stuff. Really I'm quite dissapointed that I won't be able to use it. Finally I said to heck with it and opted for newspaper. Easy, cheap and absorbant. Back in the day, when the only herps I kept were those I caught, we just used whatever sand or dirt we found. Never seemed to be a problem then but I agree, not worth the risk. That was before frozen mice were around. We shook em up in a coffee can and rolled them out like dice LOL Ahhhh...those were the days!

I prefer the non colored cypress mulch from your local walmart. Throw in a couple branches from a tree and some leaves off the ground and you have a easy "natural" cage setup. Before you go there I don't worry about the bugs because there are no bugs in the mulch that will hurt the snake. Unless it is full of ants then your a dummy for putting your snake in a ant farm.LOL Roaches are the only consistant bug in the mulch and if you get it from outside during the day (in the south) then the top bags are clear of them cuz they are soo hot. I have done this for years and I get a lot of "wow but isn't it hard to clean" or "that looks great but bla bla bla" and I have yet to hear anything to cause me to change for the "better" to anything else. Plus it keeps the humidity up and if you put it in deep enough to let the snake burrow then when they come out it is a treat. i really love the look on the snakes when you clean it all out and put in fresh branches. Man they are like wow what is all this and they search for hours all over the cage. I get caught watching my snakes with a big smile on my face when I should be cleaning because of this. Try it out and you will be happy with the look on your snakes. Trust me. It is a nice feeling when you love wild snakes to see your captive asting like they should. Guess that why I still have cages and not drawers when i have close to 100 adults. Here is one of my painted cages in the backgound of a otherwise bad pic. No branches cuz I moved recently and I have not got any new ones yet
Thanks Jason

another painted cage

I saw those yesterday(?) when you posted them. Very cool. That second one of the tunnel is my fav. Man, a snake's just gotta feel good looking at that! LOL How many of these cages do you have? Are they all painted? Would love to see the others.

That Cypress mulch looks great. I really think the "natural" setting makes a difference in the snakes ability to thrive. Their instincts say hide, burrow, bask, explore, hunt... The ability to exercise these instincts has got to be positive to their psychological well being which must affect physical well being as well. Whoa..into the mind of a snake! hehe

Thanks for the pics!
Bill

I got four of them. I still need to set one of them up again. Look at the Mnt. painting again. Its a old T.V. floor unit. I have two like that and two 4' by 2' wood cages. Gotta love artist you see a crappy old T.V. and they see a killer cage. LOL
I will try to get pics of all of them.
As far as the cypress I swear by it. And my girlfriends dad who did the cages turned me on to it. Its funny cuz most people freak when you throw a bunch of leaf litter in a cage with a few hundred dollor snake but they can't give you a good reason why. Its dirty is what the say but how clean is aspen. You think they clean the wood before they chip it?? If you try it though you see the snake come alive. Even in a newspaper cage try it and watch as your snake checks every piece that you put in there.
Later Jason

Magnificent cage. I read the mulch is a heaven for mites,insects,etc and to rough for a snakes bedding?
I do find it great looking .

Couldnt you boil the mulch than let it dry or bake it in oven for a bit to wipe out the insects .