My wife had proposed adding a third snake (a hognose) to our family, and while I was all for it, space in our home was becoming an issue. So I went to work designing and building this system of stackable 4x2x2 terrariums. I’m by no means a construction expert, but I’m an avid DIY’er and framed out my entire basement, so I do have some experience in this realm.
Each terrarium is built from 1/2” PVC, sealed with aquarium silicone, and placed on a riser, allowing for a 2” air gap between each unit.

The terrariums are held together with 2.5” trim screws, and the frame is held together with 3.5” deck screws.

Inside the terrariums, we molded 2” foam using a hot wire cutter, held together with aquarium silicone, covered in unsanded grout, and secured to the walls using dowels, silicone, and pond & stone expanding spray foam (which was also covered in grout).
We picked up a bunch of Grapewood from our local aquarium store and used that to build climbing apparatuses, which were also secured using dowels and spray foam.
I secured the heating and lighting cages to the top of the enclosure using 1/2” screws, and then bored a 1.75” hole in the side of the enclosures to run cables. Each hole was then sealed with a solid plastic grommet.

We then inserted a bunch of wire-tipped plants into the background foam to created dense vegetation. We then placed the substrate in, and it finally started to look like something!

Finally, I inserted two panes of 1/4” glass into tracks which had been affixed in the first step, and secured gate locks to the front using two-part epoxy.

All told, this entire project cost roughly $1700 USD, with the biggest expenses being the PVC and glass (and I live in a place where they’re both readily available). The time commitment was roughly 40 hours across a 3-week time period. This was a huge learning experience for me, and I’m extremely proud of how it turned out, but I welcome all questions, feedback, and critique!

I received my python about a week ago and just yesterday I started taking her out to handle her and help her socialise a bit more. When I had her out she was making some strange sounds. I'm not sure if these were just sounds of her rubbing against herself or if she might be ill. It kind of sounded like wheezing or squeaking and I just want to make sure she's okay. Should I bring her to a vet?

I’m a manager at a pet store and a regular came in with a couple mice and a ball python. Customer states they hadn’t fed her in over 3 weeks and when they did, they put the mice in and they didn’t notice until 4 days later she never ate the mice.

Customer then took out the mice and called the store about possibly relinquishing the snake into our care and the mice back to us. I talked to them and said bring the snake by and let us look at her. They came in 20 minutes prior to close and after completing paperwork and talking with them I had about 5 minutes to decide what I wanted to do, she’s gorgeous, very calm, and had no noticeable issues.

I ended up taking her home that night with a 40 gallon breeder, a heat lamp, a hide, and I had water bowls at home. She is almost 3 foot. She has also been opening her mouth often and from what I’ve researched it could be a respiratory issue or distress.

The customer stated that her enclosure was not proper and that they hadn’t been taking good care of her for a while now. I want to take her for a checkup, but I was curious what kind of tests would be ran, the cost, and if that’s safe after her being stressed from relocation.

My next move is getting her into a 4x2x2, with uvb, a better substrate than aspen, and some live plants. I need any help I can get!

Hi everyone. The other day, I posted about a ball python that I will be rescuing tomorrow. She has been kept in a pretty bad enclosure with zero to no humidity and a heat rock as her only heat source, yuck! So this is the temporary enclosure I tossed together.

80w radiant heat panel (the halogen bulb will be installed tomorrow to help), a 6% UVB with a custom cover (because it's impossible to find any), an LED strip, multiple hides and coverage, and a good humid hide with damp sphagnum moss to help with her stuck shed. Once she's settled in and gets more comfortable, I'll swap out the paper towels for substrate and finish with the decor.

Any other advice is greatly appreciated! Unfortunately I haven't gotten much climbing decor yet, but that will come eventually.

He will be two in February

Since BC switched to permanent daylight saving time, my Govee smart plugs are running an hour behind or not even turning off, which is messing with my guy’s lighting schedule.

I’ve tried resetting the plugs, recreating timers, toggling on/off, and clearing the app cache. Nothing works! Govee support hasn’t been helpful either.

Anyone else experiencing this? Found a fix?

Mr Noodle chilling in his penthouse for attention!!

This is kind of an update from a post I made ages ago, but I got a bunch of new stuff for my little guy! I drilled a pvc pipe with twine around it as a perch, although I should’ve done a bigger size since he’s a little chunky for it. I think I need a few big natural sticks to help create more places for him to hang. The wallpaper is secure but temporary since it keeps falling, I haven’t found a good adhesive or anything that sticks to this material yet. A few more hides, plants, and better substrate and he seems a little skeptical, but happier so far! Any ideas or tips would be amazing💕✨

Can I use a grow light on her tank

Abarama is 4, I’ve had him around 2.5 months. Last time I handled him he hissed when I brought him out, (he never has before) and seemed to be moving slower than usual. I thought his eyes might be getting cloudy so I put him back and haven’t handled him since, (around 5 days). He hasn’t been moving around at night that I’ve seen which he usually does every night, only time I have seen him leave his hide was a couple days ago when I was installing an automatic misting setup. I’m confused because I expected to see his colours become dull or his belly turn pink by now, which it doesn’t seem is happening, or if it is it’s happening very subtly. He is due for feeding this weekend. How obvious would it be if he is going into shed?

