This weekend marks three months of snake ownership for me. In that time, I've learned a bit and already regret a few choices. If a time machine could take me back three months, things would be different. A part of me is hesitant to give advice from only three months of experience, but the writer in me can never resist summarizing my thoughts in writing.
I've been contemplating snake ownership for years. As a kid, I tried and failed to keep a few little snakes that I found in the yard. Living in Oklahoma City during the early 90's, I called Bob Clark once and talked for half an hour or so about owning snakes. For the past few years, I've researched the topic on the internet several times before the desire passed.
In August, I e-mailed with some folks from the Louisiana Gulf Coast Herpetological Society. The best way to start any hobby is to learn from people who are experienced. Reading caresheets on the web is good, but standing in someone's snake room to see and hear explanations of specific setups will always be better. I was planning to get those explanations when Katrina and Rita hit. About the time that I was going to ask for help, I lost all of my contact information because I had a problem with AOL and my computer.
As a result, I met the month of October with a strong desire to own a boa or python after 35 years of waiting and yet without any good in-person source of expertise except what I could find at a pet store. I understood the caresheets pretty well, but I wasn't confident and wanted the added security that would come from in-person explanations. Eventually, I went to a reputable pet store, opened my wallet, and left with everything that one of the managers recommended. Some choices were good. Some choices weren't so good. The point of this rambling essay is to explain what I'll do differently when a time machine allows me to go back to early October.
The Cage
I left the store with a 55 gallon long aquarium, (and later bought a second one for a second snake). I wanted something that would be good for the life of a ball python, a California kingsnake, or an Okeetee cornsnake. Is this aquarium the right housing for any of those animals? I believe that it will be good enough. If I do everything else right, I believe that my animals (a ball python and a California kingsnake so far) will live reasonably comfortable lives. Are these aquariums ideal? No, they're not even close to being ideal, and I knew that when I bought them. Unfortunately, I couldn't bring myself to order the cages I really wanted when I wasn't sure that I understood cage setup.
I called the website that had the cages I liked and asked about heating, lighting, and other accessories. The guy was nice but ended by telling me that they don't recommend any specifics and that I could easily find what I needed "all over the internet." I thought about the number of times someone has given me directions and ended with "You can't miss it." I hear those words and know that I'm going to be lost. They guy's comments sounded ominously like "You can't miss it," and I shrank from getting everything on the web.
When I get that time machine, I'll go back and get started with better cages.
Undertank Heaters
I may not know herpetoculture, but I'm a pretty fair engineer. As a corrosion engineer, I know a bit about heat transfer. (I know more than some would admit but maybe less than I think.) I know that pockets of unmoving air are great insulators. Styrofoam is a good insulator because the foaming agent creates millions of little bubbles in the styrene, and those bubbles hold little pockets of unmoving air. That air doesn't conduct heat well. The interfaces between air and styrene don't conduct heat well. As a result, styrofoam is a good insulator.
The point of this lecture is that I've found three brands of undertank heating pads. The one marketed by a local company is just a pad without any adhesive to hold the pad to the bottom of the tank. The other two brands have adhesive. The store where I bought my aquarium only sells the non-adhesive brand. No matter how tightly one tries to tape this pad to the bottom of an aquarium, the contact between pad and glass isn't good. The bad contact leaves a gap. The gap forms a little pocket of air. The air leads to less efficient heat transfer to the glass.
When I started trying to install the heating pad, the instructions talked about putting a layer of expanded polyethylene (styrofoam by a different name with a different base polymer) between the bottom of the aquarium and whatever surface was under the aquarium. When I called the company for help, a lady asked around and told me that the expanded polyethylene wasn't necessary. I don't know whether she honestly believed that it wasn't needed or whether she just wanted to be rid of me. I eventually found the expanded polyethylene at Home Depot, but coming home from the pet store only to have the instructions tell me I needed to get something else was frustrating.
To make matters worse, the manager sold me the "Jumbo" sized heating pad. Unfortunately, she didn't realize that the aquarium had a bottom support that prevented this pad from making contact around the support. I felt that returning the heating pad and asking questions would make me look stupider than I already looked. (I'd already had big problems with the light bar.) Instead, I just put the pad where I could and tried not to worry about the bad fit. I ended up with a really big air gap in this area, but the good conductivity of the metal bar seems to be compensating.
I don't think badly of the lady who helped me pick all of this stuff. She probably still knows more than I do about keeping snakes, and without her giving me confidence by pointing to various stuff and saying "This is what you need," I might not own a snake even now. However, when I set up my second aquarium two weeks later, I bought two smaller pads instead of the Jumbo pad and used expanded polyethylene to force the pads against the bottom of the aquarium and to keep heat from going into the stands on which the aquarium sits. For what it's worth, I have a range of 88 to 92 degrees on the hot side of my second aquarium about 65 to 70 degrees on the cool side. I use only the undertank heating for this aquarium. The humidity stays in the 45 to 55 percent range fairly easily, and my California Kingsnake has had two good sheds.
When the time machine takes me back to the point of buying undertank heaters, I'll likely try one of the brands with adhesive to hold the pad to the cage bottom. Even with a better cage, good contact between the pad and the cage bottom would help. The polyethylene insulation is still a good idea.
Lighting
I won't recount all the problems I had with the first light fixture that they sold me. Everyone was very nice about getting the problem fixed, but the ordeal wasn't fun. I still haven't decided where I stand on the question of whether ball pythons or kingsnakes need exposure to UVB light. I bought a fixture that would give me fluorescent light in the cage plus incandescent white light or black light for extra heating. As I've worked out some of the issues with the heating pad, I've come to believe that I don't need much light bulb heating. Furthermore, the fixture that I have doesn't allow these lights to be controlled by a thermostat.
