Aussie Pythons and Snakes

Ella · #31 23-Apr-04, 01:45 PM

a little wind up one for my bath

luke · #32 23-Apr-04, 01:54 PM

dont know about ella but we have a 44f racer/lux catameran and there is not one bit of marine carpet on it. i think you would find it more comonly in snake cages or on jetties petersmartasscue

Simon_Archibald · #33 23-Apr-04, 02:08 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by peterescue

I used to have a reputation for being grumpy.

Are you sure you're past it?

Simon Archibald

peterescue · #34 23-Apr-04, 02:12 PM

I may be grumpy but I dont think Im past it. I'll have you up for agism your whippersnapper.
Then again.
Its been a hard week Simon. I think I was trying to be cheery to compensate for my loss by forcing other people to be cheery and positive.
Peter

NoOne · #35 23-Apr-04, 02:21 PM

BC is easier to clean than any substrate i've used, marine carpet looks OK but if you have more than a few snakes it becomes an expensive time consuming effort.
It takes me about an hour to go through a scoup out any mess from all my cages marine carpet would have to be washed it would take all weekend.

In my situation BC and newspaper can't be topped and i have tried many different substrates.

womas4me · #36 23-Apr-04, 02:23 PM

Ricko, would have to agree that it depends on where the reptiles are from. We have tried BC but as the weather up here is usually very humid, the pythons we trialled it on didn't like it and their skin dried out too much despite the natural humidity and having huge waterbowls. Have a trial with one and see how it goes- it depends on each animal as they all have different needs.

snakehunter · #37 23-Apr-04, 02:27 PM

With BC you only need to remove the dirty part, with newspaper you have to replace the whole lot, this can be a pain in the rear end if you have a lot of logs/rocks on the floor of the cage. The other thing BC has over newspaper is that when you clean up the newspaper, there is no snake scent on the fresh stuff, so the snake then craps out a bit more to replace the scent, and therefore you have a dirty cage again!

Magpie · #38 23-Apr-04, 02:31 PM

Quote:

The other thing BC has over newspaper is that when you clean up the newspaper, there is no snake scent on the fresh stuff, so the snake then craps out a bit more to replace the scent, and therefore you have a dirty cage again!

I've never had this problem. I have heard a few people make this claim but in 2 years and more that 30 snakes it's never been an issue.
One thing to think of with BC is do you have a lip at the front of the cage to stop it all falling out as you open the door?

Ricko · #39 23-Apr-04, 04:27 PM

One thing to think of with BC is do you have a lip at the front of the cage to stop it all falling out as you open the door?

good point magpie. and looking at all my tanks i do have lips on all of them so it would be fine. thanks bigguy and simon and everyone else for there very apreciated opinions just got a couple more questions bout the humidity.

1. would olives, diamonds and childreni be fine on the bc regarding the drying out of humidity?

2. What about bhp's? i saw in your photo's bigguy that you had bhp's on bc but with the humidity thing do they dislike the bc or tend to have more problem on bc than other snakes? regarding sloughing and stuff like that?

Thanks again everyone for your opinions on this subject it has helped me out heaps.

Cheers ricko

Simon_Archibald · #40 23-Apr-04, 04:51 PM

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

Ricko · #41 23-Apr-04, 04:58 PM

it does help heaps thanks simon but in the unfortunate situation with the diamonds im from melbourne and dont think they would like to be outside down here specially on a day like today. very cold.

Simon_Archibald · #42 23-Apr-04, 05:03 PM

I would suggest looking into some sort of wooden hide box that it heated with something like a heat cord (PM stockeh to order them cheaper than anywhere else) in an outdoor enclosure. You'd have to talk to Bob or others experienced with Diamond climates because I really have no idea. I just know it's ideal for them here where I live :-)

Simon Archibald

sxereturn · #43 23-Apr-04, 07:50 PM

If I can keep an 11 foot carpet inside, you can keep any Diamond inside...

#44 23-Apr-04, 08:01 PM

BC is the best with snakes that have runny faeces (my BTS) because it usually soaks through the newspaper and u have to disinfect the floor of the enclosure, or snakes that like to slither through their poo and spread it throughout the cage (water pythons) I have used newspaper, sand, BC, crushed walnut shells etc... and BC is the best I have tried so far. and the terrestrial snakes such as my water pythons and maculosus can burrow themselves in it!

Simon_Archibald · #45 23-Apr-04, 10:57 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by sxereturn

If I can keep an 11 foot carpet inside, you can keep any Diamond inside...

...well that settles it then. Thanks for your insight. I wasn't aware that carpet pythons also suffered from Diamond Python Syndrome - the internationally recognised mystery regarding Diamond Pythons. But then again maybe my armchair's not telling me all I need to know.

Simon Archibald