Various cage settings and Inhabitants

Hello everybody,

as I saw so many beautyful cages of Christoph Studer, it´s time for some competition Very Happy

Yesterday I took some time to make a couple of pictures. Please enjoy!

This is the cage setting of my "I-don´t-like-any-movements-in-front-of-my-cage"-Bitis arietans-Bitis gabonica-Hybrid (Wildcaught from Tanzania!!!). The cage size is 1,5m x 1,2m x 0,8m (including lightbox):

Various cage settings and Inhabitants Schlan10

Various cage settings and Inhabitants Schlan10

When I got him 1,5 years ago he was around 30cm, now he is 1,1m! I have never seen any viper growing like that:

Various cage settings and Inhabitants Neu_sc10

Various cage settings and Inhabitants Neu_sc10

Finally a potrait of him. In my opinion he is one of the nicest Bitis I have ever seen:

Various cage settings and Inhabitants Neu_sc11

This is a picture of one of my Oxyuranus microlepidotus-Cages for the adults. Normally they are separated, but in the mating season the male goes crazy if he doesn´t get in contact with her. The size is 1,75m x 1,2m x 1,1m (including lightbox). On the left you see the entrance to the hiding box:

Various cage settings and Inhabitants Neu_sc12

Various cage settings and Inhabitants Neu_sc12

This is the hiding box, when opened. The snakes are safe inside, you can work without any stress. Half of the box is covered with glass, the other half not. If you want to clean the box, you have to put off the chain and pull they box out. If you ask me how I get the snakes into the box, there is a simple trick. Taipans as well as my Mambas and many other Elapids are really nosy. Put some new paper inside the box (new smell!) and wait for five minutes at most. All animals will be inside. Garanteed!

Various cage settings and Inhabitants Neu_sc13

Various cage settings and Inhabitants Neu_sc13

This is a portrait of one of the holdback juveniles from last year:

Various cage settings and Inhabitants Neu_sc14

Break: I have some problems with uploading further pictures. I will split this Topic in two parts. I hope it works...

Best regards

Frank

Part II (I hope it works this time):

This is one of my oldest inhabitants, a female Bitis rhinoceros in her cage (Same size as the Bitis-Hybrids cage):

Various cage settings and Inhabitants Neu_sc18

Various cage settings and Inhabitants Neu_sc18

The next two pictures are of my all time favourites: Daboia russelii russelii. The first picture is of the cage of one of my adult females (Cage size as in the Bitis):

Various cage settings and Inhabitants Neu_sc19

Various cage settings and Inhabitants Neu_sc19

A portrait, real stunner!

Various cage settings and Inhabitants Neu_sc20

Now a real rarity in european cages, a 100% pure female Echis carinatus carinatus from India. She came in as stowaway on a rock shipment to the harbour of Hamburg last year. I don´t know the exact locality where the rocks came from, but anywhere in South India. This is her cage (0,8m x 0,5m x 0,4m):

Various cage settings and Inhabitants Neu_sc24

Various cage settings and Inhabitants Neu_sc24

And this is her. If anyone has a male to her, or know someone who has or can arrange it, I´m highly interested!

Various cage settings and Inhabitants Neu_sc22

Various cage settings and Inhabitants Neu_sc22

And last but not least one of the adult 100% pure Acanthophis antarcticus from the Brisbane area, Australia. Hopefully pregnant.

Various cage settings and Inhabitants Neu_sc23

Various cage settings and Inhabitants Neu_sc23

Next time some more pictures of other snakes and settings.

Best regards

Frank

Very impressive, Frank! Those Australians are rather rare here in Europe, and You breed them! Great!

Yes please !! Go frank go .... those are crazy , I see a big chain by the Inland ! that makes it look even more toxic !
Nice Gaffy , Nice antarcticus.

If you had a cliff leading off into a majestic blue ocean in your cages , then it would really look like australia ! maybe next project Smile

Frank , How many snakes are you keeping in total ?
Also I see there is a mesh grid on the floor just behind the front sliding glass , what is the purpose of this?

Ohohoh Frank!!, that´s just some amazing cages... very very nice!!!
Thanks for that!!!
Very Happy

Thanks to all of you.

@Andrew:

The idea with the ocean I will keep in the back of my mind Very Happy

In total I keep around 40 snakes permantently plus a whole bunch of juveniles every year again. All permanently kept snakes stay in cages arranged like the ones seen in the pictures above, juveniles stay in a Racksystems separately.
The mesh grid is for ventilation, all cages have a meshed opening on the frontbottom and in the back of the lightbox. Arranged like that you have a very good ventilation and not the problem of rubbed snouts, like sometimes the snakes get it if you arrange the mesh on one side of the cage. But there are also a few handicaps: Some snakes like to dig the whole substrate out of the cage through the mash and others prefer to drop their poo on it... Not a funny part some time.

wow. These cages are very very nice. Best looking cages I´ve aver seen. Really great setups. And snakes looks very nice too. I hope that you will continue with the pictures:-). Do you keep any Bothrops?

