Arboreal Hides

It’s been a while since I’ve done a blog, so I wanted to put one out on arboreal hides. I have felt that arboreal hides are something that has been missing in modern day Herpetoculture for some time now. It is definitely gaining traction and more keepers are starting to use arboreal hides with multiple species.

So, let’s get into what an arboreal hide is. An arboreal hide, to me, is a hide that is elevated or suspended off the floor of a cage or enclosure. A lot of arboreal and semi-arboreal species that are popular in Herpetoculture are known to climb and either drape themselves across branches or take refuge in a tree hollow up in the air. With understanding the natural history of the species you keep, you can take that information and determine what the best arboreal hide style would be for your species.

Here is one of the cage designs I use for my amazon tree boas with an arboreal hide used.

Arboreal hides add an extra dimension to the useable space in a cage. If you have a 4x2 cage but only have a water dish and hide in the cage. You end up with a ton of vertical space that isn’t being utilized. An arboreal hide can one of many solutions to fix that problem. Anything can be used as an arboreal hide. A branch screwed to the sides of the cage with a fake plant draped over part of the branch can work. A bucket with the lid screwed to the top of the cage and the body of the bucket fixed to the lid. The tracks that you can buy for the black reptile basics hides can be used.

Outside view of how this style of hide is secured to the cage. Just a couple nuts, bolts, and washers will do the job.

This style of arboreal hide is one that I really like using and want to try to make more of in the future. It is a 3d printed hide with a female mounted bracket and a male groove that slides into place. I also requested rounded corners on the inside so cleaning would be easier with no 90-degree angles for anything to get caught in. I have had a lot of positive observations with these hides. I usually fill them halfway with damp sphagnum moss, so they double as a humid hide as well.

This style also hold humidity well and doesn’t mold so using them as a humid hide works well too.

This hide is on the smaller side for this calico atb but she still spends about 75% of her time in there.

I have used a few different ideas throughout the years and feel like this particular design works best for what I have trying to accomplish with my cages. I want to show a couple different ideas I have used in the past as well as a couple from friends that have bounced ideas off of me and vice versa.

I used these drainpipes as faux “tree hollows” for atbs. This idea was good in theory but did not work out as practically as I would have hoped. I just used screws to hold the pipes in place and since there wasn’t an exact fit, I ran into issues with feces and urates leaking out of the sides. They also weren’t easy to remove since they ran the width of the cage. While I don’t think this idea was a terrible idea. I think more thought would have to go into it if you wanted to go this route.

Here is a cheap, disposable idea that Erick Hernandez (Basuca.ectotherms) used for his hatchling carpets. This idea came from a keeper in Australia and is one that isn’t a tough one to do. He reported that the carpets used the hides a lot and appreciated being off the floor and secure. This is a good idea since everything used is cheap and disposable. If the hide gets soiled, just throw it out and put up a new one.

Here’s another simple idea that Brenden Meyer (bm.exotics) used for his bairds rat. Just a to go container with an entrance cut into secured to the top of the tub he was using by a couple nuts and bolts. Just going to show that it doesn’t have to be fancy as long as it is functional. Just because you are using a tub doesn't mean you can’t use something like an arboreal hide.

Here is a setup I used for my neotropical bird eating snake. I always felt like this cage would have benefited from an arboreal hide. There is plenty of empty space in the top third of this cage that an arboreal hide could have added that much more to the setup.

With a large portion of the species I work with being semi-arboreal or fully arboreal, arboreal hides are something I want to incorporate into all my cages that I possibly can for those species. Species like Atbs, rhino rats, spilotes, carpets, beauty snakes, yellow rats. the list goes on. So, if you have a cage with an empty space towards the top of the cage, think about adding some type of arboreal hide. You might see a change in behavior, feeding habits, etc. I have noticed with tree boas, that they almost never leave their arboreal hides. I also have the hides close to the top of the cage and they like to lounge on top of the hide, touching the top of the cage a lot as well. I imagine different species will interact with an arboreal hide differently.

