I'll take some pictures of the 6 ft enclosures this weekend: This is a picture of a cage, while it was still divided into (2) 3x3 sections. The two '12 snakes are now in 6 x3, and another is ready for the big girl arriving on the 30th (next Tuesday).
Lights are LED, plants used are low-light. I highly recommend putting "river-rock" gravel on top of soil of live plants, or the snakes try to burrow there, which uproots the plants.
I keep a back-up carpet for each cage, to switch in for major clean ups, on average, once a week. Carpets get taken outside, rinsed off with hose, then tossed in washer on delicate, and hang to dry. Hang to dry takes an hour or so, they don't hold water. If you have a back-up carpet, swap is quick. Lowes sells in/out carpet, black or green, Green looks like nice grass, but I'm really starting to like the black better.
Additional advantage to live plants is that they make oxygen from CO2. Bromeliads are beautiful; I'm drawing a blank on the other plants; variations on philadendrons work great.
Of course, we have to come to some compromise between a beautiful cage, and one we can easily maintain, don't we? In 3 minutes, everything is out of this cage. 2 minutes with antibacterial wipes, 3 minutes washing the water dishes, 3 minutes reassembling. Add a couple minutes for washing the acrylic glass (static electricity attracts dust), and once a month change the cyprus mulch in the hide box. (The snakes never seem to crap in the hidebox, but I clean it thoroughly anyway)
If I see a poop on the way to work, or when I'm in a rush, I clean it up with a couple of antibacterial wipes, lifting carpet as recessary, takes a minute.
I keep a smaller waterbowl each cage. The snakes sometimes dump it; the big corner waterbowl can't be dumped, but occasionally, the girls seem to crap in the big waterbowls. Of course, I have a quick visual inspection of each cage daily. Dirty water goes away IMMEDIATELY, no matter how rushed I am.
Thermometer/humidity readings with memory of 24 hrs, in each cage. Fifteen bucks per cage.
Arrival of special new family member will be Dec. 30th; to avoid Christmas shipping issues. New permit has arrived today!!!
I'd like to add, for any who are interested, that the permits process seems to be very well managed, at this time -- meaning that it's fairly painless.
In less than two months, I have applied for a permit, received it, found that using this permit wasn't going to happen, applied for another permit, and received that one.
There is no secret to this: we are just blessed with an extremely efficient US Govt employee who understands and is dedicated to doing his job very well, in spite of personnel changes around him. How cool is that?!?!
My email is
[email protected], Scott.
