Shelter

Bought the snake on Saturday, so wanted to make sure I had the cage set up by the time it woke up again on Sunday. I live in Sheung Wan, near cat street, so after i got the cage/substrate/fake aquarium plants from Mongkok I walked down to the curio shops to see what I could find. I bought three chinese ceramic bowls, one large enough to serve as a water bowl in which the snake could immerse itself completely, and two smaller ones which I planned to turn into shelters.

My idea was to break out part of the side of the smaller bowls so they would provide an opening large enough for the snake to get in and crawl underneath. Great idea, but breaking a part out of the side ended up with me breaking the bowl alltogether. Ceramics aren't as easy to handle as I expected. So I ended up leaning the remaining smaller bowl against the side of the water bowl, to provide a shelter that was however not an enclosed space.

The snake ended up sleeping underneath, but it was a bit too exposed to my liking - information provided on different websites seems to agree that the hiding spot should be dark and snug, with only one opening. I had one of these as well - a small vase with a relatively large opening, lying on its side. It seemed perfect, but the snake didn't go inside so maybe it doesn't like it as much as I do. In the end I gave it back the box of my iPod with one of the short sides cut away, it loves curling up inside.

I also added a bush of fake plants so the snake could go underneath and get a bit of shelter there, but instead of going under the plants it went right on top of them. They're not strong enough to carry its weight so the whole thing sort of collapsed slowly. I'll have to get something to climb on.

The search for shelter continues - the iPod box will only last that long I'm sure and it doesn't look that great.