I would like to personally thank Erick Hernandez and Brenden Meyer for letting me use their pictures and ideas for this blog. Be sure to check them out on Instagram at Erick W. Hernandez Chacon (@basuca.ectotherms) • Instagram photos and videos and Brenden Meyer (@bm.exotics) • Instagram photos and videos

Easy tub setup for hatchling arboreal colubrids

I had a hatchling Phrynonax poecilonotus in a 6qt tub and she was doing great. But I wanted to give her a little more room to stretch out. But I also didn’t have a spare cage to do this with yet. So I decided to convert a simple tub into something I wanted so she can have some more space for the time being.

I chose to go with a 16qt tub with a latching top from Target. I use these same style tubs in a larger size for my bigger snakes for quarantine when my quarantine rack is full.

If you don’t have a soldering iron, I highly recommend it. Every herper should have one.

This is an overview of all the supplies I used minus garden fencing. Plastic clothes hangers, a PVC cutter(another invaluable tool to have), soldering iron, zip ties, and perch holders for the hangers.

As I started this project, I definitely made changes to my original idea. Sometimes things seem great as thoughts and then when you try them out, they aren’t as great as you thought. And that’s ok, part of figuring out what works is also figuring out what doesn’t work. When I started this project, I had no intentions of using garden fencing. I am actually not a huge fan of it for baby snakes but in this tub setup, it works great. First thing I did was use the soldering iron to make my ventilation holes. In the picture below, you can see the holes. I prefer the iron over a drill because it doesn’t leave any protruding plastic on the inside or outside of the tub.

Next after ventilation, I had to decide how I wanted my perches to be. I knew I wanted to use plastic clothes hangers but I have to decide how they would be placed. Since this tub is for a Phrynonax poecilonotus, I wanted to cater it to their habits. They don’t perch like green trees. In my experience, they are closer to amazon tree boas in the fact that they will drape themselves over multiple branches, creating multiple points of contact. So that told me I needed to have multiple areas that the perches were perpendicular to each other.

After a couple ideas I didn’t like, I ended up with this. A simple yet functional system of perches. I liked how simple it was but it also did what I wanted it too. And I would be able to spot clean without always having to remove the perches every time. But I still felt like it was missing something. That is when the garden fencing came to mind.

My reason for not liking garden fencing is because when you use it with baby snakes in tubs, every joint gets so dirty. Making it a chore to clean them effectively. With the amount of animals I currently have, anything I can do to save time is very much appreciated. But in this tub setup, I figured out that the garden fencing is perfect. It gives the snake more surface area to perch on, which was an initial goal of mine for this project. Its raised off the ground so it shouldn’t get as dirty. And it is in a spot that won’t change my ability to spot clean and change water without taking out the whole perching system. So the decision to use the garden fencing was all pros and no cons in my mind, even though I’m not a fan of it usually.

This was the “rough draft” setup. I have started using live plants with my arboreal colubrids and have had favorable results. In this setup, I started with golden pothos and a wandering jew. I have also used arrowhead plants with success. I am still trying to figure out all the plants that will do well in cages. So far, nothing has done better than pothos. I haven’t tried vining philodendrons yet. But I should try it out since the vining philodendrons are native to South America, which would work great for this setup. But I had tons of starter pothos in the greenhouse so thats what I used. I have noticed that pothos does just fine in a tub with minimal light and has also stood up to the snake for months now. The wandering jew, not so much. One thing I noticed with my older Phrynonax poecilonotus was his eating habits once I moved him out of the 6qt tub and into a cage with perches and live plants.. Phrynonax poecilonotus are notorious for being difficult to get going as babies. You have to resort to tease feeding them in your hand until they figure it out on their own.

This is my setup for my male Phrynonax poecilonotus. There are two potted golden pothos with multiple wooden branches screwed into the side of the cage with some fake plants to fill void space. I hope to eventually only have live plants in the cage.

