Hides-Post your ideas+methods

[RedSided]

I used to use cardboard hides before I decided to provide a more natural and better looking cage for my snake, I found that the measurements of the moulded plastic hides were not quite right for the dimentions of my viv, they would take up too much room , be too tall and such.I found a geat way to make your own hide and it only takes two mins or so.

Get you self a cheap terracota(speling?) pot ,break it in half and sand off any sharp edges,wash it off and allow it to dry(depending on where you got it you may or may not want to put it in the oven to kill off parasites).

Just squash the half pot down into the substrate so that there is just enough room beween the inside of the pot and the substrate for the snake to squeeze into.It makes a good low profile hide and again you may or may not want to cover the top with subsrate.
There you have it a nice low profile , cheap and customisable hide for your snake.

Im sure many of you have done it before ,but some people may not have the chance to buy hides and such so this ought to help anyone stuck for hide ideas.

Of course you can use almost anything as a hide within reason, keep posting ideas with pictures etc. Im interested to know what you all do:rolleyes:

[adamanteus]

Just a quick comment on terracotta plant pots. When you use these it's a good idea to break out the drainage hole in the bottom. Snakes get stuck in that hole! I usually break the pot lengthways (I guess that's what you meant too) and make sure the hole is removed.

[RedSided]

Your right about the hole ,it was a little careless of me to mention, when you cut the pot try to leave the hole on the piece you don't want. I find that thinning the sides toward the back of the pot makes it lay closer to the substrate making a much more "secure" feeling hiding place for you snake.Just my opinion there though.

without further adu heres the diagram just to show you what I mean( I am not an artist :D )
http://www.thamnophis.com/thamphotos/data//500/isntru.JPG

[rwgsnakes]

my favorite hides are, for when your garters or ribbons are small, a small piece of slate with the sub. dug out from under it.

http://i56.photobucket.com/albums/g168/ribbonsnakeyy/Checkers/eating6.jpg

you cant see under in this pic that well but...

[RedSided]

That gives the same effect as the pot, great idea will I have to try that one next time I re arrange the box :D

I would take pics but the camera has gone walkabout.

[Stefan-A]

I don't think I have any original solutions. About that plant pot hide, I just knocked a notch in the rim with a hammer, filed down the edges and put it upside down. It got a crack in the process but holds together anyway. The hole in the bottom of the pot is big enough for the male to get through it and I shoved a fake plant into it after I got the female.

http://koti.mbnet.fi/thamnoph/photos/pot.jpg


A piece of bark between two rocks or just with the substrate dug out from under it. Very basic. And I have a piece of cork bark about 40cm long that's almost like a hollow log. In the corn snake terrarium I have a folded air pistol target and a cardboard tube with a couple of extra holes cut into it. And then there is the "bird house" type hide I made from a wooden sugar "jar".

Not to mention that I was dumb enough to pay for a coconut hide.

[RedSided]

Pretty cool, thats a nice pic.

[adamanteus]

From an aesthetic point of view I prefer cork bark and similar natural looking hides, but obviously they are harder to keep spotlessly clean than a plant pot for example. I guess it depends on which school of though you're from, aesthetic or practical...I'm somewhere between the two!

[KITKAT]

My ordinoides have a plant pot with a chip out of the rim in two places (I used a dremel to make two "mouse holes" in typical Tom n Jerry style)

What's really funny is that my male often sits in the pot and sticks his head up out of the weep hole and looks around.

I gotta get a pic... looks so funny!:D

[adamanteus]

I'd like to see that picture!

[Cazador]

I like this hide. I made it out of a cottonwood tree. I'm not real happy with the way the top looks, though. I think it contrasts too sharply with the "natural" appearance. Maybe I should drill some small holes and insert some fake plants sticking out of the top... or maybe put a mat of fake moss on it. Any ideas?

