Loki's New Home

[eminart]

I've finally completed (mostly) Drymerica. It has been a lot of work. I'm not satisfied with the waterdish liner I came up with, but otherwise, I think it's done.

I'm trying to wait a while to put him in it, in hopes that the plants will take root and be more difficult for him to destroy. I know some will probably die. The plants will be a work in progress.

http://i78.photobucket.com/albums/j120/eminart/Herps/Indigo/DSC_0002_zps8bd4kkvn.jpg

And, this is the tub where his burrow leads.
http://i78.photobucket.com/albums/j120/eminart/Herps/Indigo/DSC_0006_zpstihnse8s.jpg

[EL Ziggy]

Wow, great job Em. I really like how the burrow leads into the tub.

[SnoopySnake]

This is awesome!

[eminart]

Thanks, Ziggy and Snoopy. A few weeks ago it was a pile of lumber and plywood in my back yard. It has been a TON of work and planning to make everything waterproof and functional, but I'm actually very pleased with the results.

[Sylphie]

Wow, great! I would love to have something similiar for my Russians <3

And I really love that substrate, what it is? And plants are great too!

[Minkness]

All of these beautiful emclosures are making me jealous!

[eminart]

And I really love that substrate, what it is?

The substrate is basically a 50/50 mix of play sand and top soil, with a few scoops of leaf mulch mixed into each bucket. I put a small amount of pine straw, dead leaves, crumbled bark, and small sticks on top for aesthetic purposes. And, there's about 2" of pea gravel underneath it all to act as a drainage layer.

[RAD House]

That is awesome. Well done sir. I especially like the burrow, very creative. Some day I hope to have the time and money to put something this nice together.

[jjhill001]

What kind of snake is a Drymerica? Also @MesoCorney I'd bet this didn't cost nearly as much money as you'd think.

[Albert Clark]

Wow em! Great craftsmanship. Looks fantastic and like you put a lot of planning into it. Congrats.

[Sylphie]

What kind of snake is a Drymerica? Also @MesoCorney I'd bet this didn't cost nearly as much money as you'd think.

Drymarchon couperi, Indigo Snake :D And Drymerica because this viv is big as America, so.. Dry-marchon + A-merica :)

[eminart]

Drymarchon couperi, Indigo Snake :D And Drymerica because this viv is big as America, so.. Dry-marchon + A-merica :)

Bingo! My wife said it was as "big as a continent" when I was building it. So, I named it "Drymerica" as a joke.

In reality, it's the minimum size that is acceptable for an adult D. couperi. I would have preferred to make it two feet longer.

[eminart]

@MesoCorney I'd bet this didn't cost nearly as much money as you'd think.

I haven't really kept up with it, but I probably have $600-700 in it.

[Pogie]

WOW! Very impressive!!!

[prairiepanda]

That's incredible! Very clever idea having the burrow leading into a bin. Very nice display piece overall.

[eminart]

Thanks again, guys. I'm finishing up a better water bowl design. I'll probably move Loki in sometime within the next few days.

[Roman]

Great job!

It looks really fantastic. From my experience with large colubrids (Spilotes pullatus, Orthriophis taeniurus frisei) your palm-like plants will not last very long – maybe 2 to 4 weeks before they are pushed flat. That was about the time my tiger ratsnakes needed to destroy my plant…

If you are not determined to use only plants from the same origin as your indigo I would suggest to use something like pothos (Epipremnum aureum), Scindapsus pictus, Philodendron scandens or creeping fig (Ficus pumila). All of them are pretty robust, they survive even losing a whole tendril and grow fast enough to replace any leaves they might lose. All of them won’t win you the award for the most natural enclosure possible but they will keep your enclosure green.

If you add something rough at the background the plants will even grow upwards and you will have a green background within a year. Do you know “Xaxim” (I don’t know if this is the same in English, it’s some fabric from tropical tree ferns) ? Here in Germany you can get it as tiles which can be glued at the background of your enclosure. If you keep it moist (like in really wet) some ferns or moss might actually grow from it all by itself, but otherwise it is great for the other plants to get hold on.

I would also add some larger branches for climbing. I don’t know about indigos if they climb very much, but as your enclosure is high enough add some branches for your snake so it can use the third dimension.

Roman

[eminart]

Great job!

It looks really fantastic. From my experience with large colubrids (Spilotes pullatus, Orthriophis taeniurus frisei) your palm-like plants will not last very long – maybe 2 to 4 weeks before they are pushed flat. That was about the time my tiger ratsnakes needed to destroy my plant…

If you are not determined to use only plants from the same origin as your indigo I would suggest to use something like pothos (Epipremnum aureum), Scindapsus pictus, Philodendron scandens or creeping fig (Ficus pumila). All of them are pretty robust, they survive even losing a whole tendril and grow fast enough to replace any leaves they might lose. All of them won’t win you the award for the most natural enclosure possible but they will keep your enclosure green.

