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natural set up for corn snake

D

drazil

New member
I have the book, The Art of Keeping Snakes by Philippe De Vosjoli. I am getting a baby corn snake at our local reptile expo. I wanted to set up the enclosure in a more natural way, with a layer of gravel topped with soil (actually a bed a beast mixture with orchid bark) and on top of this I'll put some leaf litter (I have almond leaves that I use in my poison dart frog set ups). Then put in plants, logs, stones and hides, etc. When I get the corn as a baby, I'm going to put it in a 10g with paper towel, etc until he's had a chance to grow. I plan to feed in a separate container to eliminate the snake ingesting any soil particles. I keep poison dart frogs in a rain forest set up and it works very well. You don't need strong light as long as I keep it to low light plants.

Has anyone had any success/problems with a natural set up that uses soil as a substrate?

Thanks!
 
I've been using sphagnum peat moss for about 2 years now... and the snake likes it and so do I. The only drawback is he has a dusty feel to him when I hold him and we both get "dirty", but hey I can wash him and me; and he tends to get it in his water bowl all the time, but thats easy to take out and clean on a daily basis.

I feed him in his tank, (I hold the mouse by the tail and dangle it into his tank.. he does his grab and constrict.. then eats) but have had no problem with impaction or him swallowing dirt. sometimes he has gotten dirt on his mouth but I usually take him out and rinse his mouth.. (yes this sounds funny, but I just dribble water over his head to rinse but not drown).

Go for it.. sounds like it is a nice looking tank. post a pic, even before you get your corn..

I'm jealous.. its been years since I've gone to a reptile expo I want to go.
 
I used bed-a-beast or something similiar for years with my two. Lady G looked washed out in the lighter coloured stuff and things were fine. I recently changed over to Aspen based on the recommendation of the folks here and have to say that I'll stick with it. My Hypo never burrowed in the bed-a-beast stuff, but he loves to burrow in the Aspen. He looks like a much happier camper when he pops his head out to see what I'm doing :)
 
I have to agree that the aspen bedding suit our snakes, they like to burrow under, and all you see is aspen moving! :eek1:
 
aspen is a great choice. before i used the bark and it got messy and snakes could move as easy. now with the aspen they can move a lot easyier and its a simple clean up bedding.
 
drazil said:
I have the book, The Art of Keeping Snakes by Philippe De Vosjoli. I am getting a baby corn snake at our local reptile expo. I wanted to set up the enclosure in a more natural way, with a layer of gravel topped with soil (actually a bed a beast mixture with orchid bark) and on top of this I'll put some leaf litter (I have almond leaves that I use in my poison dart frog set ups). Then put in plants, logs, stones and hides, etc. When I get the corn as a baby, I'm going to put it in a 10g with paper towel, etc until he's had a chance to grow. I plan to feed in a separate container to eliminate the snake ingesting any soil particles. I keep poison dart frogs in a rain forest set up and it works very well. You don't need strong light as long as I keep it to low light plants.

Has anyone had any success/problems with a natural set up that uses soil as a substrate?

Thanks!
Click to expand...

This as been discussed before but I'll get back to you with the thread.

I think the overall consensus was that it was a lot of unnecessary work.
And maybe another concern was that the humidity was high using that method. The levels should be around 40-50%.

Good Luck
 
Lennycorn said:
This as been discussed before but I'll get back to you with the thread.

I think the overall consensus was that it was a lot of unnecessary work.
And maybe another concern was that the humidity was high using that method. The levels should be around 40-50%.

Good Luck
Click to expand...


Actually, the stuff dries out pretty fast. I remember being told it should be in the lows 70s when I first got my snakes and it was really hard except for the first day or two to keep it up that high. I had a big watering can that I was constantly using to keep it moist. Actually it was impossible in LadyG's tank... not sure why since the two snakes had identical set ups...

I still think Ghosts look better in the dark, but obviously my Hypo thinks the Aspen is a lot more fun :)
 
I actually like tending to all the animals I have (read -nuts!), so for me I don't find it extra work. In my dart frogs tanks, they have glass over the top specifically to keep the humidity high. In my tarantulas and scorpions tanks I have the coco coir bed a best with a screen top and I need to mist it on a daily basis. For the corn, I will put a layer of leaf litter (almond leaves) on top of the coco. I think it will simulate the corn's natural environment. If you've ever been to the san diego zoo's reptile house, I'm kind of going for a look like that. The aspen sound great too. I may use that till the corn gets older and who knows, I may stick with that.

The reptile show comes here once a year, just like Christmas and I have my list!!!
 
This has been discussed a couple of times. I'm sure the Duke of URLs will get back to you pretty soon. The only thing I would mention is to make sure you get sturdy plants because the snake will climb on them.
 
I located it quickly because it was my thread. :)

So here you go.

The Art of Keeping Snakes... naturally

I started my hatchling on paper towels. Waited three meals and threee poops and then put him on aspen. In a natural viv, I'd probably lose him, he is so small. So... that will wait. Eventually, I will probably have a naturalistic snake viv in my classroom (I prefer natural tanks) but I may take Hokie the corn home (where I can better play with him!! :grin01: ) and purchase a rough green snake for the viv.

The humidity seems to be the #1 drawback, so if you are going to do this, remember to allow the mix to dry for a bit. Also, place a piece of PVC tubing with a cap in the corner, so that you can pour water down to the gravel and allow water to move up through the soil. The surface should generally remain dry, barring the occaisional misting.

Good luck, and please, post pics of your efforts so I can drool!

BTW, I have been using the DeVosjoli BAS method on my two frog tanks as well, and it works GREAT!
 
Being this is my first snake, I want to be careful. And most of all, I want what's best for the snake. I think for a while I will keep it in a standard setup with paper towel while it's a baby and then go to aspen.

In the December issue of Reptiles, there's an ad for "Coco soft" reptile bedding. The website is listed as www.carib-sea.com, but I couldn't find it on the site. Does anyone know anything about this bedding? It's brown and looks more natural. I thought of this as an option.

Thanks!
 
I would be concerned with cleaning the tank. The idea sounds great and it would look beautiful but to take everything out every couple of weeks ( I deep clean my tank once a week) would be allot of work.:grabbit:
 
If done correctly, a bio-active substrate tank does not need "deep cleaning" every other week. You remove large chunks of solid waste, and stir the bedding once per week to oxygenate it, and it stays fresh and healthy with good waste-eating bacteria, and none of the nasty disease-causing bacteria. For those who have not read it, the DeVosjoli book is a really good read, even if you don't plan on keeping snakes in natural terraria ever.
 
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