Why Im Abandoning Bioactivity With My Mexican Black Kingsnake

Описание: Im abandoning bioactivity. That’s right, I am no longer using bioactivity for my mexican black kingsnake. Now this is due to a number of factors, But mostly it has come down to when I assess my mexican black kingsnakes welfare, bioactivity does not improve the welfare over just keeping my mexican black kingsnakes in a naturalistic set up.

Bioactivity has, for the most part become a buzzword in recent years, its exciting, challenging, and can prove to be avenue for keepers to advance their care. But there also seems to be a confusing belief online that bioactivity equals good care or equals good welfare. You often see many posts on Facebook groups asking about going bioactive, and that’s good, people are seeking progression. But you also see posts about bioactive rack systems etc. People are equating bioactivity with high welfare. When realistically, the increase in welfare from a naturalistic set up to a bioactive set up is not that vast. Ive even seen videos on YouTube of people setting up bioactive rack systems and deem it good welfare. We could go into how mind boggling that is, but as we have already criticised racks in another video we wont go into details.

I am now keeping my mexican black kingsnakes naturalistically, this means, natural substrates (exact same substrate mix as before), at a decent depth to facilitate burrowing behaviour and moisture gradients, Adequate UVB for optimal vit d3 levels and the multitude of other behavioural benefits, near infra-red heat sources for a more natural heat source, high output led lights for increased lux and promotes endocrine benefits. Slate that absorbs near infra-red and releases far infra red, Multiple hiding opportunities that allow the snake to hide along the thermal gradient. They are also laid out so that the snake can throw a single coil out and bask cryptically if they choose too. Leaf litter that contributes to cryptic basking further.
In terms of husbandry, I will do a full clean when needed, I will start looking at doing one monthly but it may be after 3 weeks, may be after 6 depending on the circumstance. I will obviously spot clean in between these. When doing a full clean, I will remove all of the substrate, disinfect the enclosure and replace with fresh substrate. Another benefit of leaflitter is that it will catch faeces and that may be replaced before substrate.
In terms of welfare, you can achieve everything you need to, keeping this way that you can with bioactive. Of course, there are benefits in bioactive like better air quality from plants, microclimates in plants, hunting enrichment in insectivore species. However I made chances for the following reasons.

Unfortunately, I have my bearded dragon enclosure beneath the mexican black kingsnakes, and the heat transference from below warms the substrate in the middle vivarium from the bottom, meaning its getting heated from below and above and it dries out, killing custodians. This isn’t a problem in naturalistic enclosure as I just use moss and spray a hide for a humid retreat, I can get around the drying out of that portion of the vivarium, but faeces in that area doesn’t get eaten because custodian numbers aren’t high enough. Which is okay, id personally do spot cleans in a bioactive anyway. However, even in the areas where custodians persist, the build up of Fras from them isn’t being broken down and recycled by plants as a natural part of the nitrogen cycle. My attempts at plants have failed due to the persistent and intentional uprooting by the snakes that literally shovel them out for the fun of it, it seems. So there is no ecosystem about it, the bioactivity aspect isn’t functioning as I would have liked. Over time it came to smell, in a well-functioning bioactive system it should smell earthy, not dirty.

In arid systems, to function well bioactively, you need a deep substrate, that remains dry at the surface yet locks in moisture below for invertebrates to retreat to. The limitations opposed on me with the vivarium’s means a substrate depth that dries out too quickly as a whole and doesn’t lock in moisture below like I want.

This isn’t really a fault of bioactivity, but more poor enclosure design. I kept on getting mealworm beetles etc crawling across my bedroom floor, either crawling out through the ventilation or through the gaps at either ends of the glass. I could easily block the lower vents and put glass runners on the sides, but I prefer the extra ventilation.

Of course this video was not made to scare you off bioactivity, but to provide another practical perspective. That is some cases the reality is, bioactivity isn’t the right tool for the situation. That being said I would 100% keep high humidity species in exo terras etc bioactive, because its easier to achieve and works well for that situation. All my spiders and other inverts are bioactive still. Sometimes we need to think about what is sensible for each situation. And so, Im Abandoning Bioactivity.