Once the older animal was in this setup above with live plants, he immediately started eating off tongs with no issues. This was the reason I wanted to make the tub setup for the female so she could have a mini version of this until I get her a cage and set it up like this male’s cage. She has never had an issue eating but seeing how well the male did in a planted cage, I wanted to give her something similar.

This is the finished product. I just added a fake plant in there above the humid hide that could support her if she wanted to perch in the leaves of the fake plant. Which she does often.

Here she is in the tub. As you can see in this picture, she is using the garden fencing just like I anticipated she would. If you do decide to make an enclosure, definitely try to tailor it to the specific species you are making it for. Its very easy to just go with a bare bones setup and house everything like that.

So that’s the finished product. The tub cost me 5 bucks and I had everything else on hand already. So for 5 bucks and about 30 minutes of my time, I was able to create something better for this snake besides a simple setup 6qt tub. A cage doesn’t have to be fancy or expensive for it to meet all of your animal’s needs. I always try to meet all of the animal’s needs with functionality and ease of care for the cage. If the cage is easy to maintain, you are more likely to keep up with it. As opposed to a super fancy, intricate setup that is an ordeal to maintain. So just some food for thought. I also have another tub setup I made for my blue beauties and rhino rats.

Same basic concept but I tried to use more of the clothes hanger so I didn’t feel like I was wasting as much of it. My thought was that the handle of the hanger overlapping with the straight perch would give the multiple points of contact, as well as the piece just below the handle. Live plants as well, with the pothos performing the best. I honestly think I will end up changing these to the other setup with the garden fencing. Like I said at the beginning of this blog, its ok to try something and it not work. That s the only way you will truly figure out what’s best for your animal.

Alternative Prey Items

A topic that has come up a lot recently is what a keeper can use as an alternative food source . This is something that has interest me for almost ten years. I have always thought that a varied diet for our captive reptiles would be a good thing. We as keepers have adopted this mentality that if our reptiles don’t eat European lab rodents (mice or rats), they can’t thrive in captivity for us. Any field study you read on most species will show statistics and percentages of multiple different prey items that make up the complete diet of whatever species that study is on. So why don’t we try to do better in captivity with varied diets? A lot of the feeder suppliers have plenty of different prey that they produce. So the opportunity is there to get a varied diet with rodents, birds, pigs, rabbits, etc. Financial constraints do play a part in most keeper’s decision, as well as space. A reality of keeping reptiles is that it costs money and if your snake is happy and healthy eating rats, there is nothing wrong with feeding that animal appropriate sized rats for its whole life. Snakes do need whole, complete prey items to get everything they require nutritionally from their meals. So with that said, whole prey items should make up the majority of your snake’s diet. Whether it be mice, rats, chickens, quail, rabbits, ducks, pigs, you get the point. But I have researched other things that keepers have fed and have attempted feeding my own collection with alternative prey items.

Local Asian markets have plenty of options for alternative prey items, like seen above.

I want to preface this next part with a disclaimer. I am not saying anyone should only feed incomplete meals like the items I am about to talk about. I feed these items once every few months for my carpets and a little more frequently to my rat snakes and animals with faster metabolisms. Or I will add one of these items to a meal after a complete prey item has been consumed. My go to items are frog legs (old world rats really enjoy these), chicken, and duck necks. Chicken necks are a lot smaller than duck necks.

These duck necks are given to animals that are big enough to eat medium or larger rats.

The duck necks above are easily 3x the size of a chicken neck. So if I am feeding a duck neck to a python that is an adult, realistically they will only get 1-2 in a years time. Even a little variety is a good thing in my mind. Sub adult pythons and colubrids will be the perfect size for chicken necks and chicken hearts. I have noticed that most of my colubrids will absolutely go nuts for anything chicken related. I have also noticed an increased feeding response whenever I offer necks or hearts to some individual snakes. Another item I have just recently tried was duck feet. I got a lot of my ideas from a video Dan Mulleary did a few years ago on this same topic. My beauty snakes enjoyed the duck feet a lot. I was honestly surprised they took them. I choose duck feet over chicken feet due to the duck feet having smaller exposed claws.

