If you are like many other snake keepers you’ll quickly find your one pet turns into several pets. When this happens you’ll often discover you simply don’t have a big enough dresser to keep their habitats on and you need to find a space in your home that can be dedicated to them. Sometimes it will be a specific corner of one room, other times it will be a closet, or a room all to themselves. In this article we will discuss what makes a good snake room.

A dedicated room for keeping your snake’s in needs to be more than an empty space. It needs to meet certain requirements in order to function properly.

• Appropriate size
  
  A snake room needs to be large enough to hold your entire collection as adults. It also doesn’t hurt if it allows for expansion of your collection as well. On the other hand it shouldn’t be too large as this will prove more difficult to maintain. Most people keep more than just snakes in their snake room. They also keep all the paraphanelia that goes along with collecting snakes in it. Not to mention they often have a habit of spontanesously causing different types of reptiles to appear. My own snake room for example has suddenly started collecting pairs of Tokay Geckos.
• Power outlets and reliable circuitry
  
  Various pieces of equipment that help keep your snakes alive and healthy require power. The more snakes you have the more equipment will need to use that power. If you have electrical circuits that can’t handle the load you’ll find yourself having all kinds of problems. You also need to make sure that there are an appropriate number of outlets and they are conviently located in the room.

  I made the mistake of turning an old walk-in closet into my snake room. It wasn’t until after everything was moved in that I realized there was no outlet in there. When I ran an extension cord to the nearest outlet it tripped the breaker. Needless to say that didn’t become my snake room. Had I bothered to look I would have seen that there were no electrical outlets in that closet and wouldn’t have tried to set it up there.

• Ability to maintain the temperature
  
  Because most snakes that people keep as pets require specific temperature ranges you need to be able to heat and cool it as appropriate. It’s not a big deal to keep one cage appropriately heated (or cooled) even when the room it is located in isn’t anywhere near that temperature, but when you have dozens of cages it becomes much more difficult. It is best to have a room that you can keep at a uniform temperature and then use a product like heat tape to tweak the temperatures. My snake room stays around 80 to 83 degrees at all times. I don’t need special heat lamps to do this, just a space heater set appropriately.

  During the summer because of how the room sits in my house I’m able to unplug the space heater most of the time and the room holds the appropriate temperature. When it needs additional cooling I just open a window and set a fan next to it. It doesn’t take any additional effort to maintain the temperature.

• Convience for the keeper
  
  The snake room needs to be conviently located. If you have to get in your winter clothes to walk across the yard to your shed that you’ve turned into a snake room you might not think it is such a good idea in the middle of a -10 degree night because you’ve just realized you forgot to take care of something important. More than just distance needs to be considered for a snake room. Not many homes are built with a room dedicated to pets. Consider what the actual, or original intent of the room is and decide if you can sacrifice that intent. If you can great, but if not or if you believe you’ll need to use it as intended soon then you should look for another room.
• Consider you own collection
  
  You need to keep in mind what kind of snakes you keep and what kind you expect to keep in the future. A room that is appropriate for a corn snake collection is often not the same room that is appropriate for a reticulated python collection. On top of the type of snakes you keep consider what others snakes you are likely to get and how large you are likely to let your collection grow. If you’re going to buy 12 dozen breeding pair of ball pythons and put them in a spare closet you might well find yourself relocating sooner than expected if they start hatching out eggs.

Related posts:

1. Regulating snake tank temperatures
2. The importance of a thermostats for your pet snakes
3. Provide proper housing for pet snakes

A thermostat is an important part of any snake owners setup. Keeping the temperatures properly regulated can mean the difference between your animal thriving or just surviving. Thermostats are devices used to maintain a specific temperature within an environment. Nearly every modern house has a thermostat that can be turned up or down to raise
or lower the heat as desired. Your pet snake also needs a thermostat to keep the temperatures at the appropriate levels for them to be comfortable. The thermostat you use for your snakes is much the same as the thermostat you use for your home except they generally aren’t mounted to the wall and for the safety of your reptiles they often have safety features such as shutting the heating device down completely if there is a malfunction.

