RUBs Vs Vivs...

One topic of seemingly constant debate (or mass debate, if you will...) within the snake-keeping community, is the use of RUBs as housing for snakes. RUBs are Really Useful Boxes, a brand name of a popular type of storage box. The term is also used for other types of plastic storage box, although "tub" would probably be more appropriate. These storage boxes can be easily adapted to provide safe and secure housing for smaller snakes by simply drilling or melting some holes for ventilation - and prove to be a popular alternative to vivariums.

As well as proving to be a topic of relative controversy amongst snake keepers, the image of snakes been kept in stacks of boxes can appear to be quite cruel and inhumane to the general, non-snake keeping public - and prior to a few months ago, I would have agreed!








Having read many of the RUB vs Vivarium debates that exist on a particular forum (coupled with a greater understanding of my snakes' behaviour and needs) I have slowly changed my opinion on the use of tubs as suitable housing, as many very good points were raised. Of the many "pro rub" arguments, I found these mainly fall into one of four categories;

• Convenience
• Hygiene
• Security
• ...and Security

Convenience

I've started with convenience, as in my opinion, this is the least important consideration - tubs are convenient for the keeper, which is not a good reason by its self, and at no point swayed my initially negative view on keeping snakes in tubs. The only good reasons to house snakes in tubs are ones that are beneficial to the health and overall well-being of the snake. Tubs, in comparison to vivariums, are cheap - often less than a tenner for a large one that offers similar floor space to 3 foot vivarium. Due to their lightweight but sturdy composition, tubs can often be stacked on top of one another, placed on shelves, or stored in modified rack systems. 

Hygiene

Vivariums by majority are constructed from wood, with glass doors. They have joining seams and corners which can easily be missed when cleaning - harbouring bacteria. The wood has a tendency to swell and degrade over a sometimes surprising short period of time. Tubs are very light by definition, and can easily be disinfected, wiped clean, filled with boiling water, or even hosed down with a shower in the bathtub. Some species of snake are more sensitive to humidity levels that others. With a tub, humidity can be controlled more easily by adding fewer or more ventilation holes as per requirements. As a separate point, heating of rubs is generally in the form of heat mats or heat cable - these should always be placed under or behind the RUB, separating the snake from coming into direct contact with the heat source and avoiding means of injury.

Security

Snakes are excellent escape artists, and will seemingly take any opportunity to venture from their provided accommodation. Topics around escaping snakes are frequent, any by an overwhelming majority, these instances are from vivariums rather than tubs. Snakes can and have been known to slide the glass doors open, push the glass out of their runners, and in some instances, break the glass. They have also been known to remove vents, or even push the back panel off some cheaper vivariums. The wooden top sheep of vivariums has a tendency to bow, causing the glass doors to fall out. By way of comparison, the only methods of escape from a tub is by pushing the lid off - when kept in racks this eliminates this as an option, reducing means of escape to virtually nil (that I can think of at least).

Security

The health and well-being of a snake should, in my opinion, be the only point of consideration when deciding between vivariums or tubs. Space is probably the single most point raised by people against the keeping of snakes in tubs, as generally speaking, these are smaller than vivariums - and this was my area of concern too! I can't speak for all species of snake as I only keep Royal Pythons, however I can speak in relative length on their behalf, through both extensive researching of natural habitat and behaviour displayed in the wild, and the behaviour of my Royal Pythons which are housed in vivariums. Royal Pythons are, by nature, extremely timid. They are one of the smaller species of snake, and as they are neither venomous nor have much in the way of teeth, their only form of defence is to curl up into a tight ball - so no defence against predation at all really! They appear to display a preference of confined, tight spaces - in the wild they spend the vast majority of their time in rodent-made burrows, either hunting or digesting the previous occupants of said burrow. The only time that they are in the open is at night time due to being nocturnal, in order to find a new, freshly stocked burrow - or when searching for a mate. 

In captivity, one of the basic absolute requirements is for a minimum of two hides (when kept in a vivarium). The only time I ever really see my Royal Pythons (aside from handling and feeding) is when they are making their way from one hide to the other - and they often freeze once I'm spotted! I can say with absolute certainty that my snakes much prefer confined spaces over open ground. The fact that tubs are generally smaller than vivariums is, in my opinion, a good thing, so long as adequate space is provided. As tubs are often clear or opaque, a natural day/night pattern can easily be provided where rubs are kept in sun lit rooms. 

As a separate, albeit anecdotal point, Royal Pythons in particular have a reputation of being picky / stubborn eaters. Repeated rejection of offered meals can in many cases be taken as a good indication that a detail of their housing - be it temperatures or size of vivarium - could be causing distress. It is interesting to note from a point of observation, that of the complaints regarding none-feeding, far fewer are from keepers which house their snakes in tubs. Often the solution to long term none-feeding issues is to attempt housing in a tub.