Cell phone picture of one of my Chinese beauty snakes taking one of the duck feet.

Another prey item I have not personally used but have seen other keepers use is whole fish. Especially if the species you are working with eats fish in the wild, this could be something you can look into. Asian markets are good for this food source as well. I have seen plenty of whole frozen freshwater fish available at my local Asian markets. I’ve seen barbs, gourami, and other species available. So just another option to look into.

One of my favorite prey items to switch things up with is avian prey. I use chicks and quail due to the ease of sourcing them through commercial feeder producers.

Here is a neotropical bird eating snake (Phrynonax poecilonotus) eating a f/t day old quail.

Birds are a great way to switch up the diet whether you are using whole birds or parts. Obviously you can use whole birds more often than a chicken neck or heart. Most of my snakes seem to enjoy both just as much. I am starting to get more into some of the South American bird eating colubrids. Phrynonax poecilonotus are notorious for being difficult to get started on rodents as hatchlings. So I want to try to use day old button quail to try to remedy the issue of having to tease feed these guys for the first year or so of life to bring down the stress they go through during that process. This might work, it might not. My point is, be open to other prey avenues besides the mice and rats that we have become accustomed to. You would be surprised how a difficult feeder might turn into a feeding machine if you offer it something else.

Here is a standard chicken heart next to a hopper mouse for size comparison.

Another option is to scent rodents with products like the scenting juices from Reptilinks. Or you can make your own if you don’t mind a mess on your hands.

The last thing I want to bring up is with feeding birds. It is well known that day old chicks are not the best and can give you a less than desirable end result after digestion. So how can you remedy this? I prefer to use 2-3 week old quail. They are the same size as a day old chick but they have a more developed skeleton and more mature organ system. If I am feeding colubrids or amazon tree boas for example, I prefer the older bird to the day old bird.

Size comparison shot, from left to right, hopper mouse, day old quail chick, day old chick, 2-3 week old quail.

Like I said above, nothing beats a whole prey item. I recommend that whole prey items make up the majority of your animal’s diet. But if you want to switch things up, I gave you some options you can try. I treat everything the same as far as how I thaw out and heat up prey whether if its a rat or a chicken heart. No special instructions for any of the items that I discussed before presenting them to your animal. If your situation calls for you to only feed your snake one type of whole prey item, that is 100% ok. This was not written to tell anyone they should do exactly what I do. This just another option that you can feed your animal a couple times a year to add variety to their diet.

Underrated species

I have noticed a trend within the hobby. If you are in the hobby long enough, you will hear certain species referred to as underrated. What does that mean exactly? I have had this conversation with breeders and keepers before and the same thing comes up every time. There is usually something about a species that makes it underrated or less appreciated within the hobby. “Mainstream” species, like ball pythons, corn snakes, boa constrictors, leopard geckos, crested geckos and species along those lines all have certain things in common. They are usually fairly forgiving with husbandry, docile, are readily available, and they come in a good number of mutations.

Macklots pythons are definitely considered an underrated species. They use to be popular in the early 90s and have lost popularity in once other species took the spotlight in the hobby. I have heard numerous keepers talk about how underrated and awesome macklots are for over a decade. So why aren’t they more popular now?

That doesn’t mean that those mainstream species are bad by any means. Those species are the reason the hobby has gotten as popular as it has. My very first reptile was a normal leopard gecko and it was the animal that started my obsession just like so many other keepers and breeders. I feel like there was a point in my keeping animals, when I wanted to see what else was out there. Me personally, I kept lizards for 5 years before I got my first snake. When I decided to get a snake, I knew I wanted something different from what you see at every pet store. So I researched every possible snake I could find. Kingsnakes, Milk snakes, boas, pythons, odd ball stuff, you name it and I researched as much as I could. Then I came across Irian Jaya Carpet Pythons. The size, color, head structure, semi-arboreal nature, basically everything about this snake made me want one. This was in 2006 so carpets definitely weren’t nearly as popular as they are today. They could absolutely be considered an underrated species at that time. So I ended up buying an adult male from NERD at the Daytona Expo that year and I have had carpets ever since. I still consider carpets kind of underrated but they have definitely gained popularity in the past decade or so.