How it works

The mechanics of a thermostat is fairly basic. There’s a thermometer inside that reads the temperature and then depending on if it is mechanical or digital it sends an electrical current to the heating device that either keeps it running, turns it on, or turns it off. The mechanical thermostat does this by way of mercury switch. A digital thermostat is different in that they rely on a resistor that’s resistance changes due depending on the temperature.

Types of thermostats used for reptiles

Due to their specialized needs you shouldn’t just throw any old thermostat on your snake’s tank. I’m sure it’s possible if you’re inclined to do the wiring, but I don’t know that I’d trust the average household Wal-Mart or Home Depot thermostats to be able to make the adjustments that are needed as quickly as they are needed for the purpose of keeping your pet snake healthy. That’s why you should consider a thermostat that is designed for use with reptiles. In order to make the best choice as to which kind thermostat to use you’ll need to know a little bit about them.

• On/Off
  
  This is a very simple design. When the temperature reaches the proper level it shuts off and when the temperature drops below that level it turns back on. These work fine for general husbandry practices but aren’t well suited for incubation because they often allow the temperature to go a few degrees above or below the set-point before they turn on or off. Jeff Ronne of Boaphile Plastics has written an article on his site advocating the on/off thermostat as a money saver. You can read the article for yourself, but essentially he points out that all the microadjustments the proportional thermostat does causes more energy to be used than is necessary.
• Proportional
  
  This type of thermostat micromanages the temperature by constantly adjusting the current that is going to the heating device. It works great for incubation purposes because if it is working properly it will keep the temperature exactly at what you’ve set it for.

Choosing the right one for your pet snake

If money is no issue go for the proportional thermostat. Even if you don’t have an incubator to run with it you might one day. If money is an issue buy the best on/off thermostat you can afford. Normally I’m an advocate of doing things cheaply, but not when it comes to the health of your animals. It’s not always true, but in the case of a thermostat you really do get what you pay for.

When you buy a thermostat you want to make use it has some specific features:

• Remote probe of an appropriate length
  
  At this point I believe all thermostats that are designed for use with reptiles come with a remote temperature probe. It’s a necessity and if you see one that doesn’t use a remote probe look elsewhere. The probe needs to be long enough to reach from the thermostat to the snakes’s cage. Most are between 3 and 6 feet in length.
• Remote probe of an appropriate size
  
  Because you’re going to be putting the probe against the heat pad/tape you need to be sure it can fit through any openings you need it to. I’ve yet to find one that either doesn’t fit or that the opening in the cage can’t be enlarged to accomodate, but just keep it in mind.
• Digital display
  
  While there are still a few models floating around out there that use analog dials to set your temperatures you are much better off using one that has a digital display. You want to be sure it increments the numbers by one and doesn’t do them by fives or something similar. I’m not aware of any that do this, but be sure to ask before buying one.
• Capacity to handle the load
  
  For the average keeper of pet snakes, with a small home setup this won’t be an issue, but if you are controlling multiple racks of snakes your choosen thermostat needs to be able to handle the load you place on it. Which means you need to keep track of how much power you need and see to it that your thermostat of choice can provide it.

We won’t get into how to properly use the thermostat because each one is different and the manufacturer should have provided those instructions to you. I’ll just close by saying that the purpose of the thermostat is to regulate the temperature of your snake’s basking spot, not the ambient air temperature. With that in mind you’ll need to mount the probe inside the tank directly over the heating element which is most likely to be an Under Tank Heater (UTH) or flexwatt heat tape. Be sure to mount it directly over it and not off to the side. After you’ve mounted the probe then put your substrate of choice down over the top of it. It should be noted that I’ve seen a few people advise that it should be mounted outside the tank, directly against the heating element. I don’t see the reasoning in doing it this way as the snake isn’t going to be hanging outside the tank, attached to the bottom of it.

Related posts:

1. Regulating snake tank temperatures
2. Homemade snake cages
3. What makes a good room for your collection of pet snakes

In 1900 the American congress passed and President William McKinley signed what is commonly refered to as The Lacey Act (from here on known as “the bill”) named after Iowa senator John F. Lacey who authored the bill. The original intent of the bill was to curb the poaching of game and birds in one state only to have them shipped across state lines into another state. In the original version of the bill was also concerned with the introduction of

non-native, invasive species into the American ecosystem. It has been amended several times over the years, and in 1969 the list of wildlife covered by the bill was expanded to include amphibians, reptiles, mollusks, and crustaceans. Over the years since the original version of the bill was made law the penalties have increasingly gotten stiffer and stiffer for violating it. For example in 1981 congress amended the standard of prosecution to be knowingly whereas it had been willfully. They also increased the maximum civil and criminal penalties to 10k and 20k respectively.

