I love this!! Thinking of going bioactive for my hoggy. My concern is the clean up crew. They breed rapidly and I don’t want to ruin the visual by having hundreds of isopods running around 😭
They stay hidden pretty well if you have leaf litter and some cork bark down. Plus you might end up like me and really loving the isopods...Now I keep 10 different isopods separately as pets lol
Hog nose snakes have a shovel nose because they burrow so I would highly recommend adding 2-3 more inches of substrate for them to be able to be completely covered if they want to
I thought I put it in a pinned comment but maybe not - though it might not look it, this was more than enough substrate for her to burry in because shes so small, however I did add more substrate a couple days later since I had to order more. :)
It seemed pretty good! I know there’s a lot of mixed opinions on the biodude, and I figured you can’t form your own opinion until you try it yourself! 😁 I would have used it for my leo, but it wasn’t on sale at the time and the shipping is what gets me 😂
This looks great! I’m planning on getting a hognose soon and want to set up a bio active terrarium to keep him happy, but my main concern is the isopods 😂 do they ever escape?
Take a look online for Western hognose habitat. It is not very "woodland" like this setup. The snake will do fine in this setup of course, but honestly a very sparse cage with a water bowl is more like hoggie habitat I think. Not all snakes need bioactive. Idk, I think bioactive has its place, but not so sure hognose are the best species for it. Anyway, check out habitat pics and decide for yourself. I have been to W. hognose habitat in Colorado only, and it was sandy/loamy soil, sparse grass, some scattered rocks - that is it. Did not look like a forest floor. One guy's opinion here.
No escaping isopods! And in regards to the other commenter - no bio activity is not a must, nor is going for a naturalistic style enclosure. And I certainly could keep it bare and boring, but by providing more inside I am giving Penelope more to do and explore - the more enrichment the better!
Nice job! Looking to get a bioactive set up done for my hognose too. I just wish these exo terras had a door on the side instead of in the front. Kind of ruins the aesthetic for me. With the square tanks my mourning geckos are in, I have the side panels as the front view and it looks so much better.
Just a simple organic topsoil and play sand mix! (More topsoil than play sand). This is what makes up almost all of my enclosures because you can get the supplies very inexpensive right at Home Depot. Reptisoil is another great option if you don’t feel like mixing your own substrate!
Great video!! Do you have a video update on this setup? Have you made any added anything or taken anything out? How has she seemed to like it? How are the plants doing? I'm slowly gathering everything I need to turn my hoggie's forever home enclosure bioactive and I'm trying to absorb all the info I can! Thank you so much for sharing!
Ive posted it recently here and there on tiktok, but not in here! She love burrowing and climbing the background like a maze ! Some plants are still doing well and others have died because im bad at keeping them alive lol!
thank you! She actually hasnt gone behind it! Its a decent enough fit that she either didnt want to take the extra effort, or shes just content with everything going on in there! I did the same set up for my sand boa but the background wasn’t as good of a fit and she literally lives back there🤦🏻♀️😂
Hi!! Thanks for this! Is the substrate in the bottom ok without a false bottom? I know you could put it with a snake that burrows like thread but I wonder if it means you have to change the soil more often? I have no idea. How is yours? 😆
A great video! Thank you for sharing. Can you do an update after a couple months of the hognose being in it? I wonder if the hognose will unroot the plants as it digs.
We are almost to a year, and I can confirm that she hasnt done any damage to her plants😁 ( Now them dying from my lack of a green thumb on the other hand..)😂 I did a room tour in January if you wanted to see a more recent update!
@@zareptiles thank you for your reply. How often do you have to spray water for plants and to keep the isopods alive. I used to have isopods and lost them when i was out of town as the soil got dried.
@@chanhuang614 I spray plants roughly once a week and a trick ive found works great for isopods in more arid environments is sticking moss under the water dish, and overflowing the dish when I fill it. Doing that has also given my snakes a humid spot to go to when they are going into shed. its worked great!
I believe its roughly 22-23 gallons! perfect for her current size, but depending how how much she grows theres a possibility of a 3’ enclosure in the future :)
My first attempt flopped lol! But you learn as you go! I have since added more substrate and I found a hack in a fb group that I have started implementing - put a layer of moss under the water dish and then over flow the dish when ever you change the water, this gives a guaranteed damp area for the clean up crew :)
nope! Once in a great while it wouldnt hurt to do a full clean out, but you are essentially creating a self sustaining ecosystem. Your cleanup crew will do alot for you, but you’ll still want to spot clean any feces :)
@@zareptiles ok then I’m definitely going to do a bio active!! I love plants so I’ve always wanted to incorporate live ones to an enclosure. Thank you :)
Are they orange or giant orange isopods? I have the giant orange ones and was thinking of making my hoggies setups more naturalistic, as I've done that with a few of my other pets
That's awesome!! I'm getting a hognose soon and I was wondering how to make a basking spot? Because that's one of my main concerns is that if I don't have a basking spot it will die
you can put a heat lamp ontop of the screen! I originally had a heat mat on this enclosure since they will burrow, but once I was able to get my hands on another dimmer, I switched her to overhead heating :)
I have the same enclosure for my male Kenyan sand boa, do you think that will be an ok size for the rest of his life? I was considering upgrading him in the future to the 36×18×12 but im not sure. Btw the tank came out great!
