A few Questions

[drewlowe]

Hi all

I've been doing bit & pieces of research on etb's for a few months and I'm still going to do research for at least 1 or 2 years(minimum). I've decied on the basin etb. Which i have tons of info printed and stored in a binder for later use. I want to try to have a close to perfect setup( i know there's no such thing as perfect but i want it to be as close as i can.)

I just bought i nice size display case this weekend that i'm going to be storing at my moms until i move out and why i'm fixing it into the requirement of what i'm going to put in there(hopefully an etb). The thing is i hear that if you give them to much space you can stress them out. That's what i'm worried about. The measurements are 5 1/2 feet tall x 5 1/2 feet long x 2 1/2 feet wide. All 4 sides are plexi glass and the bottom and top is wood(i plan on treating the wood and adding side vents). Would this be too big? Or if i decied to get 2 etb's would it be possible to place a piece of plexi-glass in the middle of the cage (as a partition)with or with out vents. Or would this bother the etb's from seeing each other.

I also want to purchase them when they are babies or juvies would it be ok to place them into an enclosure this big to begin with or should i have a custom built one (smaller) until they become adults.

Maybe i should have placed this in the enclosure forum but I want to try to build it to the specifics of an etb and i figured this was the best place to put it. Thanks for any help. There will probly be more questions later on. Thanks again.

Jamie

If you would like to give any additional info on these beautiful snakes please do. It will be more info i can add to my binder for later use.

[RETICULATED]

That might be a bit big for a etb....

one thing that i found that worked real good was a old stereo case with the glass door i put a branch acrossed the center and some other little branches and it work very well

[Ed_r]

That enclosure would be good, but olny if you did an aweful lot of decoration to it. Make sure the case can stand up to the high humidity, they will need. Even treated wood, may not hold up well to standing water. I know many people that keep there ETB with only water as a substrate, or else a real wattery marsh. Not much wood would hold up to that. Would change it to a Plexi/acrylic bottom.

Basins are in my oppinion the finnest of the ETBs, Slightly more forgiving, but no reason to get sloppy with husbandry. Lower temps, im sure you know. But if your going to have that much open space I would clutter it up with vegitation of some sort.

[drewlowe]

yes ed the basins etb's are so beautiful they are going to be strictly for display. Other than the normal cleaning and feeding.

I haven't quite figured out how i'm going to treat the wood yet i was thinking of getting something like melamie (sp) to place on the bottom, and caulk it. Then treat the rest of the wood. Not quite sure yet (it's a work in progress). I have all these ideas running through my head. I still don't have the display case it's being delivered saturday. Then i have to drive 1/2 hour to work on it. I'm giving my self quite awhile to work on it. I just want to make sure an etb will do fine in that setup before i start working on it. That would suck to build the specificly for an etb than it not work out right.

[Steele]

you cound line the botom with rubber pond liner from the garden centre sounds like a sweet set up

[reverendsterlin]

you can also line the inside with plexi to what ever sized need you have. it easily seals with silicone and as long as not in the viewing area scratching doesn't matter.

[Ed_r]

Ewww melamine... Melamine will just bubble up and rot over time too. I tried that route and was a waste of money, Actually had it bubble in the center of the pieces, not even close to the sealed edges.

One thing to remember, In most cases Basin Emerarlds are pretty much THE MOST docile of all the corallus family. If your snake will alow it handle it, as much as you can. They are nothing like Amazon Tree Boas.

If the design allows, the plastic tub idea works too, just make sure the snake can't get pinned behind it.