Newbie researching

[quote=NeeNee13;1667412]

Originally Posted by albertagirl

Thanks, I look forward to it!

I was wondering if someone could give me a ballpark figure of startup cost, I have a 20gal but need everything else, UTH, aspen, hides, water dish, etc.

And thank you everyone else for warm welcome

Well LLLreptile is having free shipping and no tax right now and I order from the often. I spent about 60 dollars to start up. Maybe less.
And I'll check out the forums about that crazy log hide

Definitely go with a UTH and not a heat lamp, and babies especially love lots of "clutter" on top of the substrate. Plastic and silk vines are good choices and toilet paper tubes smashed flat at one end and buried are favorites. There are a lot of "stickies" at the top of each topic with great information to learn before you get your first kid.

Nanci, one of our most knowledgeable members here wrote an info sheet that every corn snake owner must read. Nanci's care sheet

There are a few excellent books you should read as well, two are written by current members here, Kathy Love's and Don Soderberg's books are must reads!

Originally Posted by NeeNee13

Its funny you mention that caresheet, I already have a copy of it, printed to help me gather my supplies.

I totally ignored your and Chip's comments about Nanci's sheet, it is just THAT good I had to type it in right away! Sorry guys!

I know with an UTH (really depending on what type you go with) and a thermostat you're looking at around $60 or so, give or take, just with those two things. Plus the cost of thermometers to double check your temps. You can find plenty of hides and decorations for pretty cheap. I've seen people use all sorts of stuff for hides. Toilet paper tubes, legos, ceramic pots. You can also find silk plants at the dollar stores or watch a hobby store for good sales. Depends on how elaborate you want to decorate also. If your tank is just an aquarium, you'll need a cover and some locks too. Snakes are escape artists. I do recommend the Petco brand locks. They are awesome, low profile, not as ugly, and easier to use. Aspen is fairly inexpensive as are dishes. There are a lot of people on here also that use a dog food bowl as a combo dish and hide. Here are a couple photos of the tanks I set up for my babies. They are both 10 gallon though for now. I just want to find some wood pieces that I like for each one and a custom background for Hades tank. Cost totally depends on what you want to put into it. But I do suggest looking at LLL reptiles. They have some great stuff and great prices. And I also suggest getting a snake from a breeder. My experience with a pet store was really awful. Both of my babies are from breeders on here (Tavia with Elemental Exotics and Hypnoctopus with Curly Corns) and they were amazing experiences and I have incredible, well raised, healthy babies and their help and knowledge is irreplaceable. There is so much to learn on here and people are so friendly and helpful. Corns are a huge addiction, impossible to have just one... or two or three lol!

Originally Posted by Galataya16

I know with an UTH (really depending on what type you go with) and a thermostat you're looking at around $60 or so, give or take, just with those two things. Plus the cost of thermometers to double check your temps. You can find plenty of hides and decorations for pretty cheap. I've seen people use all sorts of stuff for hides. Toilet paper tubes, legos, ceramic pots. You can also find silk plants at the dollar stores or watch a hobby store for good sales. Depends on how elaborate you want to decorate also. If your tank is just an aquarium, you'll need a cover and some locks too. Snakes are escape artists. I do recommend the Petco brand locks. They are awesome, low profile, not as ugly, and easier to use. Aspen is fairly inexpensive as are dishes. There are a lot of people on here also that use a dog food bowl as a combo dish and hide. Here are a couple photos of the tanks I set up for my babies. They are both 10 gallon though for now. I just want to find some wood pieces that I like for each one and a custom background for Hades tank. Cost totally depends on what you want to put into it. But I do suggest looking at LLL reptiles. They have some great stuff and great prices. And I also suggest getting a snake from a breeder. My experience with a pet store was really awful. Both of my babies are from breeders on here (Tavia with Elemental Exotics and Hypnoctopus with Curly Corns) and they were amazing experiences and I have incredible, well raised, healthy babies and their help and knowledge is irreplaceable. There is so much to learn on here and people are so friendly and helpful. Corns are a huge addiction, impossible to have just one... or two or three lol!

Nice setups! I agree, it totally depends on how fancy you want to go.

If you are getting a baby, LOTS of ground cover (silk vines, plastic aquarium plants, other gems found at dollar stores) are great over the aspen. And buy your aspen in the big bag in the rodent section, SAME stuff as snake substrate but a good reason to double the price! You can use lots of stuff around your house for hides, babies love toilet paper tubes smooshed flat on one end and partially buried in the aspen, bandaid boxes, toothpaste boxes, pretty much anything like that is sized right, cheap and disposable.

I would go with a 20 long aquarium, the babies love to explore and there really is no tank too big for them if you think about it, when they are born they have an entire world to explore! I buy most of my aquariums from garage sales or Craigslist, just scrub the heck out of them and boil any rocks or plastic plants you want to use. If it is natural dried wood, rocks or seashells from the outside, boil with a little bit of bleach added to the water and/or bake them at about 225° for about 20 minutes or so. This is pretty much guaranteed to kill any critters that may be hiding.

Water dishes with heavier bottoms are best, snakes are know to destroy their vivs and upset water dishes at times.

Bottom line, I agree with Galataya16, $60 will give you a good start if you go with cheaper decorations and hides.

Agreed with the above! The heat and something to control the heat is going to be the most expensive initial outlay but it pays to not scrimp on that part. Then the actual cage itself, which could cost more than the heat but you have tons of options there, for size and new or used that can vary the price a lot.