Depends on how big your sand boa gets! I got the same one for my sand boa upgrade, which will be the next bioactive video! I think for a male it should be just fine :) But ultimately it just depends on what you would like to do! 😁
she has a heat pad for heating and an aquarium LED meant for plant growth for lighting. Im considering switching her to overhead heating though since its more natural
@@zareptiles Yeah I stopped using heatmats for all of my snakes, the ceramic heat bulbs or better yet halogen bulbs seem to be the best in providing them the deep heat they need. (I don't know if you've come across it already but check out the Animals at Home channel or his website, loads of great info on heating and lighting). For lighting I would definitely recommend getting an arcadia mini T5 7%. They benefit massively from UV and the light is more natural looking :) I'm planning to move mine into a bioactive set up this month and this definitely gave me some good ideas!
Mine are all progressively switching to overhead heat and UVB. its all in the future plans :) also I love animals at home, Dylan is great! and for sure, Arcadia is my favorite uvb to use! its what almost all my lizards have
ZA Reptiles ahhh okay thank you I’m looking into doing a bioactive set up but am nervous it will be too humid but I feel like once a week is good and I would feel better doing that.
@@arieannag.7981 The bio-dude substrate she uses actually dries up pretty quickly (since its the Sahara one for more desert dwelling species). I mixed mine with some coco coir, because it wasn't enough to cover the bottom of a 10 gallon tank. I've used it before alone, but I didn't think it held her tunnels well, so mixing in the coco coir helped it dry out less (for the plants), and keeps her tunnels much better.
For her size it was actually quite a bit, but I also was short on substrate and was working with what I had on hand. I did go back in after and add much more once I had a chance to go to the store and buy more :)
Ive addressed this before in other videos, but she was not a good eater when I first got her. I did track her weight to insure she was consistently gaining and not showing any underweight physical characteristics, but no she did not grow at a rapid pace. Shes become more consistent this past year and has grown exponentially though and is definitely showing an increase in thickness and size :)
Beautiful but...what about humidity? Hognoses want it pretty low: glass, bioactive and all those plants surely don't help. This is more suited for a ball python, hope that snake is doin' fine after all this time in there.
I've fallen head over heels in luv with hoggies ♥️♥️♥️♥️♥️♥️♥️♥️♥️
Me too!
Beautiful enclosure for the hognose. Thank you so much for sharing.
Thank you!
I love this!! Thinking of going bioactive for my hoggy. My concern is the clean up crew. They breed rapidly and I don’t want to ruin the visual by having hundreds of isopods running around 😭
They stay hidden pretty well if you have leaf litter and some cork bark down. Plus you might end up like me and really loving the isopods...Now I keep 10 different isopods separately as pets lol
Exactly what the other commenter said! You really don’t notice them :)
@@sstevo4066literally lol part of the reason I want a bio active enclosure is the isopods!
Hog nose snakes have a shovel nose because they burrow so I would highly recommend adding 2-3 more inches of substrate for them to be able to be completely covered if they want to
I thought I put it in a pinned comment but maybe not - though it might not look it, this was more than enough substrate for her to burry in because shes so small, however I did add more substrate a couple days later since I had to order more. :)
I love the Tara Sahara substrate I use it for my leopard geckos. I’m thinking about using it for my corn snake when I upgrade her enclosure ❤️
It seemed pretty good! I know there’s a lot of mixed opinions on the biodude, and I figured you can’t form your own opinion until you try it yourself! 😁 I would have used it for my leo, but it wasn’t on sale at the time and the shipping is what gets me 😂
ZA Reptiles yea it’s expensive I was like did I really just spend all that on dirt😂 🤦♀️
This looks great! I’m planning on getting a hognose soon and want to set up a bio active terrarium to keep him happy, but my main concern is the isopods 😂 do they ever escape?
Take a look online for Western hognose habitat. It is not very "woodland" like this setup. The snake will do fine in this setup of course, but honestly a very sparse cage with a water bowl is more like hoggie habitat I think. Not all snakes need bioactive. Idk, I think bioactive has its place, but not so sure hognose are the best species for it. Anyway, check out habitat pics and decide for yourself. I have been to W. hognose habitat in Colorado only, and it was sandy/loamy soil, sparse grass, some scattered rocks - that is it. Did not look like a forest floor. One guy's opinion here.