One of my farm bred ijs. The amount of colors on these guys get overlooked too often. More people are starting to take notice of the potential this subspecies really has. The next decade is going to be insane for ijs or papuan carpets.

I have a few animals that I would consider underrated. Cave dwelling rat snakes, Chinese beauties, Ptyas mucosa, radiated rat snakes, and Phrynonax poecilonotus. These snakes are not as popular for a number of reasons from what I’ve seen. Temperature requirements have been brought up when I talk to people about some of these species. I understand someone not having the room for a particular species. That is honestly a very responsible reason. Others say that some species are too snappy, I can understand that too. I’m not a big fan of that either, but I have also learned how to work snakes with hooks so I can work with more snappy species comfortably. Size can also be a factor. Some of the underrated species can definitely be on the medium to large side. A larger size equals a larger cage and more space. Feeding can also play a part in a species having the underrated label. Look at Spilotes sulphureus or blue beauty snakes. Both are known to eat a lot and defecate a lot. That can definitely keep people from venturing into these species. Lack of mutations can also keep a species from being kept by more keepers. Take Macklots as an example; a granite super zebra carpet python is fairly sought after but a macklots python looks just like that combo and keepers will pass them up consistently. Some species have one or more of these contributing factors to being labeled as underrated and under appreciated.

Cave dwelling rat snakes are definitely an underrated species . They are one of the more popular of the Orthriophis genus. Orthriophis on a whole seem to be overlooked in the hobby here in the states from what I’ve gathered. I would love to see more people working with all of the available subspecies.

I have been in the hobby for almost two decades now if you count me just having a couple pet leopard geckos as a kid. I pretty much jumped head first into the hobby and never looked back. I have seen some trends come and go. I got in when the leopard gecko craze was winding down and pied ball pythons started to appear, then bearded dragons, etc. I have noticed an increase of people wanting to keep the lesser known species. Ptyas comes to mind. So do coachwhips. A lot of larger colubrids are finding their way into collections now. Research and information about these species is growing too. That is exactly what this hobby needs if you ask me. There are so many species now that keepers are giving a shot. Timor pythons, White lipped pythons, Scrubs, Dunns, Ringed pythons, so many species of lizards and the list goes on and on.

Gonyosoma have always been one of my personal favorites when it came to just keeping and observing a species. These unfortunately get imported like mad and are cheap so that is usually a recipe for people to think of them as “cheap” and “we can get those anytime”.. Fortunately, Gonyosoma jansenii are starting to show up more, so hopefully those will be established soon.

I want to leave you with this. There is a good possibility that imports as we know it could stop anytime, especially from Indonesia. This has been a rumor for some time now. So just think about how many species or projects we as a hobby have lost due to nobody wanting to put the effort into the project. Look at Dunns pythons, we almost lost that subspecies in the US hobby forever. Thanks to Ryan Young (Molecular Reptile) and KJ, we now have had two seasons in a row with successful breedings. We as a hobby can do this with so many more species. I myself would love to see the trend of keepers making the decision to keep more “underrated species”.

Why are you breeding?

I was on The Reptile Gumbo Podcast the other day and a good topic came up about breeding, specifically about how to start breeding. One of my first thoughts is to say that just because you keep snakes, does not mean you have to breed snakes. But a great point was brought up. With the culture of the hobby nowadays, breeding and producing animals is constantly in our faces every single day. Who wouldn’t want to be a part of that?

With pictures like this being posted almost daily, you really can’t blame new people for wanting to breed right away.

