Fake Skull Perch/Hide Idear

Cam · 04-17-12, 10:57 PM

Hello All. I'm not certain that General Discussion is where this belongs, but... there's no "DIY Ideas" section so I'll stick it here.

I saw a breeder website (I forget which) that had photos of their snakes for sale coiled around a very cool looking life sized skull sculpture.

I'm currently shopping about for a carpet python, and I will be building an enclosure with some climbing spaces for her. I thought - skulls - what a cool theme for a vivarium. I searched amazon and there are a LOT of really cool skull decorations and sculptures that would make really cool hides and/or perches if mounted.

Here are a couple that grabbed my interest as hides for a juvenile carpet:

Amazon.com: Exotic Environments Human Skull Aquarium Ornament, 5-Inch by 7-1/2-Inch by 6-Inch: Pet Supplies

Amazon.com: Budget Life-Size Skull: Industrial & Scientific

The second may require some painting or weathering to make it look less clinical.

For a perch I thought of

Amazon.com: Figurine Celtic Lion Skull Bank Hand Painted Resin 6411: Home & Kitchen

or

Amazon.com: Realistic Resin Human Skull Replica Prop: Everything Else

or

Amazon.com: Celtic Owl Knotwork Human Skull Statue Pagan: Home & Kitchen

Anyway, obviously need to make sure the materials are not harmful, but the DIY dork in me started thinking it would be even cooler to put a low wattage heating element or a low watt lamp or something inside the perch (with appropriate safeguards or thermostats as necessary) so the snake could go hang out there and suck up some warmth while she's at it.

Am I crazy? Wait, I don't care if you think I'm crazy, is anyone else crazy and think it would be cool to have a skull perch in a nice tall display viv?

USMCgunner11 · 04-17-12, 11:21 PM

I have this one in mine...
Exo Terra : Primate Skull / Secure hiding place

It's a little small though. Of the ones you chose I liked the first one. I saw it in my local Petco and I almost got it. It's bigger and heavier than the one I have now so it prob won't move as much

FangsAnarchy · 04-17-12, 11:41 PM

I would recomend the first one. However if you want a heating element I suggest the 2nd. We used it in my human anatomy class and you could put a heat source in the foramen magnum and if it is sealed it shouldn't risk burn to the animal

Lankyrob · 04-18-12, 04:44 AM

I like the skull idea BUT i dont like the idea of having a heater in the tank that the snake can coil around. Even thermostatted, if something goes wrong you are going to end up with a cooked snake. this is the exact reason no one used heat rocks and longer

Cam · 04-18-12, 03:41 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Lankyrob

I like the skull idea BUT i dont like the idea of having a heater in the tank that the snake can coil around. Even thermostatted, if something goes wrong you are going to end up with a cooked snake. this is the exact reason no one used heat rocks and longer

Fair enough. I am pretty confident it could be designed to completely eliminate this risk but I do see where you're coming from.

UwabamiReptiles · 04-18-12, 07:17 AM

I agree with Rob, the skull idea is cool. But I can see too much going wrong with the heater in the cage.

Trollbie · 04-18-12, 03:54 PM

Skulls are cool. But I'm all about naturalistic appearance, so any more that a skull hide would be too much for me. But you're the one who has to like it

I'd personally stick to things made for reptiles specifically. But I'm also very paranoid...

I wanted a dino skull hide for my snake, but I'd never hear the end of it from my mom. Even though she lives 200mi away. -_-

Sno-x Snakes · 04-19-12, 10:16 PM

I'm probably gonna get slammed for this, but we used to have a cow skull, old, bleached, then sun-bleached, in with our Burm. We also had a deer skull, same cleaning method, in with our first ball. She would crawl inside and use it for her hide. That worked until she got bigger, would flex and started to crack the skull. We removed it before she hurt hersself.

UwabamiReptiles · 04-20-12, 06:40 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Sno-x Snakes

I'm probably gonna get slammed for this, but we used to have a cow skull, old, bleached, then sun-bleached, in with our Burm. We also had a deer skull, same cleaning method, in with our first ball. She would crawl inside and use it for her hide. That worked until she got bigger, would flex and started to crack the skull. We removed it before she hurt hersself.

No reason for you to get slammed for that, unless you killed the animals just so you could use their skulls

. I have a boar skull on top of one of my racks. Bleached and everything like you said yours were. Skulls are cool and you took them out before the snakes were big enough to get hurt. Do you have any pics? Might give the OP some ideas.

Cam · 04-20-12, 01:13 PM

That sounds really cool (cow skull hide). That's the only thing I'd worry about that the snake might hurt itself on some of the sharp edges.

I'm thinking of a tall viv like 3Wx2Dx3H or even 4W maybe. Fairly natural and relatively simple, with some nice looking branches for her to climb and a skull up high in the center for the snake to perch on should she choose. The skull hide would of course only work while the snake is small - or with a smaller species.

Sno-x Snakes · 04-20-12, 04:46 PM

Not many real sharp edges, they can crawl over some pretty sharp stuff in the wild ok. When they are little, or little species, they can hide by entering the hole where the spinal cord goes through. As they get bigger, either take it out or use that same hole to prop it on PVC as a support, which blocks the hole.