FW's (mostly) DIY Snake Room. (Pic heavy)

[FWK]

The Taiwanese Beauty keeps a watchful eye on the goings on.



I moved a bit closer to take his mug shot and he attempted to become one with the branch, pressing his head into the branch so hard he was squishing his face. Not the friendliest critter.



The Speckled King out for routine tub maintenance, she is much friendlier than the Taiwanese Beauty. Here she is hanging out in a holding tub and showing off her purple tongue.



The Dumeril's Boa waits while his enclosure is cleaned. The rusty red markings on his head are really nice, and you can see some of the beautiful iridescence on his flanks.



The Western Hognose does this just about every time I open her tub, even if there is no food present (unless she happens to be in one of her moods, then she just hisses and headbutts random objects in her tub). If a mouse magically appears in front of her nose she swings at it, wild and awkward. Clearly not an arboreal critter, no matter how hard she tries. If no mouse appears after a few minutes she will slowly retreat back into her tub, you'd swear she was legitimately disgusted with the situation.



A pickup from a recent show, an Eastern Copperhead, hangs onto a DIY juvie snake hook.



Glamour shot.



Another recent pick up, a Gray Banded Kingsnake, poses for a quick shot before being introduced to his new tub. Really happy to have this little guy, beautiful animal.

[ngav3]

Awesome collection and thread!

[dannybgoode]

Trouble is people like you make diy look so easy. I try and make some stuff but if never turns out quite right!

Maybe need to have another go but I don't have your vision for using old bits and bobs to make useful stuff.

Some great ideas here and I love you Dumerils - saw an adult at a zoo and a juvenile at my local store and both were absolutely stunning snakes.

[macandchz]

dear fwk, you have a wonderful snake room and collection. that little bumblebee is adorable and i hope she has the disposition to match. i can't believe how neat and clean everything is!

[FWK]

I have a number of picky juvenile colubrids at the moment, so I decided to start a feeder mouse colony to produce a steady supply of fresh pinks and fuzzys. Hopefully the fresh rodents will help get the young snakes on rodents/eating on their own. Once they're started it shouldn't be too difficult to get them on F/T so I can shut the colony down, as it is not cost effective to raise mice vs ordering them F/T in bulk. Not to mention all the extra work maintaining the colony. After some research into husbandry I decided a tub is the way to go. So much easier to clean than an relatively heavy and unwieldy aquarium. And if you slip and drop an aquarium, even just a short distance, it's time for a new aquarium. I compared several brands and sizes before settling on this 60 quart Ziplock tub. It was a few more dollars than comparatively sized Rubbermaid or Sterilite tubs, but it is relatively square, which maximizes floor space, rugged in construction, and, most importantly, has a well reinforced, securely latching lid. Wont take much to modify it for housing mice. The only issue with tubs is the risk of the mice chewing their way out, but many people (including mass producers) use tubs with no issues so I'll see what happens. I am sorry the pictures came out a little dark, I did this quickly and didn't notice.


Materials list:


60 quart Ziplock tub
Aluminum window screen
Gorilla Glue
Rodent water bottle



I first removed the raised sections of the lid with a Dremel and a cut-off wheel, careful to leave the reinforcements in place. Cleaned it up a little with a Dremel sanding bit, then trimmed the remaining excess with a razor blade to leave a flat surface on which to glue the screen.



Cut out a section of the aluminum screen to fit the lid (very easy to cut with scissors), apply glue to the lid all the way around and across each support, and install the screen. You'll need to weigh down the screen while the glue sets, I used iron plates and dowel rods made of skewers (leftover from my DIY juvenile snake hooks) and sections of a hanger. Make sure you remove whatever you use to weigh the screen down before the glue is completely set, or it may become a permanent part of the lid. About an hour should do. Another couple hours for the Gorilla Glue to set (it will foam up a bit and surround the screen), and you've got plenty of ventilation without sacrificing the structural integrity of the lid.



My local pet store has these handy water bottles that come with a holder that can be affixed to the side of a cage with a bolt and plastic nut, perfect for a tub. Simply drill a hole through the side of the tub just big enough for the bolt to pass through, run the bolt through and thread on the plastic nut. There you have it, a DIY tub for a colony of mice that is very easy to move and clean. As of this posting my colony (four females and one male) has been running for a few weeks. The first litter dropped a few days ago and the rest of the females look like they're well on their way to producing their first litters. Fingers crossed.