Latest proposed amendment
On Feb 3, 2009 Senator Bill Nelson (D)Florida, introduced SB 373 that aims to add the following change to the Lacey Act:

To amend title 18, United States Code, to include constrictor snakes of the species Python genera as an injurious animal.

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. IMPORTATION OR SHIPMENT OF INJURIOUS SPECIES.

Section 42(a)(1) of title 18, United States Code, is amended in the first sentence by inserting ‘; of the constrictor snake of the species Python genera’ after ‘polymorpha’.

This bill was cosponsored by Carl Levin (D)Michigan and has was revised before coming out of committee and being sent to the full senate for a vote. The amendment narrowed the list of species banned under this proposed law change to nine. They include:

1. Python molurus – Indian Python
2. Broghammeras reticulatus – Reticulated (regal) Python
3. Python sebae – African Rock Python
4. Python natalensis – Natal Rock Python
5. Boa constrictor – Boa Constrictor (BCI, BCC, etc)
6. Eunectes notaeus – Yellow Anaconda
7. Eunectes deschauenseei – Dark-Spotted Anaconda
8. Eunectes murinus – Green Anaconda
9. Eunectes beniensis – Anaconda (Bolivia

While the change to “only” nine species is much better than the original bill which would have essentially banned all constrictor snakes it is still unacceptable for a variety of reasons.

It is based on bad science

The purpose of the Lacey Act is to protect native plants and wildlife from both invasive foreign species and human beings. It is a national law that is appropriate when a species is able to spread beyond a very localized region. The species listed above simply cannot survive outside of very specific climates. In other words they are NOT in any way shape or form an invasive species for any part of the Unites States except very specific locations, primarily in Flordia.

The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) released a study (PDF) that even to the most casual observer is teeming with errors, misconceptions, half-truths, and outright lies. Unfortunately this same study is what many politicians and lay persons are using to guide their thinking on SB373. For instance the report claims that there is a colonization risk in the US by these animals via the pet trade. That might be true if we all lived in the extreme south of Florida but for the other 99.9% of the country there is no risk of colonization. If I were to put my Boa Constrictor outside in the 6 inches of snow that is on the ground it would die in very short order. Same is true of any of the species listed. There is a reason they are native to the tropical and sub-tropical regions they are and it’s not because they invaded and adapted to those areas.

That report isn’t the only one that relies on lies. Another estimate claims that there are approximately 50,000 invasive snakes living in the Florida Everglades. Originally published in 1999 by Cornell University that same number is cited a decade later. Two questions come to mind.

1. Why are the estimates at 50,000 ten years after the Cornell study? If these snakes pose a threat of colonization why haven’t their numbers grown?
2. Why are these 50,000 animals still living in a very, very tiny (geographically speaking) region? Why have they not migrated?

Fact is that the estimates are likely way off. By tens of thousands. If there were 50,000 giant constrictor snakes in the Flordia Everglades they’d have a HUGE impact on the local wildlife. There wouldn’t be any of it left! These snakes don’t feed on your average sized pet mice or gerbil. They need large prey and there’s simply not that much large prey in the Everglades. They haven’t migrated because they can’t. There is no other climates that support their needs. Southern Flordia is unique out of all the rest of the United States. It is the only place that combines the necessary temperatures, humidity, and food source for these animals to survive. When we examine these two facts objectively it’s impossible to say that these 9 species of snake pose a threat of colonization.

