2 ETBs on the way

[Lrptls]

in 3 days i'm picking up a male and female emeralds. they are 4 feet and 5 feet, and the guy says they'v never bit him. luckily hes meeting me so we wont have to ship them and he gave me a GREAT deal on them. they were $600 but hes trying to get rid of alot of stuff to get more GTPs so he dropd it to $550 for me. oh and these will be my first ETBs, and my first tree snake of any kind.

i'm going to set up their homes tomarrow, they are going to be in seperate houses, both in 35 gallon tanks. the tanks are about 2.5 feet long, about 2 feet high and about 1 foot wide. havn't decided if i'm going to use newspaper or reptile bark for the substrate (not sure which one is best for them) i want to put 3 branches in both cages but i'm not sure the best way to put horizontal branches in an aquarium? suggestions are needed for that. the tops are screen but i'm going to use something to cover most of the top to keep humidity in, the part that wont be coverd will be for the heat lamp unless there is a better way to heat them.?

any suggestions and comments would be wonderful, i'll take pictures of them while placing them in their new homes so i can put them on here. iv never been so excited about geting a new pet!!! thanks!

[CraigC]

Hi, I PM'd you with a ? as well.

About caging, we have found aquariums are not the best for ETBs, very hard to provide adequate ventilation to keep mold/mildew down in the humidity that is required. Plastic or PVC-type caging is much better as you can drill holes on sides to provide air flow. Before we got rid of the aquariums long ago, we used the plastic sheeting that you can buy by the yard where fabric is sold to cover the top. It comes in various thicknesses. You want to get something relatively heavy.

We prefer newspaper or paper towels over bark for several reasons. First being bark/mulch can't be changed every time and mold will start to grow. You will also need to sterilize the bark/mulch to make sure thre are no bugs or organisms in it before you use. Either put it in a tied up black plastic bag and let it sit out in bright sun for several days or bake it in the oven (I've never done that so not sure about time/temps, but it has to be watched VERY closely so it doesn't burn). Lastly, if the ETB gets bark/mulch in its mouth, you are looking at probable mouth rot. You DO NOT want to be treating an ETB for mouth rot, better to just avoid the cause.

Removeable perches can be built out of PVC. Cut the pipe and use T and elbow fittings to make a perch to fit the area. It's much easier at cleaning time to pick up the animal on the perch than to try to get a sleepy animal off its perch and onto something else. Here's a pic. There's a section about burning PVC on our web site. PM me if you have ?s.

http://redtailboa.net/pp/data/3225/7437225_p9229.jpg

There are quite a few care sheets available. There are some tips up at the top of this forum, we have a care section on our web site, and there are lots of care sheets from various people on the corallus.com web site. The best thing to do would be to read all of them and then use the info best suited for your situation.

Karen

[Lrptls]

i originally wanted to put them in a clear rubber maid containor but i wasn't sure about the best way to heat it. should i use a heat mat, put screen in the lid for a heat lamp? thanks

[thunder]

i dont have etbs, but i find that for arboreals in general, an overhead lamp is more appropriate (i actually perfer them for most of my animals, because i find it more effective in creating ambient temps), although it is a little tougher to keep proper humidity.

ps. craigc: that's a really nice one! a love the darkening around it's white markings.

[theweezel]

Here's a good link:

http://gemsoftherainforest.com/care.html

I did a search in google and found caresheets that way.

[Richard Welter]

Congrats on the new two animals Lrptls. I have been working with emeralds for about 4-5 years. I have used glass tanks and repteriums and both cannot hold a candle to a nice clear Rubbermaid. I live in Canada and I find that if you drill about 20-30 holes on each side of the container and another 15-20 on top then you will get real good airflow and not have any problems with them. As for heat I use flewwatt heat tape from the bean farm. Because you only have two emeralds you can go to a drug store and pick up two adult heat pads. Then what you should do is setup the cage before the animals get there. And probe the cage with a temp gun or a gage and find out how hot it is inside. For mounting the branches in I use wood dowels for the job. I used to screw them in, but now I make little slip knots out of zip ties and can pull the branches out anytime. Here are a couple of pictures on the caging and my rack setups. The last picture is a breeding cage I made for a pair of emeralds to use. They have bread in this cage a number of times also.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v727/Richard45451/IMG_1537.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v727/Richard45451/IMG_1536.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v727/Richard45451/IMG_1373.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v727/Richard45451/IMG_1339.jpg

Hope this helps you out Thanks Richard Welter AKA Cuttingedge Aboreals

[Shad0w]

Nice setup Richard,

Those sterilites U using?

