Write up - my Live jungle enclosure

[Insane]

Gday all,

I am fairly new to the herp keeping world, I got my awesome jungle girl about 7-8 weeks ago.

when I was setting up her enclosure, I read, a LOT of information, and it seemed that 99% of people kept their snakes in a sterile environment and used carpet etc for their enclosures.

I personally believe that the closer you can bring an animal to its natural habitat, the more natural behaviours that animal will begin to display.

Thats my reasoning for using a live environment for my baby.

Resources - The art of keeping snakes, by Phillippe de Vosjoli
- Natural Terrariums, by Phillip Purser
- The Internet, a lot, lot of different, awesome sites out there. I can provide a list of sites I used as resources if anyone wants them.

so, on with some pictures I guess.


This is an over-all view of the enclosure. you can see my water-bowl in the front center, and you can see the make-up of the bioactive substrate, it includes a layer of terracotta rubble in the bottom, to provide drainage, followed by a folded over layer of shadecloth, followed by a few inches of substrate. the substrate material is around 70% unfertilized coco-peat, and 20% sphagnum moss, and 10% leaf litter. As you can see in the picture above, it is quite moist, and the layer of leaf litter over the top retains moisture within the substrate, and provides a dry surface for my baby to lie on.

So far this substrate has passed all the checks for bio-active. If you feel it, it is no longer sticky to the touch, and it no longer sticks to the snake, it has quite a silky feel (from the micro-organisms apparently)



here is a closer shot of the interior of the enclosure. you can see several sticks, for climbing, poking out of the jungle. She has no issues climbing any of these, and seems to enjoy lying along the large stick and "hunting" through the foliage below for the few nights when she gets hungry before I feed her.

the large stick is attached with some fine wire to the two bamboo stakes to provide a solid climbing platform. I did have a large bamboo stake supporting the other end, but had an issue with mold, so removed it. Have had no issues like that since.


this is a picture of the top of her enclosure, with her shed from last night placed on top, for a size comparison. The top is riddled with holes, as are the sides, as I was having trouble creating a heat gradient, and getting enough airflow in the tank to reduce humidity. Those issues are fixed now, and the tank sits at around 70% humidity most of the time, with the substrate being moister. My snake knows this, before her shed she spent the last two days underneath the leaf litter soaking in the moist-er coco peat.

You can see the lighting that I am using, it is an NEC gro-light tube, along with a reptile one uv basking lamp.

I created the light guards myself, out of Gutter-Guard from bunnings. it was around $8 for a massive roll. (still have a LOT left lol) there is a better shot of the light guards coming, but basically they are completely snake proof and approved. during her nighttime wanderings I have seen her wrapped up around the basking lamp light guard, and she spends a lot of her time wrapped around the Fluoro light guard, as its quite close to the roof, sometimes she sleeps up there during the day as she feels quite secure.



this is a photo of her in her favourite sleeping spot. She is behind my dwarf umbrella plant (plant on a rock) I thought it looked great for an enclosure of this size, so it is buried, pot and all into the substrate. she usually sleeps back there, underneath my fern.
I had a hide placed in the tank for the first 2 weeks, it was an appropriate size and everything, but she refused to use it, instead preferring underneath the fern, or in the fern, or even on top of the fern. The hide has since been removed.



she is in a deep sleep today, after last nights effort in shedding. I was lucky enough to walk out at about 1 am last night, (I usually check on her, I have a small led torch with a red LED which I filter through paper to provide low wattage red light to see her by at night)

so I got to watch the whole process. quite incredible. As you can see she is quite bright and very white and black after this last shed



this is a better shot of the fluoro light cage, and my heating for the cage. I decided to run the fluoro this way, because it eliminated several problems, including dedicating a large amount of cage space to the fluoro, by the time I would have made a cage for the whole bloody light half the enclosure would be gone. This way is, I believe, simple and practical. if I want to remove the tube, or remove the fitting, I simply twist the tube, and the whole fitting lifts off the top of the enclosure, allowing me to remove the tube if I wish.

The light cage for the fluoro is again, made out of gutter guard, and is snake proofed. the guard is secured against itself with a lot of small wire ties, which I stuck on the inside of the guard, and filed the points off just in case.

The guard is not actually secured to the cage. it is simply poked through an appropriate size hole, and the wires cut at either end, to allow the ends to splay out, like a giant split-pin. The guard does not move, and is 100% escape proof.

For heating in the tank, I have the fluoro, as well as the basking lamp, and in addition I have an old electric blanket on its lowest setting folded up underneath the tank, to provide additional gentle warmth throughout the tank, as well as ideal conditions for a bio-active substrate, & a stable humidity.


here is a (poor) shot of my baby asleep on the fluoro.



This picture is of the final set-up, once everything is in and the top is secured on with bulldog clips. the plastic is not the best for viewing, but lacking a glass tank, I created this monstrosity. I believe I have created a very good little micro-environment for my baby here, and so far I have seen nothing to disabuse that notion. she is voraciously eating, and has had 3 large unassisted feeds, this is her second shed, and she is active during the night and sleeps during the day. exactly what a baby jungle is supposed to do.