[FWK]

My little Natricinae collection, some south Texas flavor. All pictures taken in my makeshift lightbox while I had the animals out for routine enclosure maintenance.



Plainbelly Water Snake.



Broadbanded Water Snake.



Diamondback Water Snake.



Gulf Coast Ribbon Snake.



Checkered Garter Snake.

[mysticmoon]

Wow, the broadband water snake is gorgeous.

[macandchz]

those were great hatching pictures. really great to see the whole process. i'm sure some grade-school class somewhere would like to see them-what a neat show-and tell project!

[macandchz]

love that double hide you made. also that one with the water bowl.

[FWK]

I finally have my Cottonmouth! The past two years a major goal of mine has been to collect a neonate Cottonmouth in the field, as they are very hard to come by captive bred. To that end I spent hundreds of hours in the field at a number of Cottonmouth "hotspots" in search of my quarry. I found adults by the dozen, but failed to turn up a single neonate. Frustrating, to say the least. Going into this year I decided to widen my search criteria a bit, and it quickly paid off with a lucky find. I'll have the whole story, along with many more pictures, in the fall 2016 report in my herping thread. In the meantime I present "Joe," the newest member of my little collection. I don't name my snakes, but a friend insisted calling this one Joe, after the song "Cotton-Eyed Joe."

[SWDK]

Originally Posted by FWK

I finally have my Cottonmouth! The past two years a major goal of mine has been to collect a neonate Cottonmouth in the field, as they are very hard to come by captive bred. To that end I spent hundreds of hours in the field at a number of Cottonmouth "hotspots" in search of my quarry. I found adults by the dozen, but failed to turn up a single neonate. Frustrating, to say the least. Going into this year I decided to widen my search criteria a bit, and it quickly paid off with a lucky find. I'll have the whole story, along with many more pictures, in the fall 2016 report in my herping thread. In the meantime I present "Joe," the newest member of my little collection. I don't name my snakes, but a friend insisted calling this one Joe, after the song "Cotton-Eyed Joe."

Great find and addition to your collection. We share the same goal in collecting a neonate, although you've succeeded and I'm still on my quest. Congrats!!!

[slithytoves]

this is a beautiful, functional setup that i aspire to in my herp-infancy. Read through the thread and all responses; this info is super helpful!

[SnoopySnake]

Originally Posted by FWK

I finally have my Cottonmouth! The past two years a major goal of mine has been to collect a neonate Cottonmouth in the field, as they are very hard to come by captive bred. To that end I spent hundreds of hours in the field at a number of Cottonmouth "hotspots" in search of my quarry. I found adults by the dozen, but failed to turn up a single neonate. Frustrating, to say the least. Going into this year I decided to widen my search criteria a bit, and it quickly paid off with a lucky find. I'll have the whole story, along with many more pictures, in the fall 2016 report in my herping thread. In the meantime I present "Joe," the newest member of my little collection. I don't name my snakes, but a friend insisted calling this one Joe, after the song "Cotton-Eyed Joe."

Cool!! Love that pic! And the name

[FWK]

Took a trip to the reptile expo in Garden Ridge today with a list of Texas native in mind. The main targets were venomous, as anything else I can have shipped. I hardly made it through the door before I saw most of my list on the first few tables. I wandered around a while and talked prices with the vendors before settling on a few critters. The Garden Ridge venue isn't very large, but the selection is great. Hopefully I'll get a chance to run out that way again next year, there's still a couple species I want to round out my little Texas native collection.



The lone nonvenomous I took home, a hatchling Eastern Coachwhip. Don't see these captive hatched very often, I couldn't pass it up.



Prairie Rattlesnake. This was my second biggest goal for this trip, the first being a Western Massasauga. There was one table with Western Massasaugas, four neonates. I asked the guy how much they were, he said they were 100% het albino so he wanted $2000 each. I said thank you and moved on lol.



Banded Rock Rattlesnake.



Northern Blacktail Rattlesnake.

[SWDK]

Nice additions to your hot collection. That CB coach whip is pretty cool as well.