When I go through the time machine, I'll get a simple fixture that lets me have fluorescent light in the cage. I'll turn it on in the daytime in case my snakes need UVB light and I'll have it for those occasions when I need or want to see the inside of the cage. If I need incandescent light bulb heating, I'll go with a clamp lamp because they are easier to control with a thermostat.
Thermometers
Yes, it took me a couple of weeks to learn by experience what everyone kept telling me. The liquid crystal thermometers that stick to the walls of an aquarium are largely worthless. I still think that they do okay at showing that conditions are stable, but they don't tell anything important about the temperatures that the snake sees.
My second attempt at using cheap thermometers involved buying little aquarium thermometers and sticking them to sides of the cage at bedding level using their suction cups. I still like using these thermometers as a guide to how the cage is doing, but there is a gradient near the sides of my cages. The temperature within a quarter inch of the glass will be different from the temperature a few inches from the glass.
Finally, I found the cheap digitals that are available at numerous reptile supply websites. They are nice, but probe placement is still important. I've seen the temperature reading swing ten degrees in half an hour because my snake pushed the probe from one spot to a nearby spot.
I've had a temperature gun for a month. I don't think a temperature gun is an absolute necessity, but I like it.
Even with the time machine, I'd buy the little aquarium thermometers. I'd certainly buy the digital thermometers. I might buy one or two strip thermometers for show. I'd still order the temperature gun for extra data and because it's such a neat gadget.
Hides
Most of web articles about snake care say that good hides are essential but give no further details. Digging a little deeper, one finds articles and product reviews describing the good and bad points of various kinds of hides. The weakness that all of these writings have in common is that none of them are actually written by snakes. Furthermore, even if a few had been written by snakes, they wouldn't have been written by either of my snakes.
I've read reviews and commentaries all over the web praising the virtues of various cave designs. Other people's snakes apparently love these hides. My ball python has never been in hers. My kingsnake has been in and out of his briefly.
I've read an article by a respected snake keeper who had nothing but scorn for the hollow log and half-log designs. My ball python uses her hollow log. What my kingsnake really loves is a little plastic dog dish, but when he's not under the dog dish, he uses half-log hides.
My current hypothesis is that snakes have individual tastes in hiding spots just as people have individual tastes in homes. When I go in that time machine, I'll know what hides to get for each of my current snakes, but if I had to start from scratch with a new snake, I'd still have to offer him (or her) everything I could find and see what he likes.
Costs
Before I started buying stuff, I had the store manager list what I'd need so that I'd have a good idea about costs. According to her first list, I'd need about $500 in setup costs plus about $250 per year for food and bedding for each snake that I wanted to own. The breakdown was something like this:
Aquarium - $150
Aquarium stand - $160
Undertank heater - $50
Light fixture and lights - $120
Accessories - $50
Care book - $12
Of course, even this list goes over the $500 limit.
Food items - $2 per weekly feeding times 52 weeks - $104
Bedding - $15 per cage cleaning times 10 cage cleanings per year - $150
(Insert Master Card "priceless" joke at your leisure.)
The time machine breakdown would be something like the following:
Cage - $360
Stand - $30
Undertank heater - $40
Light fixture and lights - $70
Accessories - $200
Scale - $25
Temperature gun (with case) - $55
Extra floor lamp and bulb (to heat snake room) - $25
Care book - $12
This total is near $800, and I consider $700 to $800 a starting point. At some point, I'll probably add thermostats to each cage, so my ideal "basic" setup cost will be higher. Within a few weeks, I'll probably add the NERD book to my library, so the cost will increase another $65.
My food, bedding, and other recurring expenses are probably going to run about $300 a year. The costs for food and bedding as given previously are a little low, and I have additional costs of specialized reptile cage cleaners and a skin treatment that I try to give each snake a couple of times per week.
Obviously, many people keep snakes without spending this much money. Caging can be as simple as a plastic container with ventilation holes and cost no more than $25. Bedding can be newspaper that is essentially free. Hides and water dishes can be made from inexpensive household items. Lighting, a scale, and a temperature gun are not absolutely necessary. I can't say that my snakes are happier or healthier than snakes living in less expensive setups, but the beginner needs to know that the cost of a "beginner snake" is the least expensive part of joining the hobby. I halfway recognized this fact three months ago. Even with my planning, I underestimated the costs of getting into snake ownership. I don't regret my spending. I have two very nice snakes, and these expenses will be small when considered against the 20+ years of companionship that I will enjoy.
Okay, I'm not likely to have use of a time machine anytime soon. If I did, I probably wouldn't use it to get better stuff for my snakes, (but that use might be the least dangerous thing that I could do with a time machine). When I first bought my snakes, I halfway expected every morning to get up and find that one had died. I expected to describe everything to some experienced herper and have him or her say, "Yeah, you shouldn't have done that. Funny, I've never run into anyone else who made that mistake." I'd ask why the caresheets don't mention it, and he would tell me that no one ever thought of it. The best thing I've learned in three months is that there isn't some secret "gotcha" that no one thinks to mention. I could have relied on what I thought I understood and created a setup that would have been fine. The caresheets don't agree on every point, but the "happy medium" between their recommendations seems to be happy and healthy enough for my snakes.
Bill
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It's not how many snakes you have. It's how happy and healthy you can keep them.
L