At this stage I am happy, I believe it will be about 6 months before I upgrade her to her full sized enclosure (going to be quite large).

I am also looking at introducing into the enclosure a small stick insect (not sure), and some millipedes. The millipedes will provide additional fecal matter breakdown duties.

the maintenance for this tank, involves checking for poo, (if you find it you simply scoop the majority out of the substrate, and mix the rest into the "soil". This breaks down and provides nutrients for the plants)
and also changing the water every few days or if it becomes fouled. (hasn't happened yet)

I need to introduce very little water into this environment. I lightly mist the base of the plants once every 2 - 3 days. Technically I could simply pour a little water into a corner of the enclosure, and it would seep down and spread out to the plants, but I like misting a little instead.

Sorry for the novel! if anyone has any questions, queries or doubtful points, feel free to speak up, or if you have constructive criticism, feel free to offer it. I know a lot of people are against a setup like this, or have had problems, but I believe I have done the research to eliminate almost all of these issues. I only want what is best for my snake at the end of the day.

Cheers,

Daniel

[Costa]

bloody hell. how humid do you want that thing to be...
i think you will be needing some ventalation in there...

EDIT
sorry my bad i see you have holes on the lid part. nice setup
i dont own any pythons. never have. so i cant really give proper advice.
looks nice though

[liney]

loving the set-up, very nice to see a very different take on homes for our friends. Keep us posted as I'm interested to see how things grow in harmony with your jungle. Are you contemplating a large "live" enclosure?

[arbok]

looks great! im very impressed

[Insane]

loving the set-up, very nice to see a very different take on homes for our friends. Keep us posted as I'm interested to see how things grow in harmony with your jungle. Are you contemplating a large "live" enclosure?

Cheers mate,

(and thanks costa too, don't know how to do multiple quotes sorry.)
Had an issue with humidity, but after creating additional holes, and putting my small pedestal fan next to the enclosure - I turn it on if I can see vapour on the plastic at all, or if humidity rises above 80%

so far both the plants and the snake are growing well together. I have had 1 small issue, the plant directly under the basking lamp has had a few leaves BBQ'ed, but I am encouraging it to grow wide instead of tall.

Providing I have no issues with this set up, yes, her next enclosure will be a large live enclosure. I am thinking about shower stall size and height, with vertical and horizontal heat gradients.

Cheers,

Daniel

[sweetangel]

that looking good. but like costa said u might want to keep and eye on the humidity. if there is to much yu could end up with respitory problems and skin issues.
but as long as u monitor it and keep a close eye i think u should be fine. mabe add a bit more ventilation to combat the humidity
but well done and i cant wait to see itsw big house

[Insane]

Thanks sweet angel, as I said before, humidity now sits between 70- 80%, and there is plenty of air flow in the tank. the substrate has a higher humidity (as seen by the vapour droplets), but it is not spread into the rest of the tank because of the layer of leaf litter on top.

[GTsteve]

Looks awesome but I think a huge amount of work to keep it all in top shape. It'll be interesting to see it in 3 months or so!

[Insane]

Actually quite the opposite Steve,

very very minimal maintenance. Nature just does its thing mate, I just have to stir the substrate every week and change the water... its already been running for 2 months.

[schizmz]

I have an old electric blanket on its lowest setting folded up underneath the tank,

looks good but Id prob remove that m8..besides you should never fold an electric blanket.

[hoppyone]

What a set up cant wait to see the next one?

[Ramsayi]

If you would like better viewing then you could make a timber frame up to suit inlayed with a piece of acrylic.Cut the side of the top tub out a bit smaller than the frame ,run some silicone around the edge then use small wood screws from the inside of the tub,through to the timber frame.

[Insane]

thanks guys,

schizmz - its on really really low heat, like, barely warm to the touch. will monitor

hoppyone - cheers mate

Ramsayi - Good idea mate, will see if I can do that in the next few weeks. Great idea.

Also, I'd like to say thanks to everyone for the encouragement, I was told in no uncertain terms by a number of people that it was a bad idea and a mistake, and that only problems could arise.

At this stage, if people want a good looking and very low maintenance enclosure, I would recommend this

BUT, I've only been doing it for two months, so take is as you may. I have a spare tub set up with paper, sticks, hide etc, just in case there are any problems, I will move her straight out into that tub.

Cheers all
Daniel

[Ramsayi]

Or if you really don't want to stuff around too much get down to the local $2 shop and buy a cheap photo frame of the appropriate size.Take the backing off it and install the same way as above.

[Waterrat]

Thanks sweet angel, as I said before, humidity now sits between 70- 80%, and there is plenty of air flow in the tank. the substrate has a higher humidity (as seen by the vapour droplets), but it is not spread into the rest of the tank because of the layer of leaf litter on top.

I am always bemused why some people create such high humidity in their enclosures. IMO, 70 - 80% is WAY too high even for a tropical rainforest species. Keep you eyes on your snake, blisters, scale rot, etc., are usually results of excessive humidity.