Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Recently, Jara posted from Finland with superlative examples of naturalistic vivariums.

I often set up my 55-gallon or 60-gallon vivariums in a similar manner. Since I only have 2 snakes, and handle often, that luxury is practical for me.

Here are some sample photos of my biome. The Vietnamese Jungle setup was prior; all other photos are more recent. (Sorry for poor quality; my digital camera is very basic and I operate on a frugal budget.)

My 55-gallon biome photos were to bright & washed out, will need to post those at a better time.

I would enjoy seeing other posts with photo examples of creative biome setups. Please post your examples in the next few days for a year-end visual feast.

0.1 Lampropeltis getula californiae (Los Angeles County Coastal Banded morph)
1.0 Pantherophis obsoletus rossalleni

Link

Real pretty & all but they have to be a royal pain to keep clean. Can't imagine having to disassemble all that every week or so to remove what has to be removed. To each his own but I doubt the snakes much care for all the pageantry. Most do fine with far simpler quarters that are easier to maintain.

I totally agree, those setups look fantastic looking!

But how the heck would you ever get the snake out of there without it getting all coiled around everything in there and pulling it all out in the process?

It would be like recapturing the snake in the wild every single time you went to get it..LOL!

~Doug
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"a snake in the grass is a GOOD thing"

serpentinespecialties.webs.com

Thanks for the comments. I see your posts often and recognize you as a Seasoned Veteran.

My setup is actually arranged *very carefully*, for just such reasons.

The top branches must be removed, true, but only 2 of 7 must be moved to change the water. Most of the setup is unaffected by the most frequent cleaning change.

For handling, once branches are gone, you must remove the rock den to get snake. After handling, I typically allow him to perch on a fake Ficus tree next to his biome while I put things back.

Yes, it takes time, but I can generally get stuff back in place within 5 minutes. I think the process is worth it.

I sometimes ask myself: "If a huge, more intelligent creature captures me for a Pet, how would I want my setup to be? How would I want to be treated as a captive?"

I defer to what is best for the animal, compromising my convenience. I understand that this process is not practical for everyone, but it works for me.

Ah, I see, thanks for the info about how you work the process Ameron ...

~Doug
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"a snake in the grass is a GOOD thing"

serpentinespecialties.webs.com

Thanks for your feedback. I appreciate your comments. Your experience has been very different from my own, apparently.

Quite some time ago, I had read from other Forum posters that certain species of snakes do better with taller vivariums, versus wider, and that more foliage and hide spots helped with overall health. I was intrigued by the Concept, and experimented further. In time, I found their statements to be true from personal experience.

Reptiles left in a typical terrarium become “Couch Potatoes” very quickly. They typically have only one hide spot and a small water bowl. They can neither climb, exercise, stalk & hunt nor soak. Such specimens seldom move, and often become obese and relatively unfit.

(The only thing worse is a small sweater box; it’s the equivalent of closet space for a man.)

Snakes given a natural biome setup can exercise with the equivalent of a small gymnasium, especially if you equip 3 levels as I’ve done: burrowing layer, ground layer, climbing canopy. They can also do a full soak – which all animals love to do at times.

I have found that my vivariums add to the natural beauty and aesthetics of my home. The primary benefits, however, are for the snakes themselves. In natural setups, reptiles become much more active, and often, more visible.

I also feed live (nor right or wrong), so my snakes get to stalk & hunt as they would in the wild. I’ve always fed in the vivarium itself; never have had any problems.

You should do what you feel is best for your situation, of course, but I have found many, tremendous advantages with this type of housing setup.

Ameron your setups look great but I wanted to mention a couple things.
You mentioned having only one hot spot as opposed to more than one as if it were a bad thing which is not accurate. Unless you have a very large cage, like six feet or more, it is easier to provide more of a temp range with only one hot spot on one end of the enclosure. A larger temp range is always best for the snake. While having a light in the center of your cage like you do is nice visually, it is not the best for the snake. Having a heat source like that in the center makes it to where the entire cage is warmer and your not able to provide as good of a temp range. Overhead lights as a heat source also dries out the cage much more than you might think as opposed to UTH heaters. When you just provide a hot spot in one corner you are able to keep the other side cooler which gives the snake more of a temp range. A light on the top of one end is good with arboreal species as they generally warm up by sitting in the sun because they spend almost all of their time in trees and bushes and basking in the sun is the way they have to heat up. Largely terrestrial species like the two you keep generally prefer to warm up where they don't have to be exposed if possible. They will often not spend as much time warming up as they would like when they are forced to sit out exposed to do so. Due to that a good secure hide at the heat source is what they would prefer. It all depends on weather visually looking nice or what benefits the snake most is what your looking for.
More of a vertical or arboreal setup is good as you mentioned for some species but the species you keep would benefit as much or more with more floor space to move around as opposed to an arboreal set up as they spend more time on the ground. Don't get me wrong though, I do think more hides and things to crawl up on is a good thing.

I do tests with all species I keep to see what they prefer. I will give them different shapes, colors and sizes of hides to see which they prefer. I put the different hides in the same moisture and temp range so it's not a matter of those type things but just the size, color and shape of the hide that I see which they prefer first. I then put their preferred hide in different temp, moisture and sometimes different supstrates to narrow down what range of those things they prefer most. I can then tweak their individual setups to give them a range around what they prefer. I found that with pretty much all species, they will usually go into the hide they prefer even if it's NOT in the temp or moisture level they prefer to spend most of their time in. I guess my point is that while attractive, naturalistic setups are nice, specific preferences are much more important to their health and feeling secure.
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Randy Whittington

Sorry Ameron. I misread something about your post and realize after reading it again that you didn't say anything about only having one hot spot but were talking about some only having one hide which I of course agree, is not good.
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Randy Whittington

My experience with keeping snakes in simple enclosures is that they typically crap in the corners of the cages. In your "biomes" do they have preferred places? Just curious.

Yep, I've noticed that also. Don't know quite what to make of it.
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See all my snakes at SerpenTrack.com