I drilled a 1.25" (~3.2cm) hole in the front and then drilled more holes in the bottom. Then I used a chisel to make it hollow and to smooth the inside of the log. The cavity inside the log is about 2" (5cm) high; the outside diameter is ~6" (15cm), and the height is 4" (10cm). Two snakes can fit in there at a time.

I don't clean it often because they don't poop on it, but before I added it, I baked it, and I've occasionally soaked it in bleach water (filled with rocks to keep it submerged).

http://www.thamnophis.com/thamphotos/data//500/medium/DSC06762.JPG

[RedSided]

Thats pretty origonal, can you make me one ?:rolleyes:

Gives me an idea, you could buy a bird house and use that as a hide for multiple garters and if you had a tall wooden viv you could hang it and add some kind of branch access, depending on whether or not your garter likes to climb.(mine isn't the biggest fan).

Dont get one with a lead roof.

[Thamnophis]

I use pieces of cork as hidingplace. Works fine.

[Sid]

This one is a naturally hollowed out piece od dead wood I found.
http://www.thamnophis.com/thamphotos/data//500/medium/MVC-006F.JPG

These two are plastic flower pots.
http://www.thamnophis.com/thamphotos/data//500/medium/MVC-005F.JPG

Sid

[sschind]

Thanks a lot Rick. Now you got me thinking again and I probably wont be able to sleep tonight. I will be visiting my parents this weekend and they live on 40 acres of wooded land. I will probably be spending most of my time rummaging through the wood pile. Its probably still too cold to find snakes but I might be able to come up with a few hides.

steve

[Stefan-A]

I can't believe I've been this stupid, I actually have a project I've been working on for the last couple of months (I'm in no hurry).

http://koti.mbnet.fi/thamnoph/photos/hide1.jpg

Made from plaster bandages, covered with a layer of plaster, painted and lacquered and I'm currently in the middle of trying to partially cover it with peat and bark. Next, I'll be attaching fake plants to it. There are a bunch of tubes hidden at the back for more fake plants. Of course I don't have my "19 in 1" memory card reader with me, so I can't show more pictures of it at the moment.

[sschind]

These are some of the things I have been working on for my desert geckos.

Basically they are fake rock backgrounds and structures made from styrofoam, tile grout and polyurethane. It is so much easier to do desert stuff because of the colors. I'll try to work on something more "woodsy" once I get the hang of this.

the first two are for the 29 gallon laid flat tanks I described in the enclosure size thread.

the third one is part of my assembly line for the back and side panels

the last two are just a few of my basking platform designs

[Cazador]

Nice work, Steve. I really like those styrofoam backgrounds. How long do they take to make?

Rick

[sschind]

Thanks Rick. I think the backgrounds turned out nicer than the structures. I thought they (the structures) were cool at first but they are more difficult to make and they are more difficult to make look natural so I think I will hold off on them. As far as the Backgrounds go I doubt if I have more than a couple of hours into each set. I usually do 2 sets at a time (2 backgrounds and 4 sides) I can do the roughing out each set with styro in about an hour depending on the detail. When I have time in the store (which is quite often now) I will just glue together a bunch of ledges and have them laying around so when it comes time to rough them out I can just grab whichever ones I want and glue them to the backerboard. Each of the three coats of grout take about 1/2 hour each set as does the poly so you can figure I have maybe 4 hours into 2 sets which comes out to about 2 hours per set total. Most of the descriptions you read about this type of thing says to mix the grout to the consistency of oatmeal but I keep it very thin. It take more coats but I think several thin coats will stand up to chipping better than one thick coat. Besides, with all the nooks and crannies I need it a little more runny to seep into the cracks. I also use the sanded grout which adds to the texture but is a pain in the but because I have to keep stirring the mix to keep the sand from settling. I'll post a few pictures of my spider gecko tank once its done.

The first one pictured took a bit longer because of the detail in the basking platform. It was also the first one I did. I don't put as much detail into them now so they don't take as long. If anyone is going to the Lake County reptile show on the 14th I hope to have a few there.