Dad and Daughter confused with lizards — It All Started With Snakes In Tubs
Day one: tiny ball pythons, tiny tubs, and a simple plan—keep it basic, keep it safe.
Water? Always. Heat mat? Thermostat-controlled, gorilla taped to the outside like a homegrown engineer. *(Never put anything sticky inside an animal enclosure!)* And yes, Dad was temp-gunning those tubs like an old west sheriff checking for varmints. When we say those first two snakes were secured, we mean it: ratchet straps over the lids, and a stack of heavy board games on top. *(Turns out, Settlers of Catan and Risk are finally useful for something.)*

Lizards: Same Game, Different Rules
Then came the baby lizards. Tile on the bottom, small tanks, and a bunch of hides—each one apparently more important than the last. Dimming thermostats hooked to deep heat projectors or basking bulbs, with Dad and his trusty ruler measuring the exact basking platform height to bulb ratio. Depending on the lizard, we’re talking humidity tweaks, water dishes, feeder bowls, and a full lighting array. Dad was convinced he cracked the code. Spoiler: He had not. But Dad always has a new idea, even if it involves three trips to the hardware store and a healthy amount of duct tape. One day Dad said he was going to invent something to make other reptile keepers rejoice in the war of the basking platform height to basking bulb wattage ratio! *(Spoiler - Coming Soon…)*

Cosmo in Tub — Simplistic tub setup featuring Cosmo with Aspen shavings, a Olive Garden to-go custom made hide, and some decorative fake vines with leaves.

Our Creatures Grew—So Did Our Setups

Month by month, as the reptiles grew, so did the ambition. Suddenly, we were swept up in the bioactive craze. “Self-cleaning tanks! Real plants! It’s nature—indoors!” Our first experiment? Cosmo, the ball python, got the full treatment: a Custom Reptile Habitats 4x2x2 enclosure, the same ones you see on Snake Discovery. It looked solid. It felt solid. Maybe it was my caulking, maybe it was fate, but eventually, a little leak appeared out the back. And then, the company disappeared in a poof of customer rage. Lesson learned: if you can’t get it, try somewhere else. Enter: Dubia.com’s PVC enclosures, which have been running smooth ever since. We in-fact have five, and soon to be six (shipping currently) of them! Tariffs hit the company for a brief couple of months, but they have since removed the price hike and are back to normal. If you follow Dubia.com on Facebook they often have give aways to participate in! Fun fact: They are also our go to online retailer for feeder bugs.

Build Day: Let the Chaos Begin

We splurged on the BioDude’s 4x2x2 ball python kit (yes, the one that hurts your wallet a little) and found a great piece of driftwood at the local beach. Before you ask—yes, we cleaned it! Wood, rocks, even leaves from outside are all fair game if you bake, bleach, or boil them, then dry thoroughly. If you want to skip the hassle, buy your leaves online and thank me later. And double-check your wood isn’t from some sappy tree. Clean and disinfect them good, as you do not want to introduce any local bugs or fungus to your reptile’s new home!

The background build was a classic “Dad-and-Mom” mess: a thin layer of Gorilla Glue across the back panel, rocks and cork bark pressed in, heavy stuff on top to keep it all flat, then dirt sprinkled everywhere for that natural look. Kiley, though, was in her element, flinging soil and making a mess nobody would ever fully clean up. Two days later, it was dry. Time to scape: substrate, dried leaves, sphagnum moss, buried charcoal, and—here’s where it gets weird—a starter pack of springtails poured in as our bioactive janitors.

Hot spot, cool side, and the usual snake hides (disguised under cork bark and rocks) came next. Once Dad was satisfied with the critical setups, we filled in with a tunnel hide down the middle mad up from a flat of cork bark, that massive driftwood centerpiece, and a handful of plants destined to be smashed within days. Thirty-six quarts of leaves and a full “clean-up crew” later, Cosmo had a home that looked (and smelled) like a mini jungle.

Ball python bioactive enclosure — Cosmo exploring his driftwood branch on day two!

The Secret Life of Bugs

Raising springtails and isopods? I never thought I’d see the day. But here we are, running tub colonies in the garage—thousands of springtails, hundreds of isopods in every size and color: Dairy Cows (giant), Powdered Blues and Oranges (medium), and Dwarf Whites (so tiny you’ll doubt they’re real). Kiley loves feeding them fish flakes, cuddle bone, and leftover veggies. Turns out, having all these bugs is actually handy. With so many bioactive tanks, we’re always restocking old enclosures or setting up new ones.

The Big Reveal

Cosmo’s tank was heated and lit for a solid 48 hours before he made his debut. The verdict? He explored everything, then immediately hid—classic snake. By night, he’d be climbing driftwood and testing the limits of our design. Most of the plants took a beating, but spider plant, golden pothos, and the snake plants held on strong. Today, our house has eight fully bioactive enclosures, covering everything from arid desert to tropical humidity.

What They Don’t Tell You

A few lessons, just between us:

Plants will get smashed, chewed, buried, or all of the above. Replacements are just part of the deal.
Gnats? They show up. Mosquito bits in hot water, cooled and sprayed when necessary, works wonders.
If you don’t install a misting system, get ready for a daily workout with the spray bottle.
Poop can vanish—sometimes the Clean-Up Crew works overtime, sometimes you get a surprise smell.
Some snakes will disappear for days, digging tunnels and popping out when you least expect it. This can making feeding a pain, and it’s usually when they are in shed anyways. It’s just hard do determine what is going on.
Air purifiers are lifesavers, especially after a bearded dragon or leachie does their business.
There’s always something new to learn, and every solution leads to a new kind of mess.

Why It’s All Worth It

For every smashed plant, spilled tub, or weird bug emergency, there’s an animal living its best life in a natural, wild-inspired setup. The room smells like fresh outdoors (most of the time), Kiley gets to help out (and make messes), and even Dad’s mistakes turn into stories we’ll laugh about later.

Would we do it again?
Absolutely. Every tank, every messy setup, every “what now?” moment—it’s all part of the adventure.