If you add something rough at the background the plants will even grow upwards and you will have a green background within a year. Do you know “Xaxim” (I don’t know if this is the same in English, it’s some fabric from tropical tree ferns) ? Here in Germany you can get it as tiles which can be glued at the background of your enclosure. If you keep it moist (like in really wet) some ferns or moss might actually grow from it all by itself, but otherwise it is great for the other plants to get hold on.

I would also add some larger branches for climbing. I don’t know about indigos if they climb very much, but as your enclosure is high enough add some branches for your snake so it can use the third dimension.

Roman


Thanks! I did consider some of those plants, and I may eventually get some. I've used pothos a lot with other reptile species. I'm just going to see what survives and go from there. Indigos don't climb much, but I did consider a climbing branch. I might still add one, but I really don't want to attach anything permanently to the walls so that I can avoid drilling through my epoxy coating. But, we'll see. I know it's going to evolve as I learn more about what will work with this snake. Thanks for the recommendations.

[eminart]

I finally got his waterbowl finished. The bowl itself is made from concrete and the interior has a couple of coats of marine (aquarium safe) epoxy to keep it watertight. It sits down into a larger concrete base that is mostly buried in the substrate. This allows for the bowl to sit down in the dirt naturally, but I can still lift it out for cleaning without disturbing the substrate and plants. It's not perfect, but I like it much more than the versions I tried first where I used plastic liners instead of concrete.

http://i78.photobucket.com/albums/j120/eminart/Herps/Indigo/photo37_zpssfoibbau.jpg

[Pareeeee]

That looks great! Good luck with those mini palms, they did horrible in my Crested Gecko's enclosure.

[eminart]

Good luck with those mini palms, they did horrible in my Crested Gecko's enclosure.

Really? That's two downvotes in a row. I just happened to find the palms on clearance and got them because I thought they'd live in the viv conditions. What kind of problems did you have? I've never tried them before, although I had a larger palm as a house plant years ago.

[Roman]

In the case of my snakes it is simply a size issue. I have a small palm in the enclosure of my juv. rhinoceros ratsnake (Rhynchophis boulengeri) and it is doing good because the snake is not (yet) heavy enough to do any damage. With my tiger ratsnakes at ca. 8 - 9 ft it’s another matter…

Roman

[Pareeeee]

Really? That's two downvotes in a row. I just happened to find the palms on clearance and got them because I thought they'd live in the viv conditions. What kind of problems did you have? I've never tried them before, although I had a larger palm as a house plant years ago.

The tips of the leaves would go brown and it just slowly went downhill. My crestie would climb all over it and damage the leaves as well.

[eminart]

Well, crap. I was hoping the palms would make it. I guess I'll just wait and see. But, it's not a big deal to replace them with something else if they die.

[Pogie]

What kind of lighting are you using? The palms need bright light if I'm not mistaking. Not direct sunlight but bright indoor light. You can buy plant lighting from places like walmart. The Fluorescent kind that don't put out heat. Your plants will do well with those :) Just a thought :)

[eminart]

What kind of lighting are you using? The palms need bright light if I'm not mistaking. Not direct sunlight but bright indoor light. You can buy plant lighting from places like walmart. The Fluorescent kind that don't put out heat. Your plants will do well with those :) Just a thought :)

I'm using LED's, plus the one halogen spot light for basking. I think I have plenty of light for most house plants.

[Pogie]

Ok well here is another thought :)
Water, they are tropical plants. Maybe it's not humid enough in the tank for them? I know that's at tricky one since you have to make the snake number one lol. And I'm not sure what kind of snake it is lol. You may just have to change plants to suit the conditions that your snake likes. Anyway plants are cheap enough to trial and error on.

Either way I love your set up! I plan on doing something similar for Tyrion's tank. Except his is an arid area :)

[eminart]

Ok well here is another thought :)
Water, they are tropical plants. Maybe it's not humid enough in the tank for them? I know that's at tricky one since you have to make the snake number one lol. And I'm not sure what kind of snake it is lol. You may just have to change plants to suit the conditions that your snake likes. Anyway plants are cheap enough to trial and error on.

Either way I love your set up! I plan on doing something similar for Tyrion's tank. Except his is an arid area :)


Well, the plants are fine so far. The palms already had some brown leaves when I bought them. I just left them on there because I felt it looked more natural. The other guys up there said they had bad luck with them. We'll see. If they die, they die. I'll find something that works.

[Mmrseed]

I really really dig that enclosure. Always a big fan of the most natural possible environment for critters and that one is just very nice to look at

[daisymaisy]

fantastic habitat! very impressive. I hope the plants make it, because they look great. What is the tub down below for? (sorry newb question!)

[eminart]

What is the tub down below for? (sorry newb question!)


That is his hide. He goes into the burrow up top and down into the tub. In the wild, eastern indigos use tortoise burrow extensively as their shelter. I tried to replicate that here.

[daisymaisy]

aha! How neat is that? You've really planned this out. I love seeing such a well suited viv for this beautiful snake. :)