New Setup 1st Corn

Hello everyone. I am about to buy my first snake today. After many hours of research, I have decided on a corn snake from Carol since she is just a short drive away. I am very impressed with the quality of her snakes and her knowledge. Since I learned so much from this site, I decided to contribute so that maybe some other beginner can learn from my experiences.

I built my vivarium by drilling lots of 1/8 inch holes into a clear plastic storage bin with a clamping lid that I found at office max. My main vivarium is about 30 quarts (large for a hatchling, but I have many hiding spots). My feeding/transportation bin is half that size...15 or 16 quart. I know these are large, but I wanted to provide room to grow. Also, it is much easier to create a temperature gradient and maintain the conditions using something a little bigger.

The low side temperature is 73, the high side temperature is 83 (measured inside of the hot hiding spot slightly buried in the substrate). The humidity is about 70%. I am measuring this with an 11 dollar inside/outside walmart digital thermometer/humidity thingie. I am controlling the temperature with a 300W rated dimmer that I found at walmart for about 6 dollars. It took me about 24 hours to find the proper settings and stabilize the conditions.

Here is a top view of my vivarium without the lid.

Here is the top of the vivarium with the lid on. You can see the dimmer on the bottom left. I will put on binder clips to prevent the snake from pushing up on the top when it gets bigger/stronger.

Here is a side view of the vivarium. That "critter cave" thing is pretty neat. A magnetic cover is usually on there, but I took it off so that you can see inside. I wonder if the snake will like it.

Here is what I will feed and transport the snake in. Just a smaller version of the vivarium lined with today's paper.

I will post some more pictures when I get back home tonight after picking up the snake.

I think that the hardest part for me is picking out the color! They are all so cool looking and Carol's snakes are all so great. I am pretty sure I have been driving her crazy trying to figure out the best snake for me! Damned newbie snake owners. :twoguns: Sorry Carol!

Looks good. If you have it set up so that you've got hides on warm/cool sides, you know what your temps are, and all that good stuff, then it looks better. This is just a personal preference, but it'd drive me nuts having that opaque look to the viv and not being able to see into it as easily as with glass, but that's your call. Good luck!

I agree with you about the opaque look. I figure that I will let the snake outgrow this and then go for a nice big aquarium once it is ready for one. I need to practice my skills first. It isn't all that bad though.

I just took a few pictures of my snake. I didn't want to disturb it too much, so I will post some more in a week or so.

It is a hatchling male Miami that Carol suggested. I just love the patterns on this snake and I can not wait to see what the red and silver look like as it matures. I am really excited and impressed with the quality of Carol's snakes. I believe her Miami's are her pride and joy.

I am going to post a few more in the pictures section since that seems to be a more appropriate forum.

Nice setup, and you can't go wrong with one of Carol's miamis (or any of her corns)...The opaque bin, while making it hard for you to see in, may in fact add to your corn's level of feeling "safe"...Besides, if you wanna see him, just get him out ;*)...Enjoy him and welcome to CS, too