Now that my friend is a great find! 
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That is a nice find for you. I install high-end Wolf / Sub-Zero appliances, and they have nice wine cooler similar to this one. I often thought they would make a nice incubator. But I am glad I work with boas, no eggs for me to take care of. 
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This morning I got the snake room somewhat organized and finished hanging a few things on the wall. I need to find some shelves for the closet and a small free standing shelf to store a few things on.
Here are some pics of the room and wall decor.
Being a Virginia Tech fan is real tough sometimes
The bull horns are an antique mall find. Had to get them!
These are from Donovan Winterberg at Drawn to Scales. He has similar artwork for a large variety of reptiles and some invertebrate species. If you are looking for some herp hobby related artwork, I would definitely recommend checking out his store.
I’m switching the bulls and pines back to actual bedding. They looked so sad just sitting on paper staring out the front of the cage. The paper was convenient for cleaning purposes though. I’m giving shredded hemp animal bedding a try. I like it so far. They seem more comfortable having something with some texture under them and that they can push around and root around in. It’s not nearly as dusty as aspen shavings. It also seems to do a really good job with absorption and odor. I can barely smell a fresh poop when I open the cage door, which is good and bad I guess. I can also get a 10cu ft bag on Amazon for $52 which is awesome.
I’m still adding some decor to the cages. I got a nice haul of smaller sized (10-12”) pieces of drift that my in-laws had stashed in their garage. It was left in my wife’s grandfather’s wood working shop after he passed away. He used them to mount birds he hand carved and painted from wood. Next trip to Lowe’s I want to get some wide diameter PVC pipe cut in 18” lengths to make some tunnels for them. I also want to start working on some large sized hides with top entry access holes for them to use when they out grow the generic molded plastic ones they are currently using. I’m going to add a hinged lid on the hides for easy access.
Black Phillip (male black pine) is still a jerk! He bit me again the other day after I thought we were making some progress. I’ve been just placing my hand in his tub for a minute or two each day just to get him accustomed to my smell. He was even letting me rest my hand on him. On Thursday he let me pick him up w/o a hook and didn’t react. Friday morning I put my hand in like I had been doing and I guess he wasn’t in the mood because he tagged me.
Here’s the female because she has all the chill.
Anyway, I assembled a VE Super 70 rack this morning for him and the female to move into. They needed bigger accommodations than the temporary tubs I have them in now, and I’m hoping the rack will help him feel more secure and eventually calm him down some. We shall see.
That’s all I got. Hope everyone enjoys the holiday weekend!
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I’ve seen several people use this in their chicken coops, so it would be wonderful to hear from you how it holds up long term and an overall review of it!
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The room looks awesome! I love the fact that you also have some natural light from the windows! I would love to have a snake room like that!
Black Phillip just has to remind you who is boss so yeah don’t get too comfortable with him! 
. The scenery of the hills and trees in the background is awesome too!
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I wish it was hills! That’s a very overgrown drainage area directly behind the house. I don’t mind it though. I’d rather see the overgrown trees than the pile of boulders underneath the growth. It also provides a refuge for wildlife. We have a very fat ground hog living in there that I suspect has been chowing down on our cucumber plants. More cotton tails than I can count. We have lots of praying mantis and big yellow/black garden spiders. I see a lot of garter snakes and the occasional rough green snake back there. Tons of leopard, cricket, and green tree frogs.
The window is very nice. It lets in a lot of natural light but doesn’t get any direct sunlight because it’s under our small deck and the direction it faces. Lots of light and no added heat! I catch the bulls looking out the front of the cage towards the window quiet frequently.
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Awwwww I love it! I would never think of snakes looking toward the windows! You mentioned yellow and black spiders. I remember seeing them on our shrubs in huge webs during the summer. Also included I remember tons is spitting grasshoppers, praying mantises, tiny toads and frogs and the despised green “June” bugs! But I lived in an established neighborhood and not a subdivision.