A well decorated tub

At this point I have to admit that I have given pretty much zero argument for reasons FOR housing snakes in vivariums - this is genuinely because I can think of no good reason that cannot be countered / beaten by and argument for tubs. The only quite weak argument that I can give is that simulation of natural habitat can be provided with a well decorated vivarium. This argument is one of what I find to be aesthetically pleasing - not necessarily the snake. Of course, there is absolutely no reason a rub cannot be decorated with branches and fake plants to provide stimulation and promote exercise. Does the snake appreciate it? In all honesty, probably not, no. 

My two Royal Pythons are my very much cared for pets, and are proudly housed in two beautifully decorated vivariums. Whilst they are pets, they are animals first, and their requirements and health will always take priority over my personal preference. Whilst they are in vivariums at the moment, I can fully imagine that they will go to live in tubs at some point - this in its self shows how I have converted from "pro-viv" to "pro-rub": It's not my choice, it's my snakes.

Genetics 101:

Ifrit

Ifrit (named by the previous owner, after some sort of awesome geeky computer game) is a CB09 male, and is a Fire morph - characteristics include very light colourings, a completely white belly, and blushings (or flames) appearing in the patterning. In comparison to Monty, it is immediately obvious that he is much paler in colour.

Ifrit was bred by Bob Clark, and purchased by the previous owner from the Hamm Reptile Show in 2010, before being sold to me in March this this year. He will hopefully be the father of little Fires of his own early next year - and I'm very excited about it!

In my last post, I very quickly skimmed over the complex topic of genetics which determine the various base morphs available - I'll attempt to get into a little more detail here, using Ifrit as my example... bear with me...

I mentioned previously that the genes that affect colouration (and sometime also patterning) are caused by slight mutations of the Normal gene, and that these mutations do occur naturally in the wild - albeit rarely. In terms of the genetic composition of Royal Pythons, genes are kept in pairs, with one gene being randomly inherited from each parent. The term heterozygous refers to these two genes in the pair being different to each other, hetero being Latin for "mixed". When a snake has two of the same gene in a pair, one being received from each parent, this is a homozygous pairing - again, homo meaning "same". Ifrit is heterozygous for the Fire gene - he received one Fire gene from (for arguments sake) his father, and one Normal gene from his mother - or vice versa.

Of the many different types of individual / single mutated genes which determine the colouration (morph), these come in three different types - recessive, dominant, and co-dominant, in terms of their relationship to the other in the pair.

• Recessive: The Albino gene, for example, is recessive in its relationship with the Normal gene, meaning in order for a snake to be visually albino, both parents must have at least been carrying (or heterozygous for) the Albino gene. In this scenario, there is a 25% chance that the offspring would receive two Albino genes (one from each parent) meaning it would be homozygous, and would visually have the characteristics of an Albino - lack of melanin in the skin, and pink eyes. Any of the offspring which inherit one Albino gene from one parent, and one Normal gene from the other, would visually be identical to a Normal (wild type) snake, as they would only carry one copy of the Albino gene - but not display it visually.
• Dominant: As int the above example, when a dominant gene is paired in the heterozygous form with a recessive gene such as Albino, the characteristics of the dominant gene will be always be visually evident. None of the characteristics of the recessive gene would be visually evident. In the homozygous form (two of the same gene) the offspring would be visually identical to the heterozygous offspring who only carry one dominant gene. It is therefore impossible to tell visually which offspring have received two dominant genes, from the offspring that have received one dominant and one recessive gene.
• Co-Dominant: Co-dominant genes act the same way dominant genes act when paired to a recessive gene. The co-doms traits would be visual in the any offspring that receive that particular gene, BUT the homozygous form of that morph ( offspring with two of the same genes) is visually different to the heterozygous offspring. When paired to a different co-dominant mutated gene, any offspring which receive one of each gene (heterozygous) display the visual characteristics of both parents.  This is how combo-morphs are produced.

Remember earlier I said Ifrit is a heterozygous Fire? Well, this is because the mutation that causes the Fire gene is co-dominant in its relationship with the Normal gene, so when paired to a Normal, the visual traits of both of his parents are displayed in him, even in the heterozygous form. The Fire gene is a mutated normal gene, as with all "base morphs". This particular mutation causes lower levels of pigmentation in the skin cells, resulting in visually paler snakes. As this mutated gene is co-dominant, this visual trait can be passed from parent to offspring with only one parent carrying the Fire gene. 

We'll assume that one of Ifrits parents was a Fire morph, carrying one Fire gene and one Normal gene, and the other was a Normal (carrying no mutated genes) - Ifrit being the result of inheriting one Fire gene from one parent, and one Normal gene from the other. If Ifrits parents had both been Fires, there would have been a 25% chance that he would have received one Fire gene from each parent, making him Homozygous - in which case he would have looked much different...

