After a visit recently to a local reptile museum where I and my kids got to handle some snakes pretty for pretty much as long as we wanted (an experience we all enjoyed greatly), I've decided that I'm going to get the kids a corn snake. Maybe for Christmas. Maybe sooner. It depends on how patient I can be.

Since then, I've been doing a lot of research--mostly on the web. I intend to get a book, too. The questions of enclosures, heating and lighting are most perplexing to me, though.

1. While a standard aquarium seems fine, I'm unsure of what size to get. I had thought that I would get a 20 or 30 gallon tank, thinking that that would be adequate for the corn when it is fully grown. But after reading some posts here, and assuming that my, err, our, new snake is a young'un, that it might be best to get a small tank at first, and later graduate to a larger one. Does it matter if I put a small snake in a large tank? I would provide hiding places.

2. Most care sheets suggest that heating one side of the tank to a higher temperature than the other side is beneficial, some have said that as long as the overall heat is adequate that isn't really necessary. I've already decided that as long as a temperature gradient isn't harmful to the snake, it makes me feel better, so I want to provide one. I've heard about undertank heaters--heating pad. Are those just normal heating pads that you use on people when they are sick? Do you put them under the tank? Turned on all the time?

3. While I've found a local store that I'm comfortable getting my, err, our, snake from, his supply of enclosures and habitats is a bit limited. He does sell a line of aquariums with accesories designed for herps, but I'm unsure of just how adequate they are are. They have dome shaped lids with a spot to screw in a light bulb, and platform that an aquarium sits in that provides heat. It looks like the dome would light the whole tank, and the bottom unit would heat the whole bottom; not providing the temperature gradient I'm looking for to make me feel better. I haven't had much luck finding any local store with a full line up of supplies. When I'm looking online, what are the names of some specific products for lids, lights, and heating that I should look for?

I apologize for the length of this post. I'm a bit confused. I hope that future posts will be shorter.

Thank you.