I had a hatchling Phrynonax poecilonotus in a 6qt tub and she was doing great. But I wanted to give her a little more room to stretch out. But I also didn’t have a spare cage to do this with yet. So I decided to convert a simple tub into something I wanted so she can have some more space for the time being.

I chose to go with a 16qt tub with a latching top from Target. I use these same style tubs in a larger size for my bigger snakes for quarantine when my quarantine rack is full.

If you don’t have a soldering iron, I highly recommend it. Every herper should have one.

This is an overview of all the supplies I used minus garden fencing. Plastic clothes hangers, a PVC cutter(another invaluable tool to have), soldering iron, zip ties, and perch holders for the hangers.

As I started this project, I definitely made changes to my original idea. Sometimes things seem great as thoughts and then when you try them out, they aren’t as great as you thought. And that’s ok, part of figuring out what works is also figuring out what doesn’t work. When I started this project, I had no intentions of using garden fencing. I am actually not a huge fan of it for baby snakes but in this tub setup, it works great. First thing I did was use the soldering iron to make my ventilation holes. In the picture below, you can see the holes. I prefer the iron over a drill because it doesn’t leave any protruding plastic on the inside or outside of the tub.

Next after ventilation, I had to decide how I wanted my perches to be. I knew I wanted to use plastic clothes hangers but I have to decide how they would be placed. Since this tub is for a Phrynonax poecilonotus, I wanted to cater it to their habits. They don’t perch like green trees. In my experience, they are closer to amazon tree boas in the fact that they will drape themselves over multiple branches, creating multiple points of contact. So that told me I needed to have multiple areas that the perches were perpendicular to each other.

After a couple ideas I didn’t like, I ended up with this. A simple yet functional system of perches. I liked how simple it was but it also did what I wanted it too. And I would be able to spot clean without always having to remove the perches every time. But I still felt like it was missing something. That is when the garden fencing came to mind.

My reason for not liking garden fencing is because when you use it with baby snakes in tubs, every joint gets so dirty. Making it a chore to clean them effectively. With the amount of animals I currently have, anything I can do to save time is very much appreciated. But in this tub setup, I figured out that the garden fencing is perfect. It gives the snake more surface area to perch on, which was an initial goal of mine for this project. Its raised off the ground so it shouldn’t get as dirty. And it is in a spot that won’t change my ability to spot clean and change water without taking out the whole perching system. So the decision to use the garden fencing was all pros and no cons in my mind, even though I’m not a fan of it usually.

This was the “rough draft” setup. I have started using live plants with my arboreal colubrids and have had favorable results. In this setup, I started with golden pothos and a wandering jew. I have also used arrowhead plants with success. I am still trying to figure out all the plants that will do well in cages. So far, nothing has done better than pothos. I haven’t tried vining philodendrons yet. But I should try it out since the vining philodendrons are native to South America, which would work great for this setup. But I had tons of starter pothos in the greenhouse so thats what I used. I have noticed that pothos does just fine in a tub with minimal light and has also stood up to the snake for months now. The wandering jew, not so much. One thing I noticed with my older Phrynonax poecilonotus was his eating habits once I moved him out of the 6qt tub and into a cage with perches and live plants.. Phrynonax poecilonotus are notorious for being difficult to get going as babies. You have to resort to tease feeding them in your hand until they figure it out on their own.

This is my setup for my male Phrynonax poecilonotus. There are two potted golden pothos with multiple wooden branches screwed into the side of the cage with some fake plants to fill void space. I hope to eventually only have live plants in the cag… — This is my setup for my male Phrynonax poecilonotus. There are two potted golden pothos with multiple wooden branches screwed into the side of the cage with some fake plants to fill void space. I hope to eventually only have live plants in the cage.

Once the older animal was in this setup above with live plants, he immediately started eating off tongs with no issues. This was the reason I wanted to make the tub setup for the female so she could have a mini version of this until I get her a cage and set it up like this male’s cage. She has never had an issue eating but seeing how well the male did in a planted cage, I wanted to give her something similar.

This is the finished product. I just added a fake plant in there above the humid hide that could support her if she wanted to perch in the leaves of the fake plant. Which she does often.

Here she is in the tub. As you can see in this picture, she is using the garden fencing just like I anticipated she would. If you do decide to make an enclosure, definitely try to tailor it to the specific species you are making it for. Its very … — Here she is in the tub. As you can see in this picture, she is using the garden fencing just like I anticipated she would. If you do decide to make an enclosure, definitely try to tailor it to the specific species you are making it for. Its very easy to just go with a bare bones setup and house everything like that.

So that’s the finished product. The tub cost me 5 bucks and I had everything else on hand already. So for 5 bucks and about 30 minutes of my time, I was able to create something better for this snake besides a simple setup 6qt tub. A cage doesn’t have to be fancy or expensive for it to meet all of your animal’s needs. I always try to meet all of the animal’s needs with functionality and ease of care for the cage. If the cage is easy to maintain, you are more likely to keep up with it. As opposed to a super fancy, intricate setup that is an ordeal to maintain. So just some food for thought. I also have another tub setup I made for my blue beauties and rhino rats.

Same basic concept but I tried to use more of the clothes hanger so I didn’t feel like I was wasting as much of it. My thought was that the handle of the hanger overlapping with the straight perch would give the multiple points of contact, as well as the piece just below the handle. Live plants as well, with the pothos performing the best. I honestly think I will end up changing these to the other setup with the garden fencing. Like I said at the beginning of this blog, its ok to try something and it not work. That s the only way you will truly figure out what’s best for your animal.