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Climbing - important exercise for snakes?

P

proileri

New member
I've been thinking about what makes a good home for a snake, and am starting to think that climbing might be one of the important things that affect snake health.

My conclusions are purely based on the idea that 1) exercise is good for the snake, 2) climbing is a more demanding exercise than roaming around the bottom of the tank, and 3) snakes like to explore and climb, so it's probably a natural activity for them.

I've been following my yearling, who has a 16" high tank and there's a large V-shaped branch in it from bottom to top, plus some shelves around the walls. It seems to me she's very capable in stretching herself over any gaps 5-6" wide, and vertically reach upward about the same distance, to explore everything in the tank.

Her ability to climb things is something I'm planning to consider, when building a bigger home for her during this winter. Don't want to make things too easy for her, either! :D
 
Certainly if you have a habitual climber, then it's a fine thing as long as they're good at it. I've had a couple of kamikaze merchants over the years which fell off their climbing branches so often that I eventually took them away, figuring they were at risk of doing more harm than good.

Most of mmy Corns climb when given the opportunity but some won't climb at all, no matter what attractive types of jungle gym I build for them. There's nothing as exasperating as putting a Corn into a palatial split-level 4' long custom-built viv, only to have them remain resolutely at ground level!
 
Two of our adult corns are in 66-qt sterilte tubs. We put holes in the sides of the tubs and inserted bamboo rods through to create a sort of climbing frame in their homes. They absolutely love climbing around on them. The only other corns I have that seem to enjoy climbing are the hatchlings...the juveniles seem to prefer burrowing (we had climbing branches in with them, but they rarely got used)

It's certainly not a bad thing if it's something your snakes enjoy :)
 
None of my corns are very climby. Wilma, my amel, is probably the climbiest and she sometimes will curl up in a high spot, but she's usually content to hide in one of her caves.

I do think exercise is important for any creature, so I like to take mine out for regular handling, sometimes a swim, and sometimes climbing through a little sapling tree in my backyard.
 
Mine thinks she is a tree snake, as long as she isn't digesting you can usually find her on the big stick I put in there that has fake plants all over it. If she just ate, most of the time she will burrow and I won't see her for a couple days. She always seems to come out just in time to handle her.
 
Yep, mine is very much a climber, spends a lot of exploration time up on the branches and ledges of the viv - I have set them up so she can get around easily. I think any snake that is trying to "climb the corner" would like some high branches and such.
 
bitsy said:
There's nothing as exasperating as putting a Corn into a palatial split-level 4' long custom-built viv, only to have them remain resolutely at ground level!
Click to expand...

This. I have set up many displays, and branches have seldom been utilized as much as I would have liked. I do find yearlings to be the most likely to climb, for what it's worth. As many times as I have learned this lesson, I will be offering a jungle gym to my future white speckled corn. If she doesn't use it, hopefully I'll have a black rat with a similar pattern in a year or two who will! :noevil:
 
My big snow is a climber, he likes to be seen. My little black rat will soon have to be upgraded again, she's a climber as well, very active.
 
Two of mine are climbers. Mango especially. Sienna only climbs at night when she thinks no one is watching. That's one of the reasons I want to get them bigger and higher vivs, so they can climb more if they want to.
 
I am trying to design a viv right now, but am not sure how high to make it.. the current one is 16" high, I'll probably add 4-8 inches to it.
 
As high as you like really! A couple of mine are three feet high, with two levels above the ground. Keep in mind that the floor area needs to stay the same though, as you're planning.
 
Not had ours long but we have a 16" high Viv too (note: we just seperated them out into two vivs after some advice) but they both seem happiest up on the slanted slab of wood with fake foliage over it rather than hiding behind the wood.

Red keeps trying to slither its way up the side of the viv right to the top then comes flopping back down when it realises there is nowhere to go.

Vivien did when it first got in there but hasn't so much since (but we suspect that is because its been trying to hide and keep away from Red)

The guy who sold them to us amongst much other bad advice told us corns don't really like climbing, but ours seem to dislike ground level.
 
FWIW, I wouldn't beat the guy up for telling you they don't like climbing. Most don't. Or more accurately, when I have put them in large vivs with climbing branches, more often than not, corns over 2 years old do not utilize them.
 
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