Fancy Snake Cage Advice

[batsofchaos]

I have a bull snake. Bull snakes in the wild steal gopher holes and the like, and I've been contemplating building him a fancy cage with a cave for him. I don't want the cave inaccessible, so I don't have a bear of a time taking him out it cleaning his cage, but I want it to look nice and fairly natural.

I was thinking of making the cave part out of something like clay with a removable lid that would serve as the 'above ground' base. The lid part would look best made out of the same material as the caves, but I think clay would be way too heavy or brittle.

Anyone have some suggestions for how to do this?

 

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How about trying this stuff?

 

[GreenOasis]

L, that won't work, you need an animal that burrows for that stuff. Bull snakes don't burrow, they steal the burrows of others.

I would suggest going to a craft store and getting some stuff called "self-hardening" clay. Mold out a large, rough bowl shape with your hands...do the same for a lid... & allow to harden per the instructions on the box. You can then paint it with non-toxic latex paints to be more naturalistic. We made a branch out of this stuff for one of our snakes & it turned out pretty neat. Of course, the self-hardening stuff can still be a bit brittle after it's hardened, so you want to be very careful with it at all times. There is also "polymer" clay that you can harden in the oven, and is much more durable, but expensive.

 

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I was thinking that you could mold the burrows yourself before putting the snake in.

 

[batsofchaos]

Polymer clay won't work because it's vaguely toxic (the package says non-toxic, but finished pieces should be 'for decoration only' so I wouldn't risk putting it in a snakes cage).

A self hardening clay may work, as would a natural terra cotta clay that was dried but not fired, but in making a removable lid both would probably be either too brittle or incredibly heavy. I think the same would be true of the excavator clay, which I did look at as a possibility.

It was also contemplating building the caves and lid out of foam, wrapping in chicken wire, and skinning them in cement. I've seen that done in cage construction, but I'd think it'd be too imprecise in terms of thickness/texture of finished product in order to make a secure lid.