Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I am going to be buying a new tank and i wanted to utilize as much space in it as possible so i want to build a ledge with a cave type hide box on top of it. I was wondering if anyone knows of any woods that snakes would be fine with if you could let me know it would be great. I will post pictures of the final product when it is complete.

Kyle

You want to make sure that you do NOT use cedar...the oils can be toxic to snakes. I made a climbing ledge out of poplar, and my snake seemed to be fine with it. Don't, of course, use any treated wood that is meant for outdoor use (the kind that has a slightly greenish hue to it). There's some nasty stuff in that. Good luck. Duffy

Whatever wood you use to build your ledge, you should finish with either laquer or paint in order to allow feces and other filth to be washed off without being absorbed into the wood and without having the cleaning damadge the wood. So you can use either plywood or pine, bothe of which are easy on the pocket and easy to work with. Of course, if you're going for the natural look, then you'll be taking "disposable" pieces of wood, boiling them, bleaching them and then throwing them out when they get to be a problem. If you want the best of both worlds, build a natural looking ledge from wood and paint it with commercially available paints that create stone-like finishes. Good luck.