It took a couple weeks, but my eldest’s snake is now using the new basket as a hide! He has crawled over and around it and squished it out of shape, but not crushed it. I’m calling it a successful creation.
I think he likes it!
Category: snake
Snake hide basket upgrade
The picture above was taken the day after we put the new rope basket (see yesterday’s post) in the snake cage. He did investigate it, but in doing so knocked off the lid and squished the basket. The basket is semi-flexible, but doesn’t make a good hide if the lid is off. Hm. I decided to add a hinge and latch.
I had a premade rope frog (latch) in my stash that has been stashed for a couple generations. I sewed it on the basket. To make the hinge I just sewed one side of the lid to the basket, since the sides are flexible. As I was sewing, Izzy the cat decided that she would try out the basket on my lap. She didn’t fit.
This has become quite the fancy snake basket. Well, currently it is just a basket. The snake has yet to curl up in it, but it survived a night in the cage without collapsing, so we’ll see if he takes to it. At least it is washable if he decides we just gave him a second bathroom.
Snake hide basket
My eldest’s corn snake is a big boy, and has outgrown his favorite hide. We’ve been trying different things: he likes the large PVC tube section, but sticks out the ends, the large black plastic rectangle tub he decided was better as a bathroom than a hide, and the slabs of cork bark are fun to climb around, but not hide under. So I thought I would make him a basket. I purchased half inch polypropylene rope, which it is used for boating and is mold and mildew resistent, and sewed it together with bonded nylon thread.
Sewing a coil basket was easier than I feared. I chose a method where the needle is stuck through the top of the previous row, then wrapped around the current row. To make it better for snake habitation, I built in an entrance near the base.
The 50 feet of rope wasn’t quite enough to make an 11” diameter basket, so I added some red rope from my stash to the lid.
Now we’ll see how he likes it.
Snake infinity
My eldest and I cleaned out the snake cage, taking out all the old aspen bedding and putting down a thick new layer for Malt the corn snake to explore. This time we added a new cork bark hut next to his favorite hide. He was kind enough to explore it on his way back to his favorite spot, and in doing so made a snakey infinity symbol.
His favorite hide is getting a bit small for this big boy. When he is about to shed, he likes to have a wet wash cloth in the hide with him. He and the bit of towel no longer fit together without knocking the lid off. Hm. This is the largest cast resin hide with lid that we have been able to find on the market. We did find a large rectangular hide, but he has decided it is his bathroom. So now the creative neural paths need to engage and try something new. I will post on progress.
Hi from the snake
It is spring, which for us means that my eldest’s corn snake is on the prowl and not interested in eating. But he is a pet snake, in a secure enclosure, so try as he might to get out and go looking for ladies, it isn’t going to happen. Last year he went over a month without eating and we finally resorted to putting him in an empty cage with his thawed arctic mouse overnight to get him to take in calories. Here he is just being cute and peaking over his log.
Critters and Craft 