Hi Frank, what can I say you own the most impressive cages for venomous snakes I´ve ever seen in a privat housekeeping. That´s why I enjoy visiting you every time that much. Just stunning! And you can also see the effort of setting up the cages by means of your breeding success and the perfect appearance of your offsprings. Keep it up!
Pascal

Hello Frank,
first - I deleted your second topic.

and I have to adopt the view of my previous speaker .... very nice cages.

Regards Jörg

[quote="Frank Weinsheimer"]

as I saw so many beautyful cages of Christoph Studer, it´s time for some competition Very Happy

Yesterday I took some time to make a couple of pictures. Please enjoy!

Hi Frank, i echo the compliment to you. Realy nice.
Of course i post more Pictures from my Animals and Cages Smile

I hope other Guys will follow us...

Cheers
Christoph

Stunning cages! And of course, animals too..

I like the hiding-box, although I don´t really understand how it works.. Is it possible that you show a simple scetch?

One of the nicest setups i´ve seen, absolutely stunning they are along with the snakes Smile

Nice enclosures!!! cheers

A contender indeed....

Cheers

-Arcy

Very very beautiful! I'm very inspired to do so!! I'm a newbie on keeping hots but it still looks awsome! Smile

Hi Frank!

As all before me said - the enclosures are fantastic! I always apreciate naturalistic enclosures.

But I have a question: what (mix?) substrate do you use at inlands taipan cage?

Cheers,
Anze

I like your setups a LOT!

I was wondering how the hidebox of the inlands works. I see a hole in the floor, but don't you get all the substrate in the hidebox?

And can you get in the hidebox when the animals are in the enclosure? To put in newspaper like you said?

Regards, Stefan

Hello,

Really interesting animals and amazing enclosures!!!

Congratulations on them.

Greetings from Mexico

Saludos desde México

Guest

Excellent displays! As Guenter said ,so it also applies here in the states the "down under" ssp. are rare, but just recently several species including the inlands have become avalible at a premium price!

Great cages.
Looks really natural.
a bit unrelated but is there anyone that has any Bitis arietans-Bitis gabonica-Hybrids for sale or will have in the future?

Cheers
Max

Hello everybody,

thanks for the comments, it´s everytime nice to hear such compliments. It makes the work even more worth.

@Anze: I use a mix of different sandtypes, gravel, clotted clay, stones, etc. for the Inlandtaipans. I can get most of it in gravelpits nearby and the forest behind my flat. Normally I try to get a good picture of the natural environment and use everything I can get to make the cage looking most simular to the natural situation. If I make a closeup of the inhabitants and it is not 100% sure to say if it was made in nature or in a cage then I fullfilled everything. Take a look on the brilliant pictures Maik Dobiey made of my animals in some other topics. Even me I would not be able to decide if the pictures were taken in the nature or in a cage if I would not know it.

@Stefan: Yes, the Inlandtaipans often put a lot of the substrate inside the hiding box, but as I clean the cages at least every few days it is not the big problem. I clean the hiding box, put new newspaper inside and 5 min later all Taipans are inside the box. Wink

@Max: It is very unlikely to find someone who sells a Bitis arietans-Bitis gabonica-Hybrid. The few Bitis arietans-Bitis gabonica-Hybrids I´m aware of are/were all wildcaughts. I don´t know if anyone ever managed to bred them, but it should be possible. To get a wildcaught is very difficult, it is of course impossible to order one, and you need good connections to exporteurs to get your hands on one if it arrives by chance. Mine I got by chance as well and I searched for it for nearly 10 years!
I hope to get a female to my male, but as I said the chances are very low.

More pictures of other cage settings will follow within the next days.

Best regards

Frank

@Frank: Well i had expected an answer like that, didn't think anyone had bred them but you never know unless you ask, right?
If you would get hold of a female and actually get offspring. Please get in touch!

Another question. Have you had any thoughts about mating him with a B.gabonica female?

//Max

Hmm that trapbox is very neat, I think I will have to steal that Idea from you.. perfect when my Cape Cobra gets bigger.

@Max: No, I will not mate him with anything else but a Hybrid female.

Regards

Frank

Hi Frank,
Sorry to stir up an old thread but i'm curious. When the Gab x Puff feeds which traits does it exhibit? Does it strike and hold with head elevated like a gab ,or strike release/strike hold down low like a puff?

Cheers,
Al

@Al:

It strikes and releases like a typical Puffadder.

Best regards

Frank

» Various cage settings and inhabitants-Part II
» Some of my setup and the inhabitants
» Collection & Terrarium Settings
» Terrarien, or as we say, cage...
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