Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Where is the best place to get 10-20 hide boxes for a good price? I"m looking for ones that have the opening on the top instead of the side so when I'm feeding, the rats won't run right in. Any help is apreciated. Thanks.
Josh

Walmart. Small litter box. Dollar fifty.

1. Filp.
2. Cut hole in top.
3. Add balls of crumpled newspaper. (A trick courtesy Robyn @ Pro Exotics.)

(NOTE: This setup will hold ball pythons from hatchlings to adults. Add or remove newspaper inside hide box as animal size requires.)

The balls of crumpled newspaper are the key. They would work in any hide box. They not only create tighter or looser spacing inside the hide box, but they break the line of sight. The hide box is no longer an unnatural square. The balls of newspaper also help in stabilizing himidity inside the hide box.

Cheap. Easy. Fast. Sterile. Dark. Tight. Humid.

The animals love it.

Chris
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mean people suck

Hi there,

I've been using these terra cotta plastic plant drip trays for many years for my ball pythons and kingsnakes with excellent results. I just cut a hole in the bottom with the rotozip saw and bingo, instant hide. Plus you always know who is hungry because they will sit perched on top in a tight S coil waiting for chow. Good luck.

Will

Freedom Breeder has some cool ones in their accessories page. Not as cheap as the other solutions but they're very cool.

If you want to buy a ready-to-go hide box, I don't have much advice for you.

If you are willing to put some work into this, I like using actual terra cotta flower pots - clay ones. The "azalea" pots are better proportioned I think; they are shorter and wider. They also come in many sizes; an 8" pot works pretty well for Ball Pythons that are between 1 and 2.5 years old. I am getting ready to move up to another size for my female.

I use a hole saw bit in a power drill to expand the drainage hole on the bottom of the flower pot - a 2" - 2.5" hole is usually pretty good - and then I cut a semicircle into the rim of the pot. After making the cut with the hole saw, I use a wood rasp to smooth the edges of the hole, and possibly expand it further. I mostly use the wood rasp and not the hole saw to cut the semicircle in the rim. I thoroughly wash the dust away, and soak the pottery. Then I stand the pot "upside-down" in the snake cage.

The clay is great because it slowly releases humidity over time, and depending on how you've rasped/filed the pottery, you can make it so that there are no sharp edges to harm your snake - something you pretty much won't be able to pull off with a plastic container that you modify to make a hide. The clay can be soaked or misted to hold water/humidity. Here's the best part of the whole thing: the terra cotta flower pots are CHEAP! An 8" azalea pot should cost you less than $1.00 ...bigger than that and you start breaching the $1.00 mark but not by much!

Good luck.

~Rebecca
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1.1 Ball Pythons (1.0 '05 Ghost, 0.1 '03 Normal)
0.1 Dumeril's Boa '04
0.2 American Pit Bull Terriers (40 lb darling lap dogs)

Try terra cotta flower pots, invert them, knock out the bottom. Blass love them. They are heavy enough to never get knocked over, they stay cool, they are round so they coil feeling it on all sides (like they like) and tehy are dirt cheap. We get them for $1.39 per at our local garden store.

David at 3-D Pythons
www.3dpythons.com