This is a perfect example of a Super-Fire, otherwise known as a Black Eyed Leucistic - a homozygous recipient of two Fire genes. As a single Fire gene results in visually lighter snake due to affected pigmentation levels, two snakes which both have this Fire gene can be selectively bred together in order to both pass one gene each to an offspring. As these genes are co-dominant in their relationship with one another, the recipient of two copies of this mutated gene would be visually different to the recipients of only one gene (and one Normal) - resulting, in this case, with a snake that has much lower levels of pigmentation that his parents - or none at all, as with the Super Fire above.

Now go make yourself a nice cup of tea, you've earned it - although if you really want to read more, this topic explains things a little more in depth.

Morphs 101:

I mentioned in my previous post that Monty is a “normal” or wild-type Royal Python, which is to say she is not a visual “morph” (nor is she Morph – although that would be all kinds of awesome!). The term ‘morph’ is used to describe, in simple terms, genetic mutations resulting in visual variations of colour or pattern (or both). I won’t go into too much depth here as the topic of genetics can get quite lengthy and complex, especially when we start talking about heterozygous and homozygous pairings, and recessive / dominant / co-dominant genes, so I’ll gloss over all that for now.


These variations (morphs), of which there are dozens, occur naturally in the wild, although some are rarer than others, and can be selectively bred in captivity to produce offspring of the same morph. Additionally, two of the same morph can be paired together to produce a good example of that morph - similarly to how for example a breeder of pedigree dogs would choose a male and a female that display the strongest characteristics of that particular breed, in order to produce pups which in turn inherit those defining characteristics. In snakes, these individual morphs all have unique names (often chosen by the breeder who first proved that gene by producing offspring of the same) and the characteristics can range from being quite subtle, to very obvious – Albino being a good example of a more obvious one.

As well as selectively breeding one morph to produce more of the same, or two of the same morph to produce very good examples of that particular morph, breeders can also pair together two snakes of different morphs to produce a “combo-morph” – offspring which display a combination of 2, 3 or even 4 different base morphs – which in very simplistic terms is just like mixing colours on a palette. This is where things get really interesting; with hundreds (if not thousands) of different combinations being possible, and new previously unseen combo-morphs seemingly being produced each year, resulting in some truly fascinating and wildly differing hatchlings being born every year – and this is all completely within the reach of your average hobbyist breeder, with some triple or quad-gene combo-morphs selling for the kind of prices you’d expect of a half decent second hand sports car…

I shit thee not!

Introducing...

Monty!...

Monty is a CB11 (CB being Captive Bred, 11 referring to year of  hatch) and is, genetically speaking, of normal colouration (or "wild type"). As I found out after naming, Monty is actually a female, as determined by having her "probed" at a local petshop, and will hopefully be laying some nice fat eggs of her own next year!!

Monty was very much an impulse buy in 2011 after an unplanned visit to another local petshop, in an age old tradition where I treat myself to a (often ridiculous) Christmas present. After gawping at young Boas and Corn Snakes wide eyed like a small child, I got chatting to a member of staff, who convinced me that of their snakes, I wanted a Royal Python. And I'm glad he did! They sold certain snakes as a "Starter Package" which in hindsight, wasn't all that brilliant, as this did not contain everything needed, and included some things that weren't required at all, but £200 later I was the very happy owner of the most fascinating creature I've ever held! Prior to this day, I'd never even considered buying a snake, mainly as amongst a whole load of other misconceptions, I thought they would be expensive to buy, expensive to house, and expensive to feed, but after having a tiny Monty wrapped round my wrist, my decision was made - and at no point have I so much as even slightly regretted it!

"Bottoms up!"

I say that she is a 2011 hatch, but this is only actually a best guess based purely on her size when I bought her, which was 300 grams, so she was either very young, or quite underfed - it's hard to say really. Royal Pythons in general have a bit of a bad reputation in terms of being picky eaters, so not really suitable for inexperienced / first time owners - but I have never had an issue here, as this picture shows, Monty has always been a very keen eater, and her growth this year has been tremendous - from 400 grams in March this year, to just over a Kilo as per yesterdays weekly weigh-in - 600 grams in 3 months!

Speaking of which, I have a nice smelly rat freshly defrosted, and it's tea time for Monty. Ciao for now!

There is something wrong with you...

If you were hoping to find a whole blog dedicated to Wills' plums, I'm afraid you you're out of luck - as this, my friends, will be the mostly uninteresting ramblings of a hobbyist snake keeper (me) as I track my progress, thoughts and general musings along a very steep learning curve, where I attempt to change my status of "keeper" to "breeder", and share my tales of joy and woe (and of course, pics!) on the way. The snakes in question are my pair of Royal Pythons, also known as Ball Pythons, hence the title - nothing to do with crown jewels... although I may be able to help you with that...

Wish me luck!