Often, a lot of what we use for reptiles is stuff marketed for or intended for them. Dishes, neat hides in cool shapes, accurate thermostats. And some of it is best bought when intended for reptiles, like UVA/UVB lighting tailored to our exact species needs for example.
But what about other stuff? What have you gotten creative with?
One hobby-wide thing I think of instantly is Sterilite Tubs. We probably comprise half their net profit every year!
My new Ball Python 4x2 enclosure has two bamboo climbing structures in it intended for stacking dishes on kitchen countertops. They have multiple levels, are easy to clean, and have a beautiful natural look.
That same Ball Python has a hand thrown ceramic dog dish for him to soak in and drink from, with gorgeous foodsafe blue glazes on it.
Ha, hello again! As I just said in the other thread, I use food safe ceramic valentine’s day heart candy dishes for the water bowls with my tarantula and hermit crabs.
I have a few of these dog toys that I will suspend from the top of tubs/tanks from two points, and young ball pythons love to climb on them. I’ll often see them just hanging out in/on them in the evenings
I’m sure everyone has done this but I’ll say it anyways
I use toilet and paper towel rolls for baby snakes and for bigger snakes I use PVC pipes, make sure to sand rough edges though!
Also don’t buy over priced ‘reptile’ fake plants! Craft stores have all kinds of nice looking plants! For cheap.
I have used the paper towel and toilet paper rolls myself. So ditto on that one. Also ditto on the craft store fake plants, although they can be a bit pricey unless they are on sale. Sometimes you can find them at the Dollar Store or similar places.
For plants, my bestie and I, who both have snakes, went and hit up a big floral sale at the craft store, and picked out things that were plastic or rubbery like faux ferns and lots of cute fake succulents, so they’d be easier to clean and disinfect.
My Ball python likes TP tubes as well, and my House Snake loves tubes from inside kitchen roll products like foil, which are smaller in diameter. I cut them up to get three tube hides from one tube.
Edit: Tip for finding ceramic bowls that look good in naturalistic setup- look for “Organic shapes ceramic bowl” or similar wording. Things made with a more wobbly natural or irregular shape instead of perfect circles will blend into a naturalistic setting much better and look like some sort of little pool.
That’s fair enough haha! No matter how long you spend around a Tarantula that caveman part of your brain still exists and they can make you jump by moving too quick, so I totally get why not everyone wants one in their house
Yes! Dollar stores too. I remember going into my local dollar store to look for fake plants, expecting that maybe I’d find a couple pieces I could use. Turned out there was a whole aisle full of fake plants! I got all kinds of stuff for super cheap!
I’ll have to try this. I didn’t have as much luck as I hoped searching for dog bowls on Etsy that look natural-ish. I found some lovely ones, but all the ones I liked were too small.
I told Mina to stop growing, but she told me to shut up and thaw out another rat.
I used one of those itty bitty little plastic flower pots as a hide for my juvenile G. pulchripes tarantula. I just cut it in half lengthwise (so she had the option to dig under it) and stuck it in the substrate. It may not be the most attractive or naturalistic, but it definitely does the job right! I also like that it’s lightweight, so if it somehow ended up falling on her, it wouldn’t crush her.
I also use the plastic caps off my cartons of almond milk as water dishes for all my spiders (and also for the feeder insects). Again, they don’t look super sharp, but they’re the perfect size and are easily replaceable when your tarantula ends up burying them under a mountain of dirt. I have some nicer, more naturalistic water dishes I got from Tarantula Cribs, but they’re a bit big for the enclosure sizes I’m currently using. The caps are a much better size for slings/juveniles.
I don’t know if these chocolate tubs are a thing at Christmas in the US but I collected EVERYONES after they were empty and use them as water bowls and hides for boas and balls.
Those tubs aren’t really a thing in the US (at least not in my area). You can probably get them, but it’s not the sort of thing everyone has. Just curious, what’s their diameter?
Your suggestion about using expanding foam to make a utilitarian water dish look more naturalistic is a great idea! I’d thought about trying to hardscape some sort of little knook out of cork bark or something to disguise an unnatural-looking dish, but the spray foam might be easier.
I have some nicer, more naturalistic water dishes I got from Tarantula Cribs, but they’re a bit big for the enclosure sizes I’m currently using. The caps are a much better size for slings/juveniles.
