What do your green tree python setups look like?

[auriea]

Heyo, i have been perusing around for a green tree python. Not super seriously, but I’ve been collecting information on them for a little while now, and I’m mildly considering buying an enclosure for one just so i can put it together and see what maintaining it would look like. And i just thought who better to help me along that particular road of temptation than you lovely people?

I’d probably go for a sterile environment with a couple small potted plants. I haven’t had to maintain plants in an enclosure before though so there’s definitely some questions i have there as i know myself to have a bit of a brown thumb. But i thought it would be really cool to make a background with holes for pots built in! I haven’t decided on substrate however… I’ve heard conflicting information about the use of bioactive with green trees and I’m not particularly that skilled in it anyway.

I hear temps are all over the place, like up to and no more than 89(°F) but ideal at 83 basking and down to like 77 ish?? Weird temps. What are your parameters? And i hear they have to have humidity anywhere from 40-70% on a regular? Like, higher morning and night with a mid day dip? Also perch sizes seem to be slightly controversial as I’ve heard a lot of people say smaller diameter is better?

On the topic of humidity, i eventually want to have a central misting system, something like a MistKing. But I’ve found i prefer fog to mist in my enclosures. (I think it looks cooler and does a much better job at creating ambient humidity without soaking the substrate.) And yet i am pretty sure something big/industrial like that doesn’t exist for fogging systems like it does for misting systems. I’d want something that can handle crude tap water, and could fog 10+ enclosures at once. If you know any systems for fogging that are similar to MistKing or can function like that let me know. I have a reptifogger and it’s cool, it’s just cheap and it shows.

And as far as enclosures go, there are two debates I’m stuck on:

1. start out with a tub and grow into big pvc, or put them straight into a 2x2x2 and just add enough foliage for comfort. I assume it would change depending on the age of the snake i get, whether a neo, sub adult, or full grown adult. (I would prefer a sub adult)
2. what size is most appropriate for an adult green tree? 2x2x2 seems to be the minimum, and i kind of like that size, as it would fit pretty well into my pvc stack. But i saw someone going with a 4x2x2, and that looked really nice. i wouldn’t be opposed to a 3x3x2 or something along there, or like a 2x3x2 but I feel like dimensions like that can also be a little bit harder to find.
   Also, i wouldn’t mind giving them a bit more horizontal space, I’m sure they’ll use it, but i also don’t want my removable perches to be long enough to poke the grinch with, lol. Seeing as snake on a stick is seemingly the best method to remove them for cleaning, smaller length is better from a maneuvering standpoint.

I want to go designer blue/calico for my first green tree (it’ll prob be my only one, so i want to get my dream one.) and i have my eyes set on a couple of high end breeders. (I expect to be paying quite a few g’s so it’s all the more important that my parameters are on point long beforehand. I don’t really mind maintaining an ‘empty’ enclosure to make sure that happens.)

The one’s I’m looking at are Ari_Eli_Max Reptiles and Vibrant Viridis. I know that A.E.M. (shortening for sanity’s sake) is really legit and well known in the community. He’s had some hi-yel out for a minute. But i have no idea when he might be expecting a clutch of blues/calicos that he actually plans to sell. I know he’s sitting on a load of neos, but I don’t know if he’s planning on keeping them all or not. (Probably, i mean i would, lol.) But i do know that Vibrant Viridis has some real promising expected clutches coming up this year that he does plan to sell from. There’s a couple clutches i have high hopes for, but i don’t know much about the breeder. His bio is impressive, and his collection speaks for itself, but I don’t hear much in the name of feedback from the community about him. (Or maybe I’m just missing it)

So like, do any of you know about that breeder? Are there any other killer high end breeders you would recommend?

And how hard is it to maintain plants in an enclosure if you’re just going to keep them potted? Can UVB act as a grow light too? I’m thinking about shade dweller, if yes, then would that be enough for something like pothos?

Just thoughts on these topics would be cool. I’d Also love to see your setups for inspiration, thanks!

Those black pigmented ones are crazy cool too!

Me:

[athleticshoelace]

Amazing snakes!

I know nothing about GTPs, Sorry!

But!
I can tell you that I have a Shade Dweller UVB light in my bioactive enclosure I am building for my House Snake’s future. The Calathea (rattlesnake plant) is doing well under that light. So is the pothos cutting I’ve got in there; so far it’s been about a week and it’s greening up nicely.

[auriea]

Oo! That’s really helpful, thanks! I’d definitely be interested in hearing how that continues to establish with time. Once your bio is done, I’d definitely love to see it!

[pcexotics]

I keep mine really simple, puppy pads for sub, larger water bowls and then in a few I have pothos growing in the water bowl itself. I’ve tried the mounted plant holders in the past and the one particular chondro I had in with it would just trash the set up or pop the whole cup and plant out but I know of others who have used them without any of that hassle.

Temps are simple depending on where you live. I’m in SC so we have pretty mild winters and humidity is rarely an issue. My greens are kept ambient with the warmest part of the day being in the low low 80s and at night it drops to the mid 70s if not a little cooler. Even at ambient temps they do fine and personally I would err on the side of cooler rather than warmer. Again this may vary a lot depending on where you are located!

Humidity is fairly easy to manage with a larger water bowl and I think plants help a decent bit with keeping the ambient humidity a little higher than the room. The biggest thing here, in my opinion, is finding a sweet spot with your ventilation. From what I’ve seen, most PVC set ups are dialed in well for this out of the box but try it out and see where it keeps things. One nifty gadget off of Amazon I’m used for WAY more stuff than I thought I would are the little Govee bluetooth temp and humidity monitors. They’re really accurate and keep track of the data from a day all the way up to a month and the app is easy to use. I DO bump my humidity with a nightly spray when I see any of my chondros are going into a shed cycle which for me does make a big difference in a good vs bad shed.

Perch size - smaller diameter seems to be the preference for all of mine, across the board.

Mist systems - I normally don’t recommend them for chondros but as long as it’s a once a day kind of thing like I mentioned I’ll do with mine before lights out then it should be fine. You just don’t want to keep them wet.

Cage size - If it is a smaller/younger animal then I recommend starting small because if they get put into something large without feeling secure they tend to struggle. There are plenty of people who keep and breed adults in 2’ cubes, personal preference for me is something that’s longer and a less deep but still a little tall, if that makes sense? But most chondros except your big big biaks can be kept in a 2’ cube comfortably. Removable perches will make your life MUCH easier!

Dave Dee of Vibrant Viridis, without a doubt, produces some of the nicest chondros in the world so if you’re really set on designer stuff there’s very few that can compete! John Irby and James Opdahl both produces some killer stuff as well.

UV- David Brahms of Specialty Enclosure Designs (now called The Reptile Perch I believe) offers some of his chondros UV but only for a few hours in the day. If I were giving mine UV (which I’m not) that’s how I would be doing it as well since regular, long interval exposure to UV won’t be good for the animal long term. As far as pothos and UV, they’ll love it.

Hope this helps!