I recently purchased a corn snake and since I like DIY I decided to make my own vivarium and share the whole process with you also hoping to get some advises, so here it goes... (gallery of each steps found in here http://imgur.com/a/cReU1)
I purchased a 2nd hand wooden stereo cabinet (£5 at british heart foundation) 45cmX40cmx90cm. It has 2 compartment (plus the vinyl player on top with a lifting flap) and in the back has a section opened for the stereo cables and a magnetic catch latches as a lock. (PICTURE)
First things I did is to make an opening to lit the top compartment which will be the hot area). (PICTURE)
With a mesh from a splatter guard (£1 at local pound shop) I made the protection for the lamp. The lamp is a common £2 (£3.5 in wilko) peg lamp with a £1 spot bulb (60W).(PICTURE). I added a timer plug (£5) for the lamp, despite it had a switch because it is placed in an uncomfortable place).
The remaining of the mesh I used to make a window in the bottom compartment. (PICTURE)
I taped the 7W 6"x11" heat mat (£15 at pets at home but you can find it online for £10 just I didn't want to leave my snake cold waiting a late xmas delivery) on the floor of the top compartment with some clear tape and passed the electrical wire through the back panel (PICTURE)
The back opening has been closed with a foamy car door protection strip (£3 from lidl http://bit.ly/UUP9CV) and stapled to the back panel. (PICTURE)
I then added fake plants on the top compartment and bottom compartment (£6 total at "now bargain" shop or any other bargain shop I guess) securing them with telephone cable clips (£0.79 in wilko). (PICTURE)
I placed thermometers to the cold and hot compartment (£1.79 each) and a hygrometer (£5 at pets at home) in the warm compartment. (PICTURE)
There is a hide made of coconut shell in each compartment and I added a water bowl and a hamster wooden tube (£2.5) in the cold compartment. (PICTURE)
JOB DONE!
What you think?
Now my questions:
1) I initially wanted to make the warm compartment at the bottom to allow the heat to flow up and maintain a relatively warm temperature in the colder compartment but that would imply placing the lamp behind the cabinet ending it up to be too far away from the wall and since my significant other didn't like how it looked like I had to swap the position. SOOOOO....
Is it ok or you suggest me to get another heat mat for the colder compartment? (cold compartment @ 20C and warm compartment @ 24C).
2) I would like to add some logs without getting ripped off in the shop but sourcing from my garden. I placed couple of logs which I knew where inhabited by pill-bug (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Armadillidium_vulgare) in water with lots of napisan (PICTURE).
Would it be enough to kill the bugs and use that log once dried up?
3) The snake (bought last friday) ate a pinkie last wednesday and is defecating regularly every day with liquid urine (PICTURE). I don't know much about corn snake physiology.
I seem to be unable to edit my own topic, oh well, I just wanted to add that the total bill is £43 and that the mods are free to move this thread to a better matching subs or modify the title if too vague
Firstly is the unit pine? Pine is toxic to snakes and most reptiles. Secondly all heat sources 'must' be controlled by a thermostat. Temps should be 26-29 hot end and cool end what ever room temp as long as its below 24. A 10 percent bleach solution is what I use and then I bake any wood in the oven. Snakes can poo multiple times but they will normally poo 1-2 time after a feed.
1.0 western hognose (hero) 1.0 phantom reverse pin dal brindle crested gecko (goyle) 0.2 red dal red harly (sprite) 99% full pin Harley crested gecko (TuLong) 0.0.3 miomantis paykullii 0.0.3 Bombina orientalis (oriental fire bellied toad) 0.3 fancy mice (snap, crackle and pop) 1.0 yorkshire terrier (jasper) 2.1 cats (echo, shadow and pokey)
To be honest currently your biggest concern right nows the unsttaed heatsource turn it off untill u get a stat setup or you risk burning the snake or causing some serious health issues id avoid using any kind of tape in the enclosure its never a good idea radioator foil is probably unessacery as long as you have a thermal gradient achieved by simply having the heatmat covering a minimum of a third and maxium of half of the floor space thats all you need Like georgina i also bake any wood thats going into the vivariums in the oven to kill any nastys (after stripping the bark off and sanding down any rough edges etc)
Newbie here: am I doing it right?
Posted - 23/12/2012 : 22:14:48
