Questions RE boa housing?

[Dianne]

I am well along in building an enclosure (about 3x4' 24" high) for one Boa (yet to be acquired) and I have a couple of questions.

#1 - I plan to include a small waterfall and a pond to provide humidity and a place for the snake to soak but it has been a LONG time since I last kept a Boa so ...... what would be the minimum diameter and depth for a good sized snake to get completely immersed? (The Boa I had many years ago used to enjoy a good soak but his cage was bigger and he had a dish pan for a pond and a second rectangular container of water where he pooped - sure made keeping the cage clean an easier job :) )

#2 - I was looking for some kind of small heater - I planned to use a car warmer but couldn't find anything less than 900W which is too much! The heater (which should have a fan) will be located in the top 6" of the cage which is screened off from the snake's compartment. Anybody seen a really small, low wattage space heater?

Thanks folks!

[chu'si]

like the sound o a waterfall how r ya plannin 2 do that ,,,,, as for heaters try ebay if ya aint yet gd luck n post a pic when ya finished

[Dianne]

I plan to mold the waterfall from cement and use a small fountain pump (outside the cage) which will keep a small pool full near the top. The water will trickle out of the upper pool, down a series of small cascades, and into the bottom pond (where the snake can soak). The bottom pool will have an overflow that leads back to the (external) reservoir as well as a drain so it can be emptied from outside. I may mold a hide into the whole thing behind the waterfall (which would be cooler than the rest of the cage). It would make the waterfall lighter but would also complicate the plumbing to allow the hide to be opened if required.

I'll post pictures when it's further along.

[chu'si]

I plan to mold the waterfall from cement and use a small fountain pump (outside the cage) which will keep a small pool full near the top. The water will trickle out of the upper pool, down a series of small cascades, and into the bottom pond (where the snake can soak). The bottom pool will have an overflow that leads back to the (external) reservoir as well as a drain so it can be emptied from outside. I may mold a hide into the whole thing behind the waterfall (which would be cooler than the rest of the cage). It would make the waterfall lighter but would also complicate the plumbing to allow the hide to be opened if required.

I'll post pictures when it's further along.
sounds sweet lookin forward 2 the pics
could u not bulid it as c corner waterfall that way u could do the plumin at oneside blocked off in the hide then make a hatch door in the cage wall for easy access

[PDXErik]

Check out my pictures. There are several 300-600-900 little space heaters. I use a 600-900-1500w heater on the lowest setting. It forces warm air up the back. This may be doable with a situation like yours.

Check out goodwill for what they have first, the older ones work better (imho) and it'll be cheaper.

I use rubbermaid stuff for mine. An 8 quart rubbermaid tub will house my 6' female rtb quite nicely with a gallon of water in it, so figure a gallon or so and an appropriate depth should work ok.

Be sure to post pics of this, I'd sure like to see what you've got going!

Edit: Think about fiberglass for your waterfall. More of a pain in the tucas, but much lighter.

[Dianne]

I considered fiberglass. I have worked with it before. I usually get stuck to everything and get rosin everywhere! :eek: I decided to try concrete because it has a long setting time and that gives me time to sculpt it, add textures, and actually test it with water before it is hard. I plan to use a styrofoam form to take up a lot of the bulk and a wire mesh grid to get the basic shape and mold the pipes into the cement. If cement doesn't work out well, I can always do another one in fiberglass.

Thanks for the ideas!

[Dianne]

I am happy with the way the landscaping came out - the techniques worked out much better than I expected.

The base is 3 pieces of 1-1/2" Styrofoam SM joined with half-lap, non-glued joints (to fit through the doors!) . Other pieces of SM, as many as 4 layers were glued one one top of the other to provide the elevation for the contours.

The Styrofoam was carved with a soldering gun and a 10" piece of 14 Ga. wire that could be bent to various shapes to make different contours. Hot wire cutting is a bit stinky but leaves a nice surface and smooth transitions. After shaping, the exposed surface of the landscape was treated with parging, an epoxy- masonry mix that adheres to Styrofoam. The parging allows texturing the surface anywhere from smooth to “sandy” and provides a tough durable surface.

After parging, the “rock” parts were sprayed with black enamel. While the black was still curing, I poured some green and some white enamel on a disposable dinner plate and using a brush and a small pot of thinner, I free-handed the rest of the painting. By using various amount of green, white, and thinner (all on the brush at the same time) I was able to get varying shades and if I wanted to darken an area, working the surface harder and with more thinner would bring the underlying black through. (I never thought of myself as an “artist” but DAMN that worked out nice!) After the paint had baked for a couple of days, I added plastic plants to bring it to life.

In the back right, at the highest spot, there is a “spring” which trickles into the upper pool. The upper pool is about a foot in diameter, holds about 6 Litres of water, and overflows in a little cascade into the stream that runs across the enclosure to the left (the cool side). There is a smaller pool in the grass at the end of the stream (about 6" diameter and 4" deep) that overflows into the return line. Both pools are equipped with an external drain line (to allow cleaning) and all the plumbing is plastic tubing embedded into the bottom of the Styrofoam base. The tubes pass out of the enclosure through a brass plate with copper tubing feed-throughs (“escape proof”) to an external reservoir containing a small fountain pump.

Under the right side of the upper pool you can see the “cave entrance” that leads in to the warm side hide. There is a cool side hide in the back left corner behind the smaller pool. Both hides have removable tops.

I just KNOW my baby is going to LOVE her new home . It is going to be such a radical change from living in a Tupperware container :)


http://i163.photobucket.com/albums/t286/diannebest/cagefinal1b.jpg

For those with high-speed, a larger picture:
Image of Vivarium (Large) - Photobucket - Video and Image Hosting (http://s163.photobucket.com/albums/t286/diannebest/?action=view&current=cagefinal1.jpg)

[reptilenut4sure]

Man that is a nice setup ya got there. What exactly do you keep in it?

[chu'si]

ya done a fab job there bigger than i thought

[PDXErik]

Wow, is that a baseboard heater on the right? That would be a novel idea if it were safe enough.

[Dianne]

The baseboard heater is a domestic 500 Watt 220 Volt unit running on 120 Volts - it will last FOREVER! It contains a Chromolux element which is impervious to water and great care was taken to make sure the electrical connections in the heater junction box were also sealed. The front of the heater is also screened so the snake can't get at the element.

I have a 4 month old female Brazilian Rainbow Boa.

The vivarium is 48" long and 28" deep - just small enough to fit through doorways ;) It is now the centrepiece of my livingroom :)

[PDXErik]

I am SO stealing that baseboard heater idea.

[Dianne]

I am SO stealing that baseboard heater idea.

You are welcome to but if you are going to do it, here are the "tricks":

1 - Before you buy the heater, open the junction boxes at each end and look at where the electrical wire comes out of the heating element - it should be sealed with something that looks like wax but is HARD (I think it is epoxy) - that will keep water out of the element. (Not all heaters have a good seal here.)

2 - When you wire it, twist the wires together and solder the connections. Then slather a generous amount of silicon seal on the joint, slip a piece of heatshrink tubing over and shrink it. Silicon should be forced out of both ends of the tube. You now have a waterproof electrical connection! (That's my trade secret so don't you be telling anybody! ;) )

And finally,

3 - Use a ground to the chassis and make sure it is connected to a 3-prong receptacle.