Herp product idea

[HABU]

i was sitting here just kicking back and watching tv... i was thinking about habitats and thought about where herps often hang out at. old, rotten logs for instance, they are usually either water logged or at least retain more moisture than it's surroundings.... then i thought about desert lizards and snakes that hunker down in burrows and in rock crevices during the heat of the day... those burrows and crevices are cooler and often damper than the environment outside. as my coffee began kicking in and i had a cigarette, it dawned on me... what if they had some kind of material, something ceramic or man-made... something that was non-toxic, fairly light-weight and could be moulded into shapes?... some material that can be formed like plastic but has those qualities i mentioned?... now, here's the kicker. what if that material behaved like a sponge? or more precisely like old, dry wood or say sandstone in that it would soak up water and hold it for periods of time?

what i'm getting at is have something that you can mold into any shape like a cave or wooden, hollow log and you could soak it in water for a bit and it would drink up the water and then you could put it into a cage where it would slowly release it's moisture over time.... it would be a moist, humid hiding place that stays cooler than the cage because the heat is released by evaporation...

it would mimic natural herp hang-outs in the wild.
it needs to absorb water but not drip or otherwise be messy. you could just resoak it after a couple days or whatever. to clean it you should be able to just put it into boiling water.... and let it dry...

now what to use for the material... that's the thing... there has to be something, a polymer of some kind that has these properties that i just described... also it would be nice i think, if it could be made to look realistic... like plastics can. they make some dead-on fake stuff...

i think people would buy it!... think of all the critters that like moist hides. also we all know how tricky it can be getting micro habitats exactly right... like in desert vivs.......

so what do you guys think?... any chemists or material experts out there?

[sanderson]

sounds good to me!

[HABU]

well, with the lack of comments, i'm guessing i should go back in my cage!

oh well, just an idea.... considering some of the wacky stuff out there for herps, i'm surprised it hasn't already been done.

[carpy]

posted in the wrong bit mate - noone ever goes here haha

i would say yea good idea, i don't often use man made things in my vivs, but that seems a good one

[oakelm]

If its possible then could be good but would need to have 2 different sides such as one side will release moisture otherside wont otherwise in a hot viv the water would evaporate and not stay inside the hide. You could use the stuff that they burn wraps out of (Only thing I could think of being a nurse) as they retain the moisture against the skin but not sure what the stuff inside them is. If you do manage to find something it would be great but probably take you tens years to develop especially for reptiles as they scratch at everything.

[HABU]

well if any of you guys invent it and make a million... just send good old habu a couple bucks.... $20 bucks ought to cover it....

[IanF94]

I'd certainly use it, just need to figure out what the material is now.... Good luck with it.

[snickers]

This sounds a lot like unglazed terracotta. The stuff they use to make primitive wine chillers. It could indeed be made to look like an old log or a group of rocks, and could be formed accurate enough to have a body and a 'lid' (makes getting the snake out a lot easier). The problem with it would be keeping it clean.

I think it would be a great idea for some enterprising person to try on a small scale at one of the shows. Who knows where it would go.