Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hi i do not have a corn snake but of course i want the cage before the snake.
Here is my idea
A 30 gal long or standard tank, take off the upper rim and raise the floor of the tank with pleziglass to about an inch.
then have a sunken in digging pit for the snake that goes to the original tank botton allowing the pit to be 1 inch deep, at the other corner there will be a sunken swimming pool, there will be various plants(2 prolly) that will also be sunken in.......Basicly most things in the tank will be sunken in a bit so for instance the food dish will be hanging on the circle in the plexiglass for it and i could easily take out the dis to clean....general bedding would be provided by repti carpet, and don't worry there will be hideing spots. there will be hiding spots in opposite corners as well as the pool and digging area in oposite corners. Would this work, there will be an undertanke heater in the digging side of the tank.
Any input as to suggestions or praise is greatly appreciated, THX
Demon

only thing i would do different is not use the reptile carpet. that stuff is hard to clean. i would suggest something that you can use for a couple months then just throw away. something it could dig in a little bit. i have never kept a snake though so i am not too sure what that would be exactly. good luck and have fun.

Can you describe this a little better - "take off the upper rim and elevate the bottom about an inch.."

You are going to have cleaning issues. An easier way to do this is to have a wood hidespot built to fit like 1/2 the tank. It can be 2 inches high for example. The snake can hide under it anywhere within that area. You can even have multiple access holes on top. Easy to pull out for cleaning the cage, easy and cheap to build and your snake will love the security. Why bother with sunken water bowls and such? Alot of complexity with no real value to the snake anymore than a normal waterbowl.

Trust me on this: you will do a much better job keeping the snake cage clean if it is simple and easy to clean. Your snake will be better off for it. Cornsnakes poop fairly often. What a pain it would be with all that subterrainean and sunken-in stuff. You can go large, but go simple.

there will be no subterranian area for the snake to access, it will only have a small sealed digging pit. And the repti carpet i have found easy to clean, you just soak it in water and brush it a bit after. i would bother doing all this sunken in stuff because it will be diffrent it will offer a better looking and feeling environment for the snake and it will be easy to maintain. And i forgot to mention in my description that the hide spots will be fairly large and that the space between the true floor and the new one would be sealed off from the snake, so i don;t have to clean under there.
Demon

>>Hi i do not have a corn snake but of course i want the cage before the snake.
>>Here is my idea

>>A 30 gal long or standard tank, take off the upper rim and raise the floor of the tank with pleziglass to about an inch.
>>then have a sunken in digging pit for the snake that goes to the original tank botton allowing the pit to be 1 inch deep
My year-old corns are already 3/4" thick, so an inch deep pit won't last very long. They'd probably get whatever digging stuff there is all over the rest of the cage. What kind of stuff are you thinking of putting in the hole?
, at the other corner there will be a sunken swimming pool, there will be various plants(2 prolly) that will also be sunken in.......Basicly most things in the tank will be sunken in a bit so for instance the food dish
what food dish? I feed my corns out of their cage, but even if you don't, they will most likely just drag it out to wherever the want to eat. a built-in food dish for a once-a-week feeding is kind of a waste anyway
will be hanging on the circle in the plexiglass for it and i could easily take out the dis to clean....general bedding would be provided by repti carpet, and don't worry there will be hideing spots. there will be hiding spots in opposite corners as well as the pool and digging area in oposite corners. Would this work, there will be an undertanke heater in the digging side of the tank.
>>Any input as to suggestions or praise is greatly appreciated, THX
>>Demon

Well, it could probably be done, but overall seems quite complicated and with the built-in stuff, a snake could grow out of it quickly.
Also, if you're cleaning carpet with just water, it will probably start to stink real bad after a couple poops. Water, unless it's very hot, will not kill bacteria and other unwanteds.
I would just ditch the whole sunken-in bit and use a diggable substrate (aspen, reptibark, etc.) in the entire tank.
-----
-audri
Webpage/Pics