I think it’s kinda nice you have a little menagerie of creatures right behind you!
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If you ever want to switch back to aspen you can get a 7 cu ft bag for $10 from tractor supply. It is meant for horses but is nearly identical to the stuff made for reptiles.
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Thanks! I’ve looked for that particular brand/type of aspen at our local tractor supply locations and all they carry is the small animal bedding type that is real dusty.
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Will do! So far so good. I’ll let ya know if I run in to any issues with it. It’s supposed to be THC and cannabinoid free but they do seem more relaxed on it.
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Same for mine. You may be able to order it to get delivered to the store or something. Not sure what the costs would look like though.
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Maybe that’s just the thing Black Phillip needs to chill 
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Well I get the stuff from Tractor Supply but it is not on the floor. You have to ask for it because they keep it in the back. Some of the employees don’t even know they carry it because it’s in the back…… the bags are very large of course……
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Looks good! I like the Snake Room on the wall, need to do that.
I work from home twice a week and occasionally have zoom meetings. I don’t blur my background waiting to get the usual questions
Which herpstats do you have there? I need to get the 4. Do you have a probe for each cage? What about the thermometer…one for each cage or just 1?
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Hah. The “Snake Room!” Was added to the picture only. I did it for an IG reel but for some reason it didn’t show up. Forgot I added it when I uploaded the picture here.
They are herpstat 1’s. I’m running the individual sections of heat tape through a surge protector/power strip and then to the thermostat. I have the probe on the 4th cage in the stack, so just below the top cage. I tried it out on several different cages to see where I got the most even temp top to bottom and the 4th cage seemed to be the best. The top and bottom cages are about 1.5-2F cooler than the middle three, but they are all in an acceptable range. Warm side air temp runs about 79-81F with a “hot spot” and warm hide in the 82-85F depending in the cage level. The cool side stays at 75-76F depending on the ambient temp of the room.
I think the next time I purchase a thermostat I’ll get a herpstat 2. Set that up on one of the stacks to see if I can’t balance out the temps evenly top to bottom. This current set up works but if I could get every cage set exactly the same without totally breaking the bank on a thermostat that would be ideal.
I have govee thermometers in the bottom cages and 4th cages. The bottoms run the coolest and the 4th runs the warmest. I also check the surface temps regulary (daily?) with a temp gun.
I don’t know if this set up would work for species that require higher temps but bulls (and other pituophis species) are pretty easy when it comes to that. In fact, if they get too hot they tend to get really agitated and nasty. Most ppl I’ve talked to don’t keep them with a warm/hot spot over 85F. I’ve talked to a lot of ppl that have kept them for years at ambient room temps in the 75-78 range with no supplemental heat and they’ve done well.
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Inspirational!
Have you tryed it out on your boas? Do you see any difference in skin texture or mass development over the time you have used it? Any impaction or ingestion issues with the new bedding?
Curious because never new they had thc bedding. I wonder if they provide mice gummy for snake feeding.
The second part is a joke obviously.
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Hah! I wouldn’t want them to mellowed out. There “attitude” is part of their charm!
I have not tried it out with the boas as the butcher paper has been working just fine and makes clean up after a big boa poo really easy.
I haven’t had any issues with impaction yet but after using it for several months I am about to switch back to aspen. It is quite “light” (almost spongy/foam like if that makes sense) so when pieces to get stuck to fur they have been falling off before the snake swallows them. It’s super absorbent and has done a great job with odor control. However, the size of shred has been inconsistent from bag to bag. I got a bag that was full of rigid sharp pieces that I assume would be harder to pass/more likely to become lodged if ingested.
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Hey Eric! Do you have access to a tractor supply in your area? You can get a 7cu ft bag of it for around 8 bucks! It is very finely shredded, better than the stuff you get at any Petsmart!
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We have tractor supply here but the local ones do not carry this type of aspen bedding. I found aspen bedding from American Excelsior on Amazon that I am going to try. Should be delivered this weekend. It was not $8 though. 
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