Posted by:
Chris_Harper2
at Wed May 14 12:24:03 2008 [ Email Message ] [ Show All Posts by Chris_Harper2 ]
I was trying to breed so I placed the pair in the rain chamber about three times per week and would often leave them in there for 16 hours or so, or basically whenever I was home.
But what I found was that they defecated or at least passed urates within 10 minutes or less. When I first started putting them in the chamber they would pass urates several times in a day, they were that "backed up".
I think for general health of the animal they would do fine with two, thiry minute sessions per week.
I need to say that this chamber used A LOT of water. I measured how quickly it filled a 5 gallon bucket when I first set it up and calulated the flow and it was pretty bad. I don't remember exactly how bad it's been so long.
For long sessions for breeding it might be best to have a pump with an elaborate filter so you're not using so much water. For getting your snake to defecate just hooking up to a water line would not be so bad.
The nozzle I used looked something like this:
This is not a nozzle you could run off the typical misting system designed for reptiles, which tend to be lower flow and higher pressure, IIRC.
Like I said, I tried a regular misting system for tree vipers and found that the fine mist made them very unsettled and they would often strike randomly. I then tried a garden sprayer and the snakes behaved totall different so I made a rain chamber around that nozzle.
Maybe for now just go get a garden sprayer and try to set it up in your cage, assuming you can keep it safe and completely escape proof. You may have to pump up the pressure often but at least it will give you and idea if it will even work.
Then maybe look at having a cage built around the idea. I would love to do that myself but my venomous keeping days are long gone.
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Currently keeping:
5.8 Gonyosoma oxycephala (Javan, mixed colors)
1.1 Philodryas baroni
1.0 Rhodesian Ridgeback
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RE: Trimeresurus constipation problems - Chris_Harper2, Wed May 14 12:24:03 2008