It is economically disasterous for many people

There are many people who make their living with these snakes. They have dedicated their time, effort, and money to breeding and promoting these snakes. These snakes are their livelihood. With the state of the economy today it is utter foolishness to turn around and tell people they can’t make a living doing what has been perfectly acceptable and legal up to that point. Granted people will still be able to breed and sell these and other snakes but because it would prohibit the interstate trade of them it would ruin many small businesses. Beyond just the snake breeders are the small businesses who exist solely to support them. Cage builders for example. If I can’t buy a Reticulated python what need have I for a cage that can house one? If I can’t buy a Boa Constrictor I don’t need to feed it, therefore the people who breed and sell feeder animals are impacted.

This law is motivated by emotion not fact

The simple fact of the matter is that the only reason this amendment to the Lacey act is going to pass is because it is a hot button, emotional issue. The people who support this law have exploited one unfortunate event over the past year that has gotten the attention of the national media. The death of 2 year old Shaianna Hare when an illegally and improperly secured Burmese python escaped from it’s cage and killed her in Florida. In fact S 373 looked to be heading nowhere fast until this happened. No one was ignorant enough to believe that these snakes are an invasive species that are dangerous to the American ecosystem. But when a little girl was killed any excuse to ban them became a good excuse.

There is a real problem

No one should say there isn’t a very real problem with these snakes. There is, but it is very much a local problem for the state of Florida to deal with. The Florida Wildlife and Conservation Commission began a program to record, capture and kill injurious species in the Everglades. In fact Florida is so serious about dealing with the issue that they’ve declared the hunt will go for a full year from January 1, 2010 to December 31, 2010. No one denies that Florida has a very real problem to deal with. The issue is that it’s not an issue that can spread to other parts of the country.

We won’t get another chance

This matter is pressing for one simple matter. It made it out of committee. This means that the full Senate will vote on it and if they pass it then it is passed on to the House of Representatives who would then make the changes they see fit to it and then vote on it. Once the President signs the bill it becomes law. Do we want to risk that either the House won’t pass the bill or that President Obama won’t sign it? If you own snakes, or any other reptiles you need to oppose this amendment to the US Code. There are several things you can do.

• Contact your state’s Senators directly
• Contact your local and state representatives as well. They also need to be educated on the matter.
• Support organizations such as U.S. Association of Reptile Keepers and PIJAC both of which are working hard to oppose S 373 and other bills at both the federal and state level that would hurt our hobby.
• Write letters to your local newspapers telling them the facts as they are
• Be on the lookout to correct misconceptions online. If it is a place you can post a comment correcting wrong information do so. Keep it short, and respectful, but don’t just let it go without correcting it

Related posts:

1. The media is your snake’s worst enemy
2. Florida Wildlife and Conservation Commission gives approval to snake cull
3. HR2811 – Cutting off your face to spite your nose?

I got an email a little over 2 months ago asking if I would be willing to feature an article about a new website relating to snakes, particularly Ball Pythons. I took a look and agreed to do it. Unfortunately life got hectic and I wasn’t able to complete it until now. In fact up until this point I’ve not posted anything at all, but going forward there will be regular updates to pet-snakes.com.

Introducing Ball Pythons for Sale
Ball Pythons for Sale is an ingenious idea. It takes the craigslist idea of online community advertising and strips it down to one simple element, Ball Pythons. You won’t find any other species of snake available on this site. That’s not to say there aren’t plenty of snakes listed. After all the number of Ball Python morphs is incredible:

I don’t have a Ball Python to sell so I wasn’t able to fully test the functionality of the site, or give a review on the whole selling process but from what I see it looks very straight forward. The ad rules page tells you what you need to do in order to sign up for an account and list ball pythons for sale. I checked out the Google ranking for the phrase “ball pythons for sale” and consistently it has ranked on the first page. For a seller that means almost everyone who goes to Google look for that phrase is going to see Ball Pythons for Sale somewhere in the top 10 sites listed. You simply can’t ask for better exposure than that!

For the buyer the process is even easier. You see a snake you are interested in, click on the listing and take a look at the details. You can then leave a public comment/question about the sale or you can contact the advertiser privately. All of the seller contact information is listed in plain site and you don’t need to be a member of the site to see it! Unlike other online classified sites that take a cut of the sale as a commission the owner of Ball Pythons for Sale has chosen to forgo that source of income. I don’t know if that model will change in the future, but as someone who has searched high and low for ball pythons in the past I personally wouldn’t mind paying a reasonable commission for the service.

No related posts.

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