Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I was reading the post about the grass in an aquarium and it sounded fun!! but then the true meaning of that was lost poo and sick and dirty snakes. I have two babies and I dont want them sick. so I pose the question to everyone, what is the perfect enclosure??? i have noticed with the weather breaking (thank God)my snakes have started enjoying the outdoors for our 'crawl', and have been comming out of thier hides indoors in thier tank alot more. so I have proposed a 'spring' cleaning, if you will, of my tank. so I need some advise on everything. substrate and hides and good humidy/tempature methods with them. I know they are restless and in need for a change. thanks guys!!
Tish

The "perfect" enclosure is one that can keep humdity up to 50%-60% continously, a hot spot of 90-95, and cool side of 80-85. a couple of hides (2), and a water dish big enough to soak in if wanted/needed.

This can be anything from glass aquruium, rubbermaid, custom enclosure. I personaly use rubermaids as it keeps the humidity up better, and I put THEIR needs BEFORE mine.

I use aspen shavings right now, but it is a P.I.T.A to feed in cage as I do. I have to pick them up and put them on paper to feed them. So they don't ingest any shavings. A "Nice" look is plain white paper towels though..

To read the temps put a digital thermometer (at wal-mart for about 13dollars) probe RIGHT OVER the UTH on the inside of the cage (while hopefully the UTH is on the outside of the cage) It will tell you the proper temps. The stick on ones are useless unless you snake is floating where you stick them.

And a hygrometer- or humidity gauge, just place it in the cage and it will tell you how humid it is.

If you are using a UTH then you will need a lamp dimmer(at wal-mart for about 10dollars) to keep the temps from getting to hot.

Remember, the more "stuff" as you put in the cage (remember to always house seperatly) is more "stuff" you have to clean and disinfect.
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1.1 Ball Python, 0.1 motley amel corn, 1.0 western hognose

i agree...rubbermaids are the best...so easy to clean & hold humidity so well....newspaper is the substrate of choice for me... now if it was practical they would have lush vivariums,,,but keeping up on them is enough work for right now also I dont have the space for big scale environments like that, although..... I am in the process of acquiring baby isabel boas. Now they stay alot smaller so their set ups are where I'm going to out do myself..lol I plan on having a foot deep of plain dirt...i'm going to construct a burrow for one of the hides..& the surface will have grass & I thought about planting some bamboo, maybe some snake plant, & bonsai trees...now if anyone knows any of these to be poisonous please reply.lol to the best of my knowledge they are safe

The wilds of Africa.