Include

[Simon_Archibald]

Ricko,
As Bob has said before, outdoors is really the only way to go for adult Diamonds. I have kept hatchies inside on BC before without any problems, but it just means there's a bit more work involved.

The Diamonds were kept in a Pal Pen (plastic container) with a heat mat on one side set to about 33/34 degrees celsius. This is warmish as far as Diamonds go but it enabled me to make sure the snakes were thermoregulating by watching their levels of activity. They used the whole enclosure and it seemed to work fine. The extra work I was referring to was that I regularly misted the enclosure with a household water bottle. Only once every 3 days or so, but made sure they got plenty of moisture during a shed cycle. For this, I placed a 2nd water bowl in the enclosure on top of the end with the heat mat, and I misted the enclosure between once and three times a day. Not excessively but quite a bit. Bob will probably attest to the fact that Diamonds love the rain in the wild. It is common to see Diamonds sitting on a branch high in a tree during rainy days. This is why the moisture is not too much of a problem for them as with other species.

Also, I had to make sure the Diamonds received regular time outside. I did this either by a 30min handling session (also good for taming at same time) or by placing them in a Herparium (or similar product) for about an hour - making sure they had access to water.

Not sure about any of the other species, haven't had much to do with them. The water bowl in Bob's BHP enclosures looks relatively big so I'm guessing you'd need to provide that larger area of water??? Is this right Bob?

Anyway, just my thoughts. Hope it helps you out.

Simon Archibald