I acquired my first carpet python in 2006. I did not pair any of my animals until 2016. I took my time for 10 years and learned everything I could about carpets and their husbandry. During that time, I made a lot of mistakes. A keeper has to make mistakes to become better, there is no way around that. You can research a species for a year before you purchase your snake or talk to other keepers and listen to their advice. Mistakes will still be made. And that is perfectly ok. What isn’t ok is when a mistake is made and you don’t use that experience to learn from. This is a hobby of trial and error. You have to figure out what formula works for you in your room, your climate, etc.

This is the 2018 jagpondro clutch before I took the eggs from the female.

With that being said, when should someone get into breeding snakes or reptiles? That is an answer that will be different for every person. It also depends on your personal motive to dive into that part of the hobby. I don’t think someone getting their first snake should be thinking about breeding before they have any hands on experience with that species. Me personally, after ten years of keeping carpets, the natural progression was to attempt to reproduce. My first year I produced two clutches and I decided to go the maternal incubation route with the eggs. To this day, that was one of the most rewarding experiences I have encountered during this hobby. Watching that female’s behavior with those eggs was incredible and I urge everyone that does decide to breed a species that will maternally incubate, to do so at least once.

This is one of the snakes I produced from 2016 that was maternally incubated,

You should really look into the reason you want to breed when you are thinking about diving into that side of keeping snakes. Is this a business venture or an enjoyable hobby? Are you prepared to keep, feed, and clean all of the snakes you produce for years? All snakes don’t sell right away. Are you prepared to have that many cages setup? Are you willing to risk your animals health if something goes wrong?. Lastly, are you working with a species that you enjoy? Or are you trying to follow the trends of what the market is doing right now? These are just a few of the many questions you should have answered prior to making the jump into breeding. This isn’t me saying that people that breed snakes are bad. I breed snakes. But I have all of these questions and many more already answered so I can breed as responsibly as possible.

Granite jag next to a regular jag.

I guess the main message I’m trying to get across here is this: its ok to work with a species first before you decide its a “project”. So many people, myself included at times, get a new species and the first thought is about breeding. In my opinion the first thought should be, let me learn everything possible about this species. Either through the internet, books, natural history studies, scientific papers, Youtube, talking to breeders, personal experience, etc. So if you do decide to breed that species, you can have a wealth of knowledge behind you when you have people asking questions about the species. If you look at the successful breeders in the hobby, most have been working with their main species for a long time. It takes time to get there. It takes time to be that vendor at the show that people come to the show just to see your table. This hobby is not an instant gratification hobby. Take your time and enjoy this hobby we are fortunate enough to be a part of.

Take the good with the bad

The title says it all. I was planning for a bigger production year this season. Just the natural progression of things when you start breeding and having goals. I haven’t produced more than 3-4 clutches in a season. So before all of the COVID-19 stuff started happening, I decided to go for around 10 clutches this season. Now that is a big difference from 3-4 clutches but I do a few shows throughout the year and plan on having a bigger online presence. One of my big plans for this year is Peterson striped coastals from my big girl Jade. She produced a 20+ egg clutch for Kyle Rozecki in 2016 so I had big hopes for her. This was also going to be my first year producing Nova Guinea carpets. These were two projects I was very excited about getting off the ground.

So as you can see, the nova guineas started great. I ended up with 11 good eggs. Couldn’t be happier and I tried my best to get the word out about these guys since most keepers didn’t even know about them. The amount of people reaching out to me wanting to know more about the nova guineas has been amazing. The hobby seems to be heading in a direction where morphs aren’t the main focus of everyone’s collection, which in my opinion is a great thing.

Here is the nova guinea clutch after five weeks of incubation. 9 of the 11 eggs have gone downhill. This clutch was one that I had a lot of excitement for. But as this hobby is capable of doing, it will humble you from time to time. And remind you that we are still dealing with animals and even if you do “everything” right, things can still go down hill. There is always next year.

The second clutch i really wanted to be successful were the Peterson coastals. The Peterson project is honestly my favorite project I have. I did hatch out 2.2 in 2018 so I do have up and coming animals to continue the line. This season I was finally going to get to pair up my big girl Jade that has laid 20+ egg clutches in the past before she came to me. So to say I was very hopeful for a big clutch was an understatement.

