Are u the natural type or the efficient type..

[Dom]

For the past 4 years, I have kept all my snakes monitor and crocodilians on a natural set up .. I have always been strong on how my cages look and how appealing it is to the eye atfter taking me over 15 hours of work cleaning and changing my cages a couples of days ago of have gone to the effecient type and have installed many PVC pipes and no wooden decoration in any of my cages .. This is a huge change for me but it is so much more convinient ..

So lets see .. What type of keeper are you????

[sSNAKESs.com]

I used to be naturalistic but then i switched over to the efficient ways... It is definatly alot more easy the efficient way.

[krrc]

I kinda mix it up.. my burm and leopard gecko both have a convient setup and my bearded dragons are more nataral.

[Greg West]

I prefer the naturalistic look of cages as opposed to rubber tubs with a snake inside with nothing to do, but I have never had many animals. With a naturalistic setup it definitely looks nicer, but will take a lot longer for cleanup. If I had lots of animals there would be now way I would want to clean the cages if it took 3 or 4 times as long

[Matt_K]

i used to the natural thing, then i ran out of room and decided to try my hand at racking units.. I wish i had always done it this way!!!

[Youkai]

I keep everything super natural (I find they're easier to look after, personally) except the leopard geckos and hatchlings. Oh, and my solitary boa. :)

[Tim_Cranwill]

I'm going to set up my male sinaloan in a 36"x18" tank I have free until I find him a mate. I'd like to have at least one snake in a good looking display kind of thing.

I have 20 snakes now and I'm sure that number will double and double again over the next few years, so efficient is the way to go at my house:)

[vanderkm]

Most of ours are in display cages (quasi - natural but aspen bedding for ease of cleaning) because we enjoy seeing them, but it is harder to maintain ideal conditions for humidty, etc. Some are housed in racks, to save space and provide better security.

Mary v.

[Edwin]

Mine's quasi-natural as well, reptibark bedding with a couple fake plants and some stones/branches. Its very spartan compared to some of the pics I have seen posted here.

I started naturalistic, but the snakes kept on trampling over everything.

[Canadaherp]

^ ditto ^

its the best compmrimise

[Nanashi04]

I'm only allowed to have one enclosure, and as far as my dad goes, I can only keep one herp in it. (course, that all depends on what I end up getting)
I keep it in a "naturalish" stetting... I've got some rocks & stuff... a fake plant ( I usualy take that out when something is in there though... ) but the water is kept in a generic tupperware thingy. I gennerally use aspen shavings as substrate as well.

[asphyxia]

As earlier stated, i have a naturalistic look to the cages as opposed to rubber tubs. They are pleasing to me, and the herps feel at home.

Brian

[Lisa]

I like the natural look, but if we ever get into breeding and such we'll have to have 2 setups, display animals with a natural setting and a rack of efficient setups for the "working" animals.

[BoidKeeper]

My Beardies are natural, I love desert cages. I used to keep Leos that way too. My Emerald is also natural, live plants and tree limb perches. Everything else is on newsprint with washable hides and water bowls (obviously). Soon though all my corns, balls and hogs, are going into a rack. My Brazilians will get a tank.
Cheers,
Trevor

[Linds]

Functional all the way baby!!! Most of my animals are housed in the most functional of setups, though I do have one "naturalistic" setup, as well as I add fake foliage to my emeralds rubbermaid and frogs to serve as cover.

[KaHane]

We keep most of our Breeders in the functional setups. The Quarantine room all has functional setups. Only the display cages have the natural setups.

[Quervo]

Any of the "old timers" here will know my answer.:D I'm an absolute zealot about natural cages. My philosophy is if you are going to take the animal out of it's home, then make its cage as home-like as possible. It's totally unfair to your critter to keep it in a bleak, sterile, plastic (figuratively, not literally) environment just because it's more convenient for you. Not trying to condemn here .. just my opinion.

[BoidKeeper]

Ah, but what if it's born on newsprint?
Trevor

[Jeff_Favelle]

Well, I clean my simple setups naked. So where does that put me?


:-)

[BoidKeeper]

In the sicko group.:p
Cheers,
Trevor

[Jeff_Favelle]

Ha ha. Cool. Right where I want to be...

[Justin]

i mix mine up

[BeHeMoTh]

mine was semi- natural

had calci sand a tree rocks for my anoles


and my ball was effecient

[Quervo]

Jeff_Favelle wrote:
Well, I clean my simple setups naked. So where does that put me?

Well Jeff, now I'm afraid to ask just what you use to clean them. :eek:

[Jeff_Favelle]

Heh heh, very soft sponges and mild chemicals! :D

[Shauna]

We now have 40 pythons, all of these being in a realistic encolsures, cleaning is ......just cleaning, it may take a bit longer but well worth it.
our beardies however, still only have newspaper as a substrate though again, they have real branches, and fake plants, our true climbers, have digerridoos with dowel that has been butted, sort of like the exercise thread, all the leaves are fake, and are drilled into tiny holes, so the snakes can't knock them loose,and they seem to really appreciate it!!!!!!!!!

[V.aw]

Naturalistic enclosures are extremely difficult to maintain when you own a variety of herps. I've always tried to keep my setups natural, but i get quite paranoid. Using dirt instead of paper toils/newsprint worries me as you cannot completely clean up the defecation. If a chunk of cork bark is defecated on I scrub it then soak it.. So all the work just adds up, when ultimatly i could just replace the cork with cardboard and throw it out when it becomes soiled. ughhh! but its so ugly. Iam still quite undecided on this matter. heheheh

[Kyle Barker]

NATURAL!! except the snakes, their stuck in tubs for now :( .

[jncoclub]

Do plants (real or fake) make for a happier snake? All my tanks have a hidey-hole, some stick (plastic or grapevine) to crawl on, a ceramic water bowl to splash around in, and the occasional ceramic dinosaur to make my baby snakes look extra big and threatening. :) I am about to shift everyone into larger tanks, should I plan on introducing foliage to them?