Snake Peg Board

Description

This snake peg board is a very popular piece of enrichment for snakes and is also extremely easy to build and requires few materials. Snakes and reptiles in general can be very challenging to adequately enrich as they react much differently then many other animals such as the mammals this blog usually focuses on. One of the best way to enrich a reptile is to alter its environment and perching areas, this piece of enrichment allows you to quickly and easily provide the snake with a fun, interactive perching environment. All you need to build this item is some plywood, some dowling and a circular saw. If you are looking for guidelines on how to enrich reptiles, id recommend checking out AAZK’s Suggested Guidelines for Reptile Enrichment, as it has some great points and suggestions.

Building Materials

• Plywood (1/2″-3/4″ thick)
• Dowling, thickness depends on the snake you are building this for, larger dowling for heavier snakes.
• Screw Driver and drill bit the same width as the dowling
• Circular Saw
• Tape Measure

Building Instructions

1. Firstly you need to decide the size of the peg board, the one I’m making here is perfect for smaller snakes like corn snakes, but if you plan on using it for larger snakes you may need thicker dowling and a larger piece of plywood. This piece is about 3″ high and about a foot and a half across.
2. Once you have the dimensions you can then cut your plywood with the circular saw.
3. After the plywood is cut you can then find the centre, and mark it, you can then place marks at pre determined intervals along the plywood, this will be where you place the holes for your dowling. make sure there is enough space for the. size of snake you are making this for!
4. You can now take your dowling and decide on how long you want your pegs to be sticking out of the board. I made mine about 3 inches long. Once you have decided on this, cut your dowling to length with the circular saw.
5. Once you have placed all the marks you need for your dowling you can then drill a hole large enough (but also tight enough that it won’t fall out).
6. Then, place the dowling in the holes. I opted not to use glue so the pegs could be moved around easily. I decided to make my centre peg a large stick to make a fun location for the snake to start off or perch on the board, to do this I simply pre drilled a hole in the back of the stick and put a screw through the board into that hole.
7. (Optional) I then decided to make a back support for the peg board by simply using a piece of plywood that I cut at a 45 degree angle at one end and secured to the back of the board using screws.

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Tips/ Comments

This snake peg board is a very versatile piece of enrichment that can easily be made much larger to accommodate larger snakes. This peg board can also be secured to a wall in an exhibit or education centre to make a permanent enrichment feature in the snakes enclosure or class room.