Hi Rick, first off, thanks for the compliments. And, I think Gregg and I agree on nearly every major point, of course sometimes it takes a while to get to that point. hahahahahahaha. There are others here that I do not get along with. And mostly because I have you outlook. From nature, to morphs, to rack systems, etc. I agee with you.



Our difference is, I always take nature first. And I always went to nature, all over the world, to see what I was interested in. And I live where snakes are EVERYWHERE and many many kinds. Oh and lizards to.



About your soil, the pics I posted are what they live in. There is no need to add all this and that. All your doing is taking away from what they choose to live in. Across the board, hogs use sandy loamy soils and where then shelter, there is little to no plant matter. Understand soils and soil types is a pain in the back side.



Please do not prejudice your approach with plants. The mix you stated was most likely based on what you think is good for plants, holds moisture etc. Which is absolutel wrong for hognose and most snakes. The key is also a pain in the arse to understand, DRY, draining soils with humidity. humidity not moisture.



If you really want to understand that, try putting a couple of inches of vermic or perlite in the bottom, then placing a piece of hard plastic with lots of small holes in it. The secure it so that the snakes cannot dig into that.



You could drill some drain holes about an inch up the sides so that it holes some water, but does not allow water to reach the substrate.



Place a sandy soil over that to your 12 inches or more level. If you use draining soils, when you add water to the cake, it drains into the subfloor, then HUMIDITY percolates up. This gives you dry and humid. Its all about the humidity raising up into the substrate.



THIS IS HOW NATURE works and the areas hogs live it works. They live in wet type areas, grassy, marshy, edge of wetlands, YET the mircohabitat is dry. In nature it rains, water goes down. Then humidity perculates up. I could go on about how this effects snake hunting, but I won't.



Hogs are not a snake of dense ground cover, or tall plants or rock outcrops. On our site, no rocks what so ever. Anothe site near me, has a few, but the hogs avoid those areas. No trees, not a stinking one. And only an occasional catclaw(three feet tall) here and there.



I know my pics did not show much, but seriously, it showed it all. I will take some better shots, but I am careful to not give away location. living where everyone and their brother come to CATCH their snakes, has its drawbacks. And from all over the world.



Anyway back to work, and please keep this conversation going.



And my previous comments were not aimed at just you. One poster talked about hollow logs stuffed with sphagum moss as naturalistic. It is, just not with hogs. On the sites i visit, no logs, no sphagum, not of that stuff.



Remember, I am working with Mexican hogs. But I have also observed westerns, easterns and southerns, in the field. Thier base principles are the same, DRAINING SOILS. In the south east, its even more important due to the amount of rain. Cheers

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