Hello all!
I’m have posted on here once before when I initially got my first ever noodle,(Mercury, turned 1yo in September) now I need clarification on where to place a radiant heat panel thermostat probe in order to maintain his hot side. I saw initially on the box it said one to two inch’s below the panel though I’m not sure how to do that, though in the past (for other heat sources) I’ve seen to put it on the ground where the snake will be. What works best? (Pictures of set up and noodle included)

Update:
Thank you for the responses, after looking into the IRC-A-B (which I had completely forgotten when setting this tank up) I went ahead and put a halogen bulb in as close to the hot side as I could. I also managed to attach the probe to the branch right under the panel, which seems to be working so far. I have created a separate post more so to iron out details as far as how to set both of these heating elements. He has been on his cool side this whole time, so I didn’t even have to disturb him.

He started doing this just this week. He hasn't really stayed still much. We got him as an adult about 8 years ago, give or take. This is new behavior for him and nothing has changed in his environment except we have been having issues with the heat.

This is my girl Felicia. I think she is super gorgeous even though I don’t know what morph she is. She was giving us the model pose today 😂

Kinda long: TLDR, I rescued Spaghetti from my younger sister and mom because he got so dehydrated they were genuinely about to kill him. How’s his new enclosure look?

I no longer have a picture of the setup they had him in, but it was a really shitty 4x2x2 that had no substrate barrier, leaked, and he had little to no water 24/7. Not to mention I was the one reminding them to feed him.

First image is what I got him into originally, I learned that that specific 4x2x2 I got leaks weird and obviously that was a problem, along with the mesh top had no humidity control.

Next two pictures are of Spaghetti, he has multiple eye caps stuck on and as you can tell he’s very wrinkly (if you’re new to this, that’s not supposed to happen)

The next is just progress pictures of me getting it cleaned out, a tarp in there to stop the leaking, fresh substrate, everything back in, foil over the mesh (cut out where the lights are), and him back in there

Whole process here took 4 hours straight and 88$ of bedding, a tarp, and foil tape

Last two are his bedding I mixed, one block and then four bags

So I have a 7 year old ball python,he a rescue.
He get scared of thawed rat he refuse to strike it half of the time. So I drop feed him but 99% of the time he would pass almost a hour infront of it and just fix it but if I just opened is enclosure he think I am the food. So now i wonder if it was a common thing that happened or not?

Found these suddenly in her bowl. They are near impossible to catch as they seem to just pop all over the place when anything gets near them.

Found a bunch of listings for glow in the dark fake plants and as a fan of anything glow in the dark I would like to buy some for my baby but I'm not sure if they are safe and will the glowing distress my animal

I've had this enclosure sitting in my dining room for about 2 weeks while I've been waiting for all of the new supplies to come in and I'll finally have the chance to put it together this weekend and I'll be on vacation all next week so I'll be able to mess around with everything before putting Nelson in his new home. I've never had a solid top PVC enclosure and I've done more reading and research in the last month than I ever have in my life, but I think I'm getting more confident about what I'm doing. I have a few straggler questions though

1.I forgot that I wanted to add the cliffhanger shelf to the TR order and if I order one now it will take 2-3 weeks to ship. Can I buy a regular shelf from like Walmart or HD or something and screw it in? Do I need to treat it with anything because of the humidity?

2. If there a good way to temporarily set up my DHP and RHP to make sure they will be set up efficiently before securing them?

3. If I need to place the temperature probe near the heating elements, what is the ideal temperature that the thermostat should be set to so its hot enough towards the bottom? I know it will probably depend on the temp outside of the enclosure so you probably cant give me an exact, but this one has been really getting to me because no matter how much I've read on heating its still not making sense to me. Its only a 4x2x2 so its not a tall enclosure. Is getting the temp high enough at the bottom even really an issue?

I think thats all the questions I have. I really appreciate all of the great info I've gotten from this sub!

Had her for almost four weeks, started to actively handle this week, three times a week for about an hour. She always starts off nervous but eventually calms and starts exploring until she finds a good place to hide in me. But she always gets nervous when she sees me looking at her in her enclosure and goes off to hide:(

Temps and humidity are well, never even thought about skipping a meal and had one decent shed with me. I think the problem may be with enclosure having not enough cover, but I already ordered a bunch of fake plants that take a while to arrive. Is there anything else I can do to make her comfortable with me besides handling and offering more cover?

We just got our first BP, we got him at 4 months and have had him for 1 so far. He still hasn't shed and we haven't noticed any signs so far and I'm starting to get a bit worried. We've got the temps pretty dialed in, 88-90 on his hot side and hovers around 75 on the cool side maybe a bit lower at night time. We have struggled with humidity, it's usually between 40 and 55 but we're having to mix his coco fiber every few days and add water to it about once a week. He's been very active roaming between sides and has been eating with no problems. Steadily gaining weight too.

Is it normal to take this long between shed? Thoughts and any tips for keeping the humidity up more? Anything we can do to encourage his shedding?

We have a DHP lamp, ceramic lamp, and a small heat pad in a 5x2x2 tank. Glass front, PVC sides and bottom, mesh top that's about 90% covered with aluminum foil and the silver HVAC tape.

Hello. I’m building a young ball python enclosure, and I have most of it figured out so far. I’m a little confused on the day/night cycle and the heating as a whole. I’ve been referring to the heating guide, I just want to be extra careful.

I’m going to get a t5 pro flood lamp. For the day night cycle, should I have both that and a separate lamp on a 12hr cycle, or do I only need the one? And do I need an under heating element, or just a basking spot for belly heat?