plants

[urd]

does anyone know of any non-toxic, low budget plants suitable for a corn snake vivarium? thanx ahead for any input!

[shmotz666]

i'm pretty interested in this too, but, can you put fake branches in a corns enclosure? will they be ok with them? thanks for asking bout that urd, i was gonna ask myself til i saw this thread! :)

[vanderkm]

Pothos is pretty durable and safe if you are looking for live plants but plastic plants are easier to clean and you don't have to worry about dealing with dirt and the kind of bugs that come with live plants. Many of the plastic and silk plants look quite realistic too. We use fake branches as well as tree branches (we use those from maple) that have been disinfected by heating in the oven. Corns like to climb and most of ours really seem to enjoy the branches for cruising on.

mary v.

[Auskan]

Mary, can you post how you disinfect branches in the oven (oven temps, time in oven etc). Also, is this necessary because branches can potentially carry parasites? (Just thinking that in the wild they climb on them and have no-one to disinfect them first :) )

[vanderkm]

We aren't very scientific about the oven - we put them in at about 200 degrees for a couple hours or so - more to ensure outside bugs aren't coming into the house than to really protect the snakes from parasites. We do them at the same time as we do batches of clay pots that we use for hides when we transfer those between snakes (as they grow up). We wash and disinfect the clay pots first but because they are so porous, I feel better about using them for a different snake if they have been 'cooked' as a final step.

If the branches are from living trees that we have pruned, I leave the bark on because it looks better. We have used some branches that are from deadfall because I like their shape - and on those I have stripped the bark to get rid of bugs before I cook them.

I don't think there is much risk of parasites unless you are tranferring branches between one snake and another. We don't use natural branches for all our snakes - just the spoiled ones,

mary v.

[Auskan]

Ok, thanks for the info. I've often heard of people talking about "cooking" anything they bring in before putting it in the enclosure and wasn't completely sure why this was necessary. Thanks for clearing that up. My corns have been in quarantine (using paper towel) since I got them (end of Nov '03), and I decided its been long enough that I can now start making their enclosures look a little nicer. I might start looking for branches that will fit the bill :)