@@6strings735 I’d get a prairie plants in that enclosure like the false indigo
No escaping isopods! And in regards to the other commenter - no bio activity is not a must, nor is going for a naturalistic style enclosure. And I certainly could keep it bare and boring, but by providing more inside I am giving Penelope more to do and explore - the more enrichment the better!
Mine did
Nice job! Looking to get a bioactive set up done for my hognose too. I just wish these exo terras had a door on the side instead of in the front. Kind of ruins the aesthetic for me. With the square tanks my mourning geckos are in, I have the side panels as the front view and it looks so much better.
I love what you did it looks amazing
Thank you! 😄
What substrate would you suggest for a non bioactive hognose setup?
Just a simple organic topsoil and play sand mix! (More topsoil than play sand). This is what makes up almost all of my enclosures because you can get the supplies very inexpensive right at Home Depot. Reptisoil is another great option if you don’t feel like mixing your own substrate!
Great video!! Do you have a video update on this setup? Have you made any added anything or taken anything out? How has she seemed to like it? How are the plants doing? I'm slowly gathering everything I need to turn my hoggie's forever home enclosure bioactive and I'm trying to absorb all the info I can! Thank you so much for sharing!
Ive posted it recently here and there on tiktok, but not in here! She love burrowing and climbing the background like a maze ! Some plants are still doing well and others have died because im bad at keeping them alive lol!
Beautiful enclosure setup. How long did it take her to get behind the background?
Mine would have gone behind the same day.
thank you! She actually hasnt gone behind it! Its a decent enough fit that she either didnt want to take the extra effort, or shes just content with everything going on in there! I did the same set up for my sand boa but the background wasn’t as good of a fit and she literally lives back there🤦🏻♀️😂
Hi!! Thanks for this! Is the substrate in the bottom ok without a false bottom? I know you could put it with a snake that burrows like thread but I wonder if it means you have to change the soil more often? I have no idea. How is yours? 😆
I loved this enclosure so much!!
Thank you! 😄
A great video! Thank you for sharing.
Can you do an update after a couple months of the hognose being in it? I wonder if the hognose will unroot the plants as it digs.
We are almost to a year, and I can confirm that she hasnt done any damage to her plants😁 ( Now them dying from my lack of a green thumb on the other hand..)😂 I did a room tour in January if you wanted to see a more recent update!
@@zareptiles thank you for your reply. How often do you have to spray water for plants and to keep the isopods alive. I used to have isopods and lost them when i was out of town as the soil got dried.
@@chanhuang614 I spray plants roughly once a week and a trick ive found works great for isopods in more arid environments is sticking moss under the water dish, and overflowing the dish when I fill it. Doing that has also given my snakes a humid spot to go to when they are going into shed. its worked great!
Awesome enclosure! Sorry if this is a dumb question... with bio active- do you just need to spot clean. What’s the maintenance like?
Ideally minimal cleaning as your cleaning up crew is on it! But I still spot clean if I see something just to make sure its taken care of :)
I really love this video! Love the beautiful viv you have given your western hognose...goals
thank you so much!!
okay so this is just a quick question you might not know, its fine if not, but do u maybe know if biodude ships to the netherlands??
Im not sure! You’d have to check his site to see if they say!😁
How many gallons is the tank that you used? Great video!
I believe its roughly 22-23 gallons! perfect for her current size, but depending how how much she grows theres a possibility of a 3’ enclosure in the future :)
How is this working out? I’m not sure if the humidity for a hog nose is enough for springtails
My first attempt flopped lol! But you learn as you go! I have since added more substrate and I found a hack in a fb group that I have started implementing - put a layer of moss under the water dish and then over flow the dish when ever you change the water, this gives a guaranteed damp area for the clean up crew :)
Do you have to do full substrate changes while having a bio active? What do you do for cleaning? I’m considering a bio active
nope! Once in a great while it wouldnt hurt to do a full clean out, but you are essentially creating a self sustaining ecosystem. Your cleanup crew will do alot for you, but you’ll still want to spot clean any feces :)
@@zareptiles ok then I’m definitely going to do a bio active!! I love plants so I’ve always wanted to incorporate live ones to an enclosure. Thank you :)
Are they orange or giant orange isopods? I have the giant orange ones and was thinking of making my hoggies setups more naturalistic, as I've done that with a few of my other pets
They are just your typical powder orange :)
I’m in the middle of making a bioctive tank for my Kenyan and I love a lot of the stuff you did in this video 👍🏻
My sand boa bioactive Is my next video 😁
ZA Reptiles I’ll be on the look out for it then!
i like the second time with the sticks but both look good :) beutiful snake too
Can you do more videos with arcadius
If you haven’t seen it already, I have a whole playlist of Arcadius videos :) but yes, I do have many more Arcadius videos planned :)
Thank you and i love the background its so pretty
Thank you!
