Tubular hide idea to share

[vanderkm]

Just wanted to share a successful hide box for young snakes. These are 18 inch lengths cut from tubing for central vacuum units. A 10 foot length of this tubing is only $5 here and at about 2 inch diameter, it is just right for young corns and kings. It cuts easily with a hack saw, and this length is still easy to wash out.

The real advantage is that is can extend from end to end of the cage and allows the snake a secure, dark hide that includes all areas of temperature gradient, from the room temperature end to the end over the UTH. They seem to like the tight space to curl up in and it is only a bit challenging to get them out if they don't want to leave.

These are a couple inches shorter that the tank and we just pop their prey item into one end to feed. Since there are no shavings in the tube, it forms a clean feeding surface and seems to encourage them to feed calmly - hard to do intense constricting in these. We use the same size in larger tanks and rubbemaids until the snakes outgrow them.

Mary v.

[sSNAKESs.com]

greta idea!! im going to use this one!

[SDSnakes]

I tried that with paper towel roles, for some reason
my animals seemed to have a bad temper when i
had those in the cages.

[Linds]

Yay! Someone else that puts nametags on tanks! I started feeling all alone there....lol

The tubing is a great idea, too!

[Tim_Cranwill]

I use the same thing for all my snakes. My bp's use the tubes the most. They like it really tight too.

I also have all my enclosures labeled.

[Lisa]

we tried paper towel tubes too, hard to get the snake out

[Tim_Cranwill]

It's difficult to get my snakes out too, but they probably like it that way

[sophia]

You're not alone on the labels Linds! We even went so far as to use a label-maker for all of ours...common & latin name as well as their 'personal' name - it's that way on all of our enclosures... {G}

At least when you have company and they ask you 'what's in there' ... you can just point to the label eh?

Jon

[Tim_Cranwill]

Here's an example of one of my labels...

Lgc-02-04
Male
Dusty

I used to put the common name, but it was hard to fit everything on...

[Dom]

its an interesting idea for a hide but i think the fact of not being able to take out the snake would drive me nuts!

[vanderkm]

Actually I think the plastic surface makes it a lot easier to remove a snake even if they press up against the walls. With ours, we just tip one end down and they usually slide right out. If they are sticky about it, a slight tap on the end of the tube, (just enough to cause a vibration, not enough to force them out) will make them slide out. We tried paper towel tubes but they were too narrow and got ratty looking and had to be thrown out every week.

I am glad we aren't the only ones who need labels to remember who is in which cage. We have neater labels with name, species and sex on the regular cages, but these are in the quarantine room with temporary tags.

I am very suprised to hear that tube housing resulted in bad temperaments - I have found our snakes more secure and much calmer using these than when we used caves. They are out exploring a lot of the time and are not defensive when we take them out and they are less aggressive with feeding (except one crazy kingsnake).

Mary v.

[Cas]

Good idea with the tubing.... I use Pringles cans in all my snake cages (I cut a small hole in the lids). The bonus is if they get dirty, you can just chuck them and put in a new one.

Dawn