New to all of this

[jhru]

Good day,

I just got a beautiful hog island boa. I have not even named her yet! Either way, I want to set up a natural looking, preferably topical feeling, enclosure. Any suggestions? (live vs fake plants, best bedding, climbing needs?)

Thank you very much!

[reptilenut4sure]

Well first of all Fake plants in my opinion are much easier to care for then live ones.. Because you dont do anything to them. You can get a branch or 2 inside there that are strong enough to take the weight of the snake for the to climb on. I just had 2 stick from outside my house that I washed a bit and stuck in there with no worries. and Aspen is said to be the best subtrate for snakes ususally or you can use the green carpet and last but not least you could use newspaper. If you go to use aspen beding look around the pet store a bit and check around the hampster and gerbil section because there is usually a bag around there with 10x the aspen inside for just a couple of bucks more. I hope this helps. The main thing tho is make sure you have some thermometers and a heating pad, or a red heating like to keep the tank around 80 degrees and around 90 on the hot side of the tank.. Rest is up to you.

[PDXErik]

I have come to love the rubberized fake bendy vines. There are a couple of varieties, though. The one that feels rubbery and more real is teh bomb. I got one that is somewhat plastic feeling, it broke the first time I bent it.

Plastic craft leaves and cable ties for garnishment (make sure you dull the cut ends of the cable ties) work pretty well. I attached the vines to the sides of the enclosure with eye screws.

[Herpkid101x]

I really dont like apsen.Even though its said to be the best i really dont think so. when i first got my ball python which is also a tropical snake it wasent doin so good with humidity and it kept havin bad sheds. i would reccomend using Jungle Earth Exo Terra - Products: Jungle Earth (http://www.exo-terra.com/en/products/jungle_earth.php) or if you wanna go with aspen make a humidity box with Forest Moss on the inside Exo Terra - Products: Forest Moss (http://www.exo-terra.com/en/products/forest_moss.php). To make a humidity shelter all you have to do is get some sort of plastic container big enough for the snake to fit in and fill it with some moss. Be sure to spray the moss with luke warm water periodicly (about every 2 days) With these two things you should be able to make a nice looking naturilstic enclosure for you snake(the jungle earth would be the regular jungle floor and the forest moss could act as a burrow underground where humidity is high) I hope this helps you! I also forgot when making the humidity box make a little hole for it to go in and out as it pleases and make sure that the hole is smooth or it could cuts its self on a peice of the opening.

[Smilts]

My corn is in a tank that has a wrap around backdrop that looks very nice and tapes or glues around the outside of the tank. I also took and bought nice looking half logs with the bark still on and brown and green rubbery vines(like those mentioned above) a raised water fall looking water bowl(also serves as a hide for a 4 ft corn)then I garnished it all with leaf chains. Set up rite fake plants and vines can look really nice added to which there very low maintance