Rocks!!!

Urban Corn · 06-26-09, 07:15 PM

Hello everybody!!

Here a picture of my Corn (a 10 gallons), but we just got her a new one already (40 gallons), so I was thinking of putting some medium size rounded beach rocks to the enclosure so she would more places to hide but I was wondering how I should treat them before they go into the enclosure.

Thank you in advance for any help.

Chu'Wuti · 06-27-09, 05:37 PM

First, put them in a pot, cover them with water, and bring the water to a boil. Boil them for 15-20 minutes. Let the pot cool while covered--don't try to cool the rocks by pouring cold water directly on them, as some might crack due to the temperature difference and shards can go flying if they crack, which could be very dangerous for your eyes. After it has cooled down some, drain the water and let them cool the rest of the way.

Second, if you are wanting to make a pile that your snake can go through (I'm not sure what "medium" means, as it's completely relative, and your medium might be either pretty small or pretty large to me!), you make need to glue the rocks together with epoxy or something. You don't want to make a pile of rocks that can come tumbling down on your snake and crush it. On the other hand, if you're talking about pretty small rocks (e.g., like aquarium gravel), you can use them, but they will get dirty & very smelly pretty quickly.

If you give us a little more detail of the size of the rocks and what you want to do with them--substrate? build a hide? something I haven't thought of??--then we can give you better information about using them safely for your snake.

Urban Corn · 06-27-09, 06:35 PM

The rocks would be approx grapefruit size in a 55 gallons enclosure, I'm thinking of putting some on the cool side as well as the warm side but I'm a bit worried about the rocks getting to hot since I use an under tank pad (I will keep a close eye on how warm/hot they get), gluing them is a great idea but what type of glue would be safe? I will be using aspen shaving.

Thank you Chu'Wuti for your help.

Chu'Wuti · 06-28-09, 09:13 AM

Their ability to conduct heat depends upon the type of rock; some are better conductors than others.

Silicone or habacrete (if you can get it) would probably be the best adhesives to use. You may have to experiment some.

Urban Corn · 07-02-09, 02:45 PM

Her new enclosure with new rocks, she is already exploring. I ended up boiling the rocks to be sure that it killed any kind of parasite.

Thanks for all the feedback.

Chu'Wuti · 07-03-09, 08:04 AM

It looks great! You've created a much more interesting environment for her--good job!