[Richard Welter]

No they are just 50 Watt heat bulbs. I use then because I hate working with emeralds in the dark and I like to ba able to see what I am doing. Thanks Richard Welter AKA Cuttingedge Abroeals

[CraigC]

Thanks for the compliment Thunder! She is a very pretty girl.

We have never kept them in plastic containers other than for very short periods when we've gotten a new animal and permanent cage hasn't been ready yet.

What you will need for heating pretty much depends on where you are going to be keeping them. If it's a warm room, 78+, flex watt or under tank pads will do the trick. If it's in a room with A/C, you are probably going to need something else. You want the under tank heat to create humidity, but not be on all the time or it will be too humid and the ETB may develop a respiratory infection. You need a drying out period each day. I'd probably add a ceramic heat lamp (not a light) and put in some metal screening in the lids, maybe use some wood pieces to hold it down. You will need some kind of thermostat control device to make sure the cage doesn't get too hot. Then drill some holes not quite half-way up the sides because you want to create air flow and putting them too close to top won't accomplish that as well. I'd start with 10 spaced out on each side. You can always add more if needed.

I've also seen where people made cages by putting two bottoms together, clipping them together somehow, putting perches in top half and using water substrate in the bottom. I can't remember who did that, but I'll ask on a couple of other forums about it. I remember thinking it was a really good idea.

Karen

[Lrptls]

thanks for the suggestions every one. it has helped alot. i'm going to be puting them in clear rubbermaids with hard plastic lids. the best thing i can use for heating for now until i get them in better homes (i just want to get them in taller containors) im going to use heat mats. the guy selling them to me said if i put the heat mat on a shelf or whatever and put the containor on top it shouldn't melt which is what i was worried about. i want to get heat tape eventually. does this sound good so far?

[ravensgait]

If you use a heat mat or pad you need a thermostat or rheostat to regulate the temps or it might get hot enough to melt the tub bottom. For my quarantine cages I use tubs. For larger ETBs, GTPs I put two bottoms together I use cheep Bar Clamp on each end to hold them together yet it is easy to get open. I have used heat tape around one end of the top tub for heat as well as under tank heaters mounted or taped to the roof on the inside. I use closet bar plastic brackets to hold burned PVC for perches. For smaller animals I just use one tub and its lid set up pretty much the same way. You can get carried away and cut out a portion of the tub and replace it with Plexi so you can see better. I don't use a substrate in these I just pull the animal out on its perch or take off the top tub with the snake in it on its perch and hose out the bottom tub.

You could use your tanks just buy a glass bit and bore some holes and get some plexi to make a top, I saw someones setup where they had two tank mounted one over the other. You can use hot melt glue to mount closet bar holders on the sides of the tank. Well good luck with the new animals..Randy

[CraigC]

Here's the link to the caging I wrote about earlier. It's a really nice set up using 2 plastic containers.

The Carnivorous Orchid (http://thecarnivorousorchid.com/i/enclosuretips.htm)

Karen

[Lrptls]

pictures! yay i love them!!!

heres the male

[Lrptls]

and the female

[Lrptls]

heres a pic of the cages for now. i want to get 2 more tubs so i can put them on top of each other, make them bigger. the temps are a tad low so i'm going to get more heat pads, i think all i need to do is just put a small heat pad on one side. the humidity is nice and high. both of them are pretty active, move around 1 or 2 times aday and perch like normal.

[ravensgait]

Looks good, nice looking animals. Unless your planing on keeping them in tubs I'd just go with what you have now as it's plenty big enough for quarantine purposes. Try the heat pad on one end of the underside of the lid, as long as you use a thermostat that should work for you. I place the lead for my thermometer and thermostat so they hang down level with the perch right by the heat pad. I also keep recently shipped animals a little warmer than normal just in case. If you watch where they spend most their time they'll let you know what temps they want. Good luck with these guys and have fun. Randy

[CraigC]

Looking good. Good Luck with them!
Karen

[Lrptls]

thanks guys. i just wanted to make their cages bigger cause i do that for all my animals, i just like to give them lots of room unless they really dont need it. these guys move around more than i thought they would so i just wanted to give them more options of where to go. unless its not good for them for some reason.

[ravensgait]

Like you I like to give my animals room to roam but in my quarantine cages I just keep it simple. Moved my Mustard Chondro in to a 4'X4'X3' display yesterday afternoon, he was all over the place last night but found him curled up by the door this morning lol will take soom getting used to I guess.
Randy