My White Oak Grey Rat Snake.

[CosmicOwl]

Originally Posted by Mikoh4792

I think 4 x 3 x 3 would be a great size.

Lol I love the paper roll idea. Must make the enclosure seem bigger than it is to your snake with all those nooks and crannies to get into.

Heh, he loves them too. I did take a precautionary measure and cut the tubes so there was no chance of him getting stuck.

Though I want to put him in a larger enclosure, I think he's pretty comfortable in his current set up. It's still pretty roomy and he has a lot of useable space. He can come out of hiding a few times a day, "hunt" for a little while, bask and then go back into hiding. If he gets much bigger though, I think Ill need to put him in a larger enclosure.

[CosmicOwl]

Here are some more pics of the not so little guy.

This is the kind of behavior he displays a frequently. If I had some elevated hides, I'm sure he would be using them. He loves to spend a lot of time in the high spots of his cage.



Here he is after I fed him earlier. You can see the first mouse in his stomach, and the second one in the process of being swallowed. You also get a good idea of his size, in relation to the cage, as well as objects like the paper towel rolls.




What I find interesting is that he seems rather long for the thickness of his body. Proportionally, he's a lot longer than my corn snake of the same age(and similar thickness). And he also has a very long tail. About 5 inches. It's interesting to note the differences even among fairly similar species.

[Mikoh4792]

Yes I did notice that too with the grey rat i owned about a year ago. Even though they are skinny for their size, they are still very strong. I was always impressed at how hard my grey rat would squeeze my arm to hold on(my carpet pythons are not even that strong). Just imagine how strong yours will be when it's full grown!

[franks]

A fantastic but often overlooked arboreal hide is a cheap bird house. You can silicone it up or just prop it up on some bricks. I love how he is growing btw. Very cool snake.

[CosmicOwl]

Originally Posted by Mikoh4792

Yes I did notice that too with the grey rat i owned about a year ago. Even though they are skinny for their size, they are still very strong. I was always impressed at how hard my grey rat would squeeze my arm to hold on(my carpet pythons are not even that strong). Just imagine how strong yours will be when it's full grown!

I actually had a similar thought the other day. He was climbing around my hand and felt as strong as my adult corn who is considerably thicker.

Originally Posted by franks

A fantastic but often overlooked arboreal hide is a cheap bird house. You can silicone it up or just prop it up on some bricks. I love how he is growing btw. Very cool snake.

Thanks. I love the bird house idea,. If I don't figure out a way to put one in the tank, I'll definitely give it a shot in his future enclosure.

[CosmicOwl]

Arboreal hide achieved.

[Mikoh4792]

Hahah I like it. The cardboard/paper theme is now complete

[CosmicOwl]

Originally Posted by Mikoh4792

Hahah I like it. The cardboard/paper theme is now complete

I replaced the paper with aspen, so I guess it's more of a wood theme lol. I've been trying to get a good shot of his eyes lately, because I've noticed that the color has been changing slightly over time. They're becoming more peach colored but it isn't picked up well on the camera.



He really loves this tea box hide too. I think he spends more time in there than in his other hides put together.

[sharthun]

Cool shot!

Originally Posted by CosmicOwl

I replaced the paper with aspen, so I guess it's more of a wood theme lol. I've been trying to get a good shot of his eyes lately, because I've noticed that the color has been changing slightly over time. They're becoming more peach colored but it isn't picked up well on the camera.



He really loves this tea box hide too. I think he spends more time in there than in his other hides put together.

[CosmicOwl]

Not much of an update, but he's really getting big. He's hitting that point where he's easy to handle because there is actually some snake to hold onto. I weighed him last night and he was 190 grams. It's crazy to think that he's nearly doubled his body weight since July 1st. If I keep feeding him, he's going to be 300 grams in no time lol.

[EL Ziggy]

Nice to see him growing so well Owl. How much and how often do you feed him?

[CosmicOwl]

Originally Posted by EL-Ziggy

Nice to see him growing so well Owl. How much and how often do you feed him?

I've been converted to feeding about 15% body weight ever 6-7 days. Rather than feeding one large adult mice, I give him two smaller ones. It seems like he digests them quicker/easier which I think is contributing to his growth.

[CosmicOwl]

I decided to shake things up a bit, and changed his substrate to a mixture of repti bark and eco earth(about 60/40 mix) and threw in a few pothos vines. At first he seemed slightly confused, but then started to crawl around and investigate the changes. I hope he likes it because this substrates makes his colors look amazing.




Unfortunately while I was examining him, I noticed something odd with his tail. It was hard to tell because of his coloration, but there was a very tiny amount of shed stuck on the last approximately 1/16 of an inch of his tail. Fortunately, it appears to be inside out. If it doesn't come off tonight in his new substrate, I'll try to remove it tomorrow with a damp paper towel or something.

[CosmicOwl]

Tiny update. The stuck shed seems to be coming off on it's own. I don't know if it's worth it to stress him out by trying to manually remove it. I think I'll just mist his cage a bit and give him another day or two to remove it on his own. If it doesn't I will remove it, because I don't want it to restrict any blood flow.