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This will probably only work for black boaphile cages. Cover half of the cage door with a blanket, cardboard,etc. (warm end) for 24 hour darkness. This way the boa can rest on the warm end day or night without the stress of light. The cool end will get the light during the day but you will need a hide there. I'm trying this experiment now and I think it will work.
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Re: Alternative to hideboxes
I may be wrong on this, but....
I thought snakes prefer a tight spot to hide where they can feel secure. Covering half the cage is only providing the snake with a dark spot.... not a tight hiding spot. For my female BCI I gave up trying to find something big enough to put in the cage that she could fit into so I gave her a folded up towel to hide under. She seems to love it and it is easy to clean.... shake off the poo and toss it in the washer (by itself)
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Re: Alternative to hideboxes
The problem with a hide box is...what do you use if your snake is 8 foot long! A hide box would take up a chunk of your cage. If you use a 422D Boaphile cage, then covering part of the plexi door is quite sufficient for your boa to hide.
PTComment
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Re: Alternative to hideboxes
Blankets and tshirts also work well. If this doesn't work, thats what I'll do.Comment
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Re: Alternative to hideboxes
HI,
What I ve seen in some cages was to incorperate a shelf in the cage. This is almost like a hide box to the snake, plus you have the benafit of increasing the available useable floor surface.
Many snakes live on the shelf. some hide under it.
I have flippingrocks building me a double decker cage that will have this feature. It will not be very tall inside because I feel most snakes feel secure in tighter spaces, and seem to want to crawl under something. So the shelf will be like a hide, this newer style cage will have his unique openings allowing the snakes to find new a different ways to crawl on the shelf. He's finishing them cages this month I'll post pics when i recieve them and finally put them together inthe reptile room they will have only 6 bolts to assemeble??? neat they will need to be assemebled in the room due to the size and the smaller door opening in my reptile room/
my female guyana when younger liked to drop down on their food too, must be an instinct way of hunting..
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if she wants to hide she can if she wants to warm her back side she climbs on the hide/shelf and basks in the che glow. this cage is a combination of melanine and particle wood. very water proof but required some silcon at corner to prevent swelling.
and in closing a saw a post on another forum where they had to pull a towel out of this boa's mouth may be it smelled like a feeder rodent or something, them teethes are designed to hang on so pulling anything out of boa's mouth may cause some damage to the teeth..
:-/
see ya doug
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Re: Alternative to hideboxes
Well The best thing that I have found is a saucer for a potted plant.. They have them up to perty big... and when they grow out of the biggest size you have you can just change to a trash can lid from rubbermaid trash can's... They take up very lil' vertical room so it is just like it is the bottom of the cage.. The snake will be able to move over it and around it if it so chooses... This is a really good thing for them to because they can have all side of them touching somthing... This is suposedly the way snakes like it the most... and if you use a unglazed one you can soak it like once or twice a week and keep the humidity up in the cage with out the risk of mold... It will totaly stop the need for misting. I know you can use this method for just about any snake and any size... That is why I like it... It kind'a fixed all the problems I was haveing all at once....
That is my .02
Eric aka...RedComment
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Re: Alternative to hideboxes
Where can you find these saucers? I was at a hardware store and they didn't have it. Also how can you cut a hole in these things?Comment
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Re: Alternative to hideboxes
home depot has a huge selection of pots and saucers. i have a cordless dremil powertool and bought a cutting wheel attachment for it. i cut out an outline for the hole then used a flathead screwdriver and hammer and chizzeled (sp?) out the hole. there's probably an easier way, but this way works too.Comment
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Re: Alternative to hideboxes
That is just how I do it... How funny... I think this is the easyest way but it can be done with a hack saw This would be the hard way... When I first did it I just used a hammer and hit the edge and hoped for the best... I would then just sand them down... It is easy... A garden store would be a better place to find them...
Eric aka..RedComment
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Re: Alternative to hideboxes
I used to use a cat litter box, turned upside down with a hole cut in the side for access. It worked great and didn't take up much space in a 4' x 2' cage. ;DThe problem with a hide box is...what do you use if your snake is 8 foot long! PTComment
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Re: Alternative to hideboxes
I got them!! Just came back from home depot. It only costs $2.85!!! It's called a terra bowl and they have many different sizes. I bought the 12" diameter bowl which is 5" high. They cut easily with a heavy duty scissor and being plastic are easy to disinfect.Comment
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Re: Alternative to hideboxes
Ya like I said just up grade to a trash can lid... the ones from rubbermaid trash cans..
eric aka...RedComment
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Re: Alternative to hideboxes
For a hide?? or what ??Ya like I said just up grade to a trash can lid... the ones from rubbermaid trash cans..
eric aka...Red
LOL.. Most of mine just use a HUGE piece of wood and hide their faces under it basically. They think that they are "hidden" like this and do just fine like this. Some of them don't even use a hide at all when they get this HUGE either that I keep. Quite a funny site to see when my HUGE 11'er is out and about and she goes and bends her "neck" just so underneath a table , sticks her head out from under the table and the rest of her body is hanging out in the open. Of course she seems to think that noone can see her when she is like this. hahahahawhat do you use if your snake is 8 foot long!
Basically , once they get older and are HUGE, they have less need to go into an actual hide to feel secure....and they know it too.
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Re: Alternative to hideboxes
Ya a hide... they work real good... and just so you know if you look you can find a dishe's That are plenty big for a 8' snake... I found that was hard to pick up... I would say may-be a 11' burm could fit just fine...
The dishe's I am talking about are the ones that go under a clay pot...
Eric aka...RedComment
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