MissDangerous
Not so new Member
Hi all!
After lots of lurking on this forum as well as talking to lots of keepers and breeders, my boyfriend and I finally went ahead and got our very first snake. Initially looked at Stimsons, however we are now the very proud owners of a beautiful little Darwin hatchy. He hatched on the 18th December, and according to the breeder is feeding very well. He is due for a feed with us on Friday. We have called him Ares, and yes we know he'll never hear his name but it's purely for our sake haha
The set up is a Reptile One RTT450T, with red desert sand as a substrate. We are aware of the dangers of ingestion here, so he will always be fed in a separate tub. Started off with a wooden hide and large stick in case he wanted to climb, with a few artificial vines for something different. Well, he loves his vines, and loves climbing! After observing him spending most of his time in the "treetops", we decided to wire in a u shaped branch and add more vines.
We left his old plastic tub and toilet rolls in with him at first thinking it might help him to have something familiar, however he hasn't looked twice at them so we took them out after a while. Being a hatchy, we were worried he feel too threatened in the big enclosure and were happy to keep in in his click clack, but he really seems at home. I honestly thought being a young hatchling he would spend more time in one of the two wooden hides he has in there (one near the heat source and one near the cool end) but he seems to prefer being on the branches or wrapped in the vines.
He spends most of the day up there, comes down at night to explore and take a drink. Seems very comfortable and not stressed, he doesn't mind motion around the enclosure, and will only start to coil back and look a little concerned when I am changing his water, but doesn't strike.
The first three pics are the initial set up, with his old tub still in. He had been fed the day before by the breeder so you can definitely see his food lump!
Last pic is with the tub removed and new branches in. He's up in the top corner, haven't tried to get any close pics as we want him to settle in as best as possible.. Can't wait to get the good camera and take some decent shots in a few weeks
Just using cardboard to block up the gap between the glass sliding doors for now, off to bunnings today to find some clear hose. The first night he was home he was already sussing out whether he could squeeze past, found him wedged against the cardboard!
The heat section sits around 30-33, with the cool part of the tank going between 25-27. Where he sits most of the day is around the 26-27 mark. Is this a fairly standard range? I have looked it up and seems to be fine, but am open to suggestions if this can be improved.
Oh and for the people on here who seem to be so interested in poop (yes I've seen all the threads lol), he passed urates yesterday but nothing more as of yet
Please feel free to offer opinions, advice and comments. As new snake owners we are looking to learn everything we can to ensure the health and happiness of our new arrival.
Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk
After lots of lurking on this forum as well as talking to lots of keepers and breeders, my boyfriend and I finally went ahead and got our very first snake. Initially looked at Stimsons, however we are now the very proud owners of a beautiful little Darwin hatchy. He hatched on the 18th December, and according to the breeder is feeding very well. He is due for a feed with us on Friday. We have called him Ares, and yes we know he'll never hear his name but it's purely for our sake haha
The set up is a Reptile One RTT450T, with red desert sand as a substrate. We are aware of the dangers of ingestion here, so he will always be fed in a separate tub. Started off with a wooden hide and large stick in case he wanted to climb, with a few artificial vines for something different. Well, he loves his vines, and loves climbing! After observing him spending most of his time in the "treetops", we decided to wire in a u shaped branch and add more vines.
We left his old plastic tub and toilet rolls in with him at first thinking it might help him to have something familiar, however he hasn't looked twice at them so we took them out after a while. Being a hatchy, we were worried he feel too threatened in the big enclosure and were happy to keep in in his click clack, but he really seems at home. I honestly thought being a young hatchling he would spend more time in one of the two wooden hides he has in there (one near the heat source and one near the cool end) but he seems to prefer being on the branches or wrapped in the vines.
He spends most of the day up there, comes down at night to explore and take a drink. Seems very comfortable and not stressed, he doesn't mind motion around the enclosure, and will only start to coil back and look a little concerned when I am changing his water, but doesn't strike.
The first three pics are the initial set up, with his old tub still in. He had been fed the day before by the breeder so you can definitely see his food lump!
Last pic is with the tub removed and new branches in. He's up in the top corner, haven't tried to get any close pics as we want him to settle in as best as possible.. Can't wait to get the good camera and take some decent shots in a few weeks
Just using cardboard to block up the gap between the glass sliding doors for now, off to bunnings today to find some clear hose. The first night he was home he was already sussing out whether he could squeeze past, found him wedged against the cardboard!
The heat section sits around 30-33, with the cool part of the tank going between 25-27. Where he sits most of the day is around the 26-27 mark. Is this a fairly standard range? I have looked it up and seems to be fine, but am open to suggestions if this can be improved.
Oh and for the people on here who seem to be so interested in poop (yes I've seen all the threads lol), he passed urates yesterday but nothing more as of yet
Please feel free to offer opinions, advice and comments. As new snake owners we are looking to learn everything we can to ensure the health and happiness of our new arrival.
Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk