Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I just purchased a Vision 322 cage and am experienced with the design and know about the lip at the top of the cage.

Our Savu python was moved into the cage in the evening. When I went to check on him the next morning he was nowhere to be seen. Aee has never shown much inclination to climb - hurl his body at me, yes, climb, no. I thought he had somehow managed to escape, locked doors and all - he had escaped several years ago from a Sterilite box.

While closing the doors I must have jiggled the cage enough for his head to come down. What I really did was P*ss him off. Nevertheless, I grabbed the camera and now there are several more "Savu Lip" pictures in our gallery.

The spaces have now been filled with cut styrefoam. Please note that it is much easier to do this before the cage is occupied by a recalcitrant snake.

Yes, Savu pythons can and do climb and like to hang out. While up there he was much worse than our GTP has ever been.

George

PS - Ted is off to college. His friend that had just started at LSU is OK but coming from upstate NY said he would take 5ft of snow anyday. LSU got off easy.

Our Gallery.

This is exactly what I'd expect from a Savu. Mine love to climb just about anything. Maybe you should add some more perching options to the cage so he won't use the lip?

And yeah, they get very defensive of their territory, which I'd imagine would make things even worse. I posted earlier about a mirror on a telescoping handle I found that is very useful for figuring out where my Savus are without getting bitten.

Hi.

Thanks for the comments. I already added an additional branch.

Finding him has never been a problem. It is sort'a like the movie Tremors-just watch the aspen move.

One of the reasons I moved him to a larger cage is so that he would minimize his strikes. Now he moves to the other side of the cage after striking two or three times. It makes it much easier to work in the cage.

Enjoy the Day,
George

... at least it wasn't a viper like this one. The easiest way my colleague has found to overcome this flaw is to use the stiff pipe insulation that you can buy at any home center. Simply cut it to length and shove it in between the lip and the cage sides, top, bottom. Needless to say, this particular cage hasn't been done yet.

-----
Matt Campbell
25 years herp keeping experience
Full-time zookeeper
Personal collection - 21 snakes (9 genera), 20 lizards (4 genera), 6 chelonians (2 genera)

Here's the image.

>>... at least it wasn't a viper like this one. The easiest way my colleague has found to overcome this flaw is to use the stiff pipe insulation that you can buy at any home center. Simply cut it to length and shove it in between the lip and the cage sides, top, bottom. Needless to say, this particular cage hasn't been done yet.
>>
>>-----
>>Matt Campbell
>>25 years herp keeping experience
>>Full-time zookeeper
>>Personal collection - 21 snakes (9 genera), 20 lizards (4 genera), 6 chelonians (2 genera)

-----
Matt Campbell
25 years herp keeping experience
Full-time zookeeper
Personal collection - 21 snakes (9 genera), 20 lizards (4 genera), 6 chelonians (2 genera)

Is that a tick that is lodged in its pit??

>>Is that a tick that is lodged in its pit??

I assure you, that is NOT a tick. You're just seeing the flash reflected off of the smooth surface inside the pit, and also a slight shadow created by the flash along the edge of the pit itself. Pits in vipers are much deeper and more sensitive than boas and pythons, and also tend to be less pink-looking than in many boas and pythons.
-----
Matt Campbell
25 years herp keeping experience
Full-time zookeeper
Personal collection - 21 snakes (9 genera), 20 lizards (4 genera), 6 chelonians (2 genera)

No worries, I just thought it looked a bit odd, because of the way the flash was reflecting off of it, as if it were a convex surface, as opposed to a concave surface. Just didn't look normal to me, thanks for clearing that up.

Hi Matt,

Thank you for your picture. It brings home the point that we need to be just as aware of what we are keeping our reptiles in as well as how we keep them.

Visions are great cages for most species. Folks just need to be aware of their idiosyncrasies and modify them accordingly. I just never thought the Savu would get up there. Another reinforced learning is to never make readily varifiable/correctable assumptions.

Also, thanks for a great suggestion for stuffing the gaps-very easy to do. Is Vision Cages listening?

Enjoy the Day,
George

>>Is Vision Cages listening?

Ted,

Visions have been out for a long time and that lip has been a curse on many a herper for just as long a time. If it isn't one snake it's another. It's not just a hiding place either, it's a great place for debris and other nasty stuff to collect and stay put. However, in their defense, that lip is created by the surface that supports the sliding glass tracks. I think Visions are okay in most regards, but as with ANY cage regardless of the manufacturer, there are going to be some sort of flaws. Clearly they've not received enough complaints to begin designing lip-filling inserts to go with each cage. If they were going to tackle that, I wish they'd tackle the sagging issue as well.

Matt
-----
Matt Campbell
25 years herp keeping experience
Full-time zookeeper
Personal collection - 21 snakes (9 genera), 20 lizards (4 genera), 6 chelonians (2 genera)

Matt.Didn't they tackle that with that ugly support in the middle on the over 4' cages?

>>Here's the image.
>>
>>
>>>>... at least it wasn't a viper like this one. The easiest way my colleague has found to overcome this flaw is to use the stiff pipe insulation that you can buy at any home center. Simply cut it to length and shove it in between the lip and the cage sides, top, bottom. Needless to say, this particular cage hasn't been done yet.
>>>>
>>>>-----
>>>>Matt Campbell
>>>>25 years herp keeping experience
>>>>Full-time zookeeper
>>>>Personal collection - 21 snakes (9 genera), 20 lizards (4 genera), 6 chelonians (2 genera)
>>
>>-----
>>Matt Campbell
>>25 years herp keeping experience
>>Full-time zookeeper
>>Personal collection - 21 snakes (9 genera), 20 lizards (4 genera), 6 chelonians (2 genera)