Catching her laying was really cool. I have never actually seen a snake lay its eggs and I was able to watch one as she laid it. Watching her lay that egg was up there with watching the maternal incubation process. In the picture you can see that there is one good egg and one slug so I didn’t expect all of them to be fertile. She was in the beginning of laying so I was expecting a lot more eggs….

And this is what I woke up to the next morning. There goes the hobby again, humbling me. I was expecting a huge clutch and ended up with just a couple viable eggs. Now with all that being said, I still have a couple good eggs from both of the clutches I have discussed here as well as other clutches still to be laid. I could have gotten all slugs, so at least I have the possibility of hatching one or two from each clutch. There is also a part of me that looks at this as a blessing in disguise with everything going on in the world right now. Maybe making this year my “big” year just wasn’t meant to be. On the positive side of things, I still have eggs and have a chance at producing some good stuff, just maybe not as much of it.

So up to this point I have had a lot of success in breeding the couple of seasons I have bred snakes. This is the first year I have had any real problems, if you want to call them that. I think the “failures” are what make us better keepers. No matter what the situation, try to learn something from it. I definitely have things that I think caused these two clutches to go the way they did. And I plan on making the necessary adjustments and trying again next year.

Making a secure hide box

I recently acquired a 5ft LTC Ptyas mucosa. I have always been drawn to the Ptyas genus. Their big fierce looking eyes, eye-catching pattern, and impressive colors have always interested me. Its no secret that I’m a Morelia guy at heart but I have always had an interest in old world rat snakes as well. I use to frequent the now shut down ratsnake foundation and learned about tons of species that we don’t see in the mainstream hobby. So this particular individual Ptyas I have is shy, nervous, and defensive. Just something that the species is sometimes known for. So no surprises once I received her. I have her in a 5ft PVC cage with a jungle of cork bark and cork tubes. Even with her cage being outfitted with that much cover, she is still very nervous and defensive when I have to do cage maintenance. When I see an animal acting like that, striking repeatedly if I just looked into the cage. I perceive this behavior as stress on the animal. I am completely fine with an animal not being “docile” if that means that particular animal is stressed out less often. This caused me to brainstorm on a possible solution to how I can work with the animal with causing the least amount of stress on her and me during cage maintenance.

So my first idea was to look into the hide boxes that people use for venomous snakes. These are usually boxes with sliding doors so you can secure the snake in the hide box. I wanted something that was along those lines. As fate would have it, I came across a video on YouTube from Brandon Wheeler of Morelia House showing what he uses for his scrub python. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sk4O3Bx_ulE at the 1:00 mark you can see what I saw that got my wheels turning.

I ended up going straight to Home Depot and got all of the supplies I would need. I got two 4 gallon Rubbermaid tote with a latching lid, 3 inch threaded female PVC couplings, 3 inch threaded male PVC caps, and silicone to seal the coupling in place.

Here are all the supplies I needed to complete this project.

I happened to have the right size drill attachment to make the right sized hole for the 3 inch coupling.

Here are the finished products, one with the cap on and one without after sealing the edges with silicone.

So here is the finished product. What I can do is go into that Ptyas cage and thread the cap on, remove the whole hide box and reduce the stress that she experiences so I can do cage maintenance with no issues. I have New Zealand Sphagnum Moss in there so it acts as a humid hide. She honestly spends most of her time in there so it makes life a lot easier for both of us. She is eating quicker than before so all around it seems to be a good move. The second one was for a lay box for one of my bigger coastal carpet females that was a little big for my usual egg boxes.

This is an easy and cheap way to make a secure hide box for any snake or reptile that might be on the more nervous side. Its not ground-breaking but it is functional and I have had a lot of success with it so far. Whenever you are scrolling through social media or watching videos on YouTube, keep an open mind. You never know what might trigger an idea that you can use for your collection.