Larger Indoor Snake Setup
Version 1
- 48 x 14 inches base, 18 inches high, glass tank with built-in screen top.
- Under tank heating pad. Also gets ambient heat from large enclosure underneath.
- When it is cool, I cover the screen top with towels to prevent heat from escaping.
- Substrate is newspaper. I've used astroturf, aspen, felt carpeting, and leaf
litter in the past. I like newspaper because it's easy to clean and cheap,
and the snake likes it well enough.
- This enclosure is big enough for a breeding pair of corn snakes.
- Heating pad is on thermostat that turns it off when room temperature gets too high.
I've used drugstore heating pads, and I've used fancy stick-on heating pads; they
work equally well.
- Several layers of newspaper to prevent snake from directly crawling onto pad. But,
I kept worrying about potential burns. I don't use heating pads anymore (see Version 2),
but heat from above using ceramic heat bulbs.
- Fixtures to add incandescent lamp that sits on screentop available. However, since
I hibernate this animal in winter, I rarely use additional heat. She seems to prefer
cooler temperatures, except right after eating and rarely sleeps in the part of the
cage that's the warmest.
- She uses both provided shelters but prefers to snuggle between newspaper sheets.
- (Not shown) For egg laying, I fill a flower pot with moist potting soil,
cover it with a plastic plate, leave a hole for her to get in, and she's never
failed to lay her eggs in there. Only reason I don't offer such a pot as a
shelter all the time is...well, there really isn't a good reason, so I leave it
in after removing the eggs until fall.
Version 2
- I've been moving towards more natural setups.
- Heat from thermostat-controlled ceramic bulb. In winter, I cover the screen to
keep in more heat.
- In winter I also use additional light source--mostly for my own enjoyment, so I
can see what's in the tank.
- I use coconut fiber for the substrat, and the plant is directly planted into the
substrate. I keep the side with the plant moist all the time, the side away is
pretty dry. I spot clean as necessary and toss out and replace all of the substrate
every couple of months (this is a large setup for the small corn snake in it, so
don't need to clean as often).
