New & updated enclosures

Sylphie · 01-16-16, 06:58 AM

As some of you know we bought a "rack system" with glass terrariums for Christmas

We sold some of the vivs that were more for lizards than snakes and we're now having an 8 viv rack and our two big terrariums, one in a wall, and "russian cave" that we hand made from an old cupboard.

3 tanks from rack are still waiting to be made, but we finished others, and refreshed the russian cave. Unfortunately after 2 years of trying I decided that living plants are having no chances with our snakes, as they love to destroy them. So we went for a fake ones, and well, it's not as bad as I was thinking : ) Here are pics... and excuse the light, but we still need to switch it to being outside, not in the tanks.

Russian Cave, I'm still thinking that something is wrong there, and we still need to add more light to the bottom part, but it's looking better than before for sure. And they love all the foliage!

One of our "corn gardens" in rack, the wall is expanding foam plus acrylic spray, then some fake plants. Here lives Redhead. (And yes, I know it's a little too small for her, but it's only for few months as we plan to build a new house this year)

Second "corn garden", unfortunately without any snake at the moment.

Julian home, third "corn garden", and our last try with living plants, as Julian is the calmest of our band.

And themed tank: Japanese Forest with bamboo tubes and some fake plants too. Our trio of japanese rats will have a lot of fun here for sure!

There are also two small tanks, one with our ball python and the second with our garter, but well, they need to be refreshed too before posting any pics

I'll post the pic of the whole room (which now contains of our two computer desks and the rest is all snakes) when we'll finish all the vivs, but it will be no sooner than spring as we need a proper weather to paint the tanks.

And yeah, 3 tanks will be empty until we found what we want to put there... I guess more corns and a piebald ball python.

Sylphie · 01-16-16, 08:08 AM

Okay, I refreshed our ball enclosure today. I fixed the plants as he's climbing on them everyday and silicone was unable to hold for long... and I added substrate for the first time in his life, so we'll see if he'll eat after that much of a change

As you can see he's very curious little one.

**EL Ziggy** · 01-16-16, 09:07 AM

Beautiful enclosures and snakes Sylphie!

Sylphie · 01-16-16, 10:21 AM

Thanks Ziggy! We tried to make a nice looking, yet cheap enclosures for them, especially that when we'll move to the new house we want to make new, really big enclosures for all our snakes, so these will be sold.

Manietsky · 01-16-16, 12:28 PM

Wow that cave makes one festive looking enclosure! Beautiful snakes indeed!

Btw are those bamboo tubes real, or how did u imitate them so realistically?

Sylphie · 01-16-16, 12:37 PM

Thank you! And yes, they are real but dried (they are like a wood), found in a florist shop, really cheap and easy to cut

prairiepanda · 01-16-16, 02:31 PM

Very nice! That expanding foam is wonderful stuff; so versatile! Got any pics of the whole "rack"?

You did really well with the fake plants, by the way. It can be difficult getting them to look good, but you made it work

Also, how big is the Japanese Forest one? It's going to look really sweet with the japanese rats in it!

Sylphie · 01-16-16, 03:14 PM

Thank you! The smaller tanks are 18x15x13h, so Forest seems to be bigger than it is

But as our Japaneses are still small hatchlings they are having plenty of room there. I'll post a pic with them inside tomorrow so you can see them.

As to the pic of whole rack, I'll post one when the rest of the tanks will be finished, as some are still in not too good shape

dannybgoode · 01-16-16, 03:38 PM

A fantastic display sylphie. I wish I had such an eye for creating enclosures like that. Some beautiful snakes too...

Sylphie · 01-17-16, 03:07 AM

Thank you! But I wouldn't do it without my man, as I'm the one with ideas, and he's the one making these ideas work

And Japanese Forest is all his, I just advised him two times when he asked how would I do some of the plants.

Pogie · 01-17-16, 10:46 PM

Ohhhh, all beautiful enclosures, but I have to say...I just LOVE Redhead's the best...Lovely!

toddnbecka · 01-18-16, 12:28 AM

Very nice looking enclosures, mine aren't nearly so well decorated. Mainly shelves and sticks for climbing and a few silk plants for cover aside from the caves and hides.

Sylphie · 01-18-16, 03:23 AM

Thank you both!

I really like the look of them, and Pogie, nice to hear that you like that enclosure. We wanted to create at least a slightly diverse tanks, not all looking the same, but it's hard when you use the same materials...

toddnbecka, well, I like the super naturalistic tanks, but as these are just for some time I didn't want to go all the way. And this type of tanks takes around 2h to make one (ofc I don't count the time when the styrofoam and then paint are drying, the same for silicone).