Meet Cheeto!

Now that Marbles is in her new 45 gal enclosure, I have an empty enclosure. Time for a new snake!

After careful research, I decided to get a Kenyan Sand Boa. These snakes are super docile and absolutely adorable. The local reptile expo was in town so I decided to head down there to see if there were any Kenyan Sand Boas (KSB) that I could buy.





I cleaned out Marbles old enclosure with terrarium cleaner and laid down around 3 inches of Aspen. I am not particularly fond of Aspen for Marbles because Marbles doesn't burrow. Also with Aspen, there is a higher chance of impaction, ingestion of substrate. The reason I chose Aspen is because KSBs are snakes are burrowing animals and Aspen is great for making and holding tunnels.




I honestly don't need such a big enclosure right now because KSBs are so small. A mature KSB can live their entire lives in a 20 gal long. I could have used a 10 gal and been just fine but I didn't have one on hand.

I went to the expo and adopted a female KSB who is a few months old. I named her Cheeto due to her natural orange complexion. KSB's natural morph is orange and black, but there are other morphs available. I choose the natural morph because I just fell in love with her color.



Female KSBs get about two feet in length at full maturity. Right now she is about 6 inches long. I don't get to see her much because she is burrowing and hangs out right over the under the tank heater.







Cheeto is so much fun to hang out with because she loves to go in between my fingers. She is a super slow mover and is just really chill. I am super happy with her.


I still love Marbles and she is doing well. Even though I now have two snakes that are two different species I will keep the blog name Python Point because Marbles is the main inspiration for this blog.

Do I Regret Going Bioactive?

When I first got Marbles, I was excited to make her enclosure bioactive. But, being as frugal as I am, I wanted to do a DIY because I thought it was going to be cheaper- and it was at first. I ended up having to spend lots of money replacing plants and what not.

I actually ordered some springtails to be the decomposers of the enclosure, and the package said to dump the rubber feeling charcoal in there and it'd be fine. Well, my springtailes didn't make it because  I didn't realize you had to feed them things like cucumbers slices. So now I have no clean up crew and just lots of charcoal looking things mixed into the substrate- when I change the substrate here in a few weeks I am gonna get all of it out so the charcoal goes away. It doesn't hurt Marbles and she doesn't eat it, its just annoying and doesn't flow with the aesthetic of the tank.

Before

After

Ball pythons like to bulldoze things. Marbles is four for four on destroying the plants every time I redo her enclosure. I bought some fake vines and put them up high just for now. I really like them because its more green than I have ever put in the pots on the wall and it looks cool hanging down. They're the All Living Things Medium Hanging Terrarium Plants 12". They came with suction cups on them, but I have a dirt and foam background so I just planted them as I would a real vine.




All in all I do not regret trying a bioactive enclosure, I love the idea of it, it is just hard to maintain with a reptile that destroys everything. The next reptile I get in a few years once I am in my own place, most likely a lizard of some kind, I might try going bioactive.

Moving on Over

Alright, so my next step in life is moving into an apartment near my college. After some discussion with the apartment complex manager, he agreed to let me bring Marbles with no pet fee and rent charge.

So to start this process off, I found this gem on the side of the road. Its a three-tier rolling beverage/snack cart. It looked really rough so I sanded and spray-painted it.

This is going to be the stand for Marbles' enclosure.






Then, I put Marbles in the cloth bag I got her in and put that in a open bucket to make transportation easier. Honestly, I thought she would freak out, but she remained calm actually.

Next, along with some help, I dismantled her enclosure and gathered her supplies and headed to the car. The drive was less than a half hour long and I had her on my lap so she did get some heat. She didn't squirm on the ride. I was careful to make sure the driver knew not to go fast around the corners so Marbles didn't slide and become scared.

We arrived at my apartment soon enough and I had my crew get everything inside. We had to set this up a little different than at my house; at my house the dresser that Marbles' enclosure was on top of was longer and wider than the enclosure itself, but the cart was not. So a piece of particle board was put down to steady the enclosure - I wasn't going to take a chance without it and have the enclosure fall. After that it was just the same set up at home, I just put a towel over the board for aesthetic purposes and the supplies on the shelves underneath the enclosure. Then I just slid her out of the bag (notice I didn't stick my hand in the bag with a snake because my mom didn't raise a fool) and she just started exploring then eventually left to open area to go into her hide over the heat pad because that's just what she does.

I am supposed to feed her today, but I am not going to. She is just now is in a new environment even though her enclosure is the same. I could run the risk of her not eating and me wasting a mouse or she could actually regurgitate it due to nerves and anxiety from the new place and the move. I will probably wait 1-2 days for her to become acclimated before I feed her again.