That's awesome!! I'm getting a hognose soon and I was wondering how to make a basking spot? Because that's one of my main concerns is that if I don't have a basking spot it will die
you can put a heat lamp ontop of the screen! I originally had a heat mat on this enclosure since they will burrow, but once I was able to get my hands on another dimmer, I switched her to overhead heating :)
@@zareptiles ok thank you sooo much!
Really great video! Where did you get the shelving unit you use, and what size is it? I need a new one for my snakes. Thank you!
Thank you! Home depot carries these shelves in lots of different sizes! This one is like 4’ long, 6’ tall and something like 18-20” deep
Looks amazing!!!
Thank you! 😁
I have the same enclosure for my male Kenyan sand boa, do you think that will be an ok size for the rest of his life? I was considering upgrading him in the future to the 36×18×12 but im not sure. Btw the tank came out great!
Depends on how big your sand boa gets! I got the same one for my sand boa upgrade, which will be the next bioactive video! I think for a male it should be just fine :) But ultimately it just depends on what you would like to do! 😁
What lighting and heat source do you have for this set up?
she has a heat pad for heating and an aquarium LED meant for plant growth for lighting. Im considering switching her to overhead heating though since its more natural
@@zareptiles Yeah I stopped using heatmats for all of my snakes, the ceramic heat bulbs or better yet halogen bulbs seem to be the best in providing them the deep heat they need. (I don't know if you've come across it already but check out the Animals at Home channel or his website, loads of great info on heating and lighting).
For lighting I would definitely recommend getting an arcadia mini T5 7%. They benefit massively from UV and the light is more natural looking :)
I'm planning to move mine into a bioactive set up this month and this definitely gave me some good ideas!
Mine are all progressively switching to overhead heat and UVB. its all in the future plans :)
also I love animals at home, Dylan is great! and for sure, Arcadia is my favorite uvb to use! its what almost all my lizards have
Do you water you enclosure often? Or at all?
I soak it down once a week :)
ZA Reptiles ahhh okay thank you I’m looking into doing a bioactive set up but am nervous it will be too humid but I feel like once a week is good and I would feel better doing that.
@@arieannag.7981 The bio-dude substrate she uses actually dries up pretty quickly (since its the Sahara one for more desert dwelling species).
I mixed mine with some coco coir, because it wasn't enough to cover the bottom of a 10 gallon tank. I've used it before alone, but I didn't think it held her tunnels well, so mixing in the coco coir helped it dry out less (for the plants), and keeps her tunnels much better.
I didnt use just biodude - I mentioned that it wasnt enough substrate, so I added my own mix (topsoil/playsand) as well 😁
where do you get your cork bark?
lots of places! etsy, pangea, glassbox tropicals, etc :)
@@zareptiles thank you so much!!
This enclosure is amazing!!
Thank you!😁
Looks absolutely amazing! Would love to see how it looks now (if it's still the same)
Thank you! I actually just moved her to a new enclosure! It’s one of my newest videos!
where is your tank from?
its an exo terra! you can typically find them at any petstore or in amazon :)
perfect! well done! 🐍
Thank you so much!
Great setup👍 hope Penelope loves it😁
Thank you! She seems to be loving it so far!
I LOVE your hognose videos 🥰
Thank you! I’ll have two more hognose videos coming soon, but they won’t be Penelope 😉
ZA Reptiles oh very exciting, I have a hognose too called Spooky.
I’ll be looking forward to your new videos ❤️
Snake keeping like it should be done! Great setup!
Thank you so much!😄
Not enough substrate for a "burrowing snake"
For her size it was actually quite a bit, but I also was short on substrate and was working with what I had on hand. I did go back in after and add much more once I had a chance to go to the store and buy more :)
@@zareptiles do i have to use a special dirt or can i just buy some at walmart?
thank you, I'll know how to make a terrarium, maybe soon there will be a snake 😊💗
how exciting!😁
Noice
Thank you!
if shes a year and ahalf shes underfed you can tell
Ive addressed this before in other videos, but she was not a good eater when I first got her. I did track her weight to insure she was consistently gaining and not showing any underweight physical characteristics, but no she did not grow at a rapid pace. Shes become more consistent this past year and has grown exponentially though and is definitely showing an increase in thickness and size :)
and actually looking at my files, when this video came out she actually was about a year old
Beautiful but...what about humidity? Hognoses want it pretty low: glass, bioactive and all those plants surely don't help. This is more suited for a ball python, hope that snake is doin' fine after all this time in there.
It is an arid set up with arid plants. The set up is meant for low humidity species. Thanks for the concern though