Essential:
- Good, solid, escape-proof tank. Look for one ideally with a screen lid, Or lockable sliding doors. Check theres no gaps that the snake could squeeze itself through, Especially if it has sliding doors.)
- UTH. Make sure its the right size for your tank, the store you buy the tank from should be able to advise you on that.
- Digital Thermo-hygrometer. The stick on type are pants, Get yourself a decent thermo and you'll be glad you paid the extra few quid. Mine cashed in at £15 so hardly breaking the bank.
- Adequate hides from the size of the tank, Obviously the amount of hides you NEED is subjective to the snakes personality, if its shy more hides are needed... but aslong as you have one on the hot side, one on the cool side you'll be fine.
- Waterbowl. Big enough for the snake to curl up in it if wanted, Heavy enough for the snake not to knock over. This could be anything from a plastic tub weighed down with some large rocks in the bottom, to a large porcelin bowl or a specially made bowl by companys like Exo-terra. All depends on the budget.
- Substrate. Aspen is cheap, around £3 for 1kg bag. Repti-bark is a bit more expensive, but looks nicer. If your not bothered about looks and moneys a bit tight theres nothing wrong with using some newspaper or paper towels, Just you may have to provide a bit of extra ground coverage.
Advised:
- Thermostat or rheostat so you can control the temperature of the UTH. Dimming are best as they just adjust the amount of 'leccy getting to the heater. But the on/off kind are fine too, just means you'll get a bit more of temp flux. Im using a HabiStat Mat-Stat. Its an off/kind, cost me about £20 and the temp only fluctuates 2-3deg on average.
- Vines/branches/plants for the snake to climb in, around and hide under. Will also make the vivarium look a bit nicer. Not essential though. You can buy them from petshops but expect to pay a premium for what is essentially driftwood. Think the cheapest ones at my local store were about £8 a stick. You could use rocks and stones that you find or source yourself, But make sure they're from an area where pesticides arn't used.. they're scrubbed and cleaned thoroughly and bake them in an oven, wrapped in tin foil for a while to kill off anything that may be living in/on them.
Thats all i can think off at the moment... hopefully someone else can chime in with some better suggestions.
Also, try buying the smaller less important stuff as and when you have the spare money... stuff like the thermo, decor etc will only be relatively cheap compared to the cost of a decent viv and you can easily store it away ontop of a wardrobe or a cupboard somewhere until its needed, and this way when it comes to the moving in date for your snake you will hopefully have everything you need and your wallet (Or purse, sorry!) wont of felt like it took such a battering.
