Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I am getting a mexican black king snake & want to do something different from the normal cypress mulch & log to hide under & branch to crawl on. First of all would it be safe for me to use
as the substrate washed play sand from home depot like what is used with bearded dragons? I think the light tan sand would offset the mexican blacks color very well as he would tend to blend in with the cypress mulch. Secondly do you all have any ideas on cool decorations/objects for the aquaruim? Any advice on this would be greatly appreciated.

The thing about sand - you really need to feed the snake in a separate enclosure or in a bag or plastic box - in other words, avoid the snake getting mouthfulls of sand.

Sand is dusty, heavy, gets everywhere you don't want it to- i.e. water bowl, carpet, snake's nostrils - but it conducts heat and buffers heat pads better than any other substrate.

Just watch the snake to make sure it is not reacting to dust. A reaction would be runny nose, sneezing, etc.

Cage decor: Keep it simple. Cereal boxes are about the best hides ever. PVC pipe is kind of a fun hide. They sell those rock hides that look good. I would just go simple and easy to clean, because kings can be active and messy sometimes. You're better off with hides you can throw away (like cardboard) or clean easily (so no wood).

Ok, cool. Then other than sand is there another type substrate that is safe & good to use for kings that is still light colored like sand?

I have my gray band on Katee Soft-Sorbent litter, it is similar to Care Fresh but finer and a light beige/tan color."Mr Salty" loves it and he looks great on it.

Is it totally safe? Where do you pick it up from?

It claims to be safe if ingested, but I usually place the prey on a sheet of newspaper as a precaution. It is wood pulp fibers that are too small to make into paper. I'm in Florida and get it at Petsmart