Tank Advice??

[SkyesRingo]

I just bought Ringo on Friday and I'm hoping to get some tips on how to make my current tank better. Right now I have a 30x12x12" tank with aspen chips, a good sized hideout, a fake tree for climbing, a water bowl, and a small fake branch opposite of the tree. There are two lights, one white and very warm, and one red, which is cooler. The water and small branch are underneath the red light, since it's a cooler temperature and he can regulated his own body temperature... right? The hideout and the tree are under the white light which is a lot warmer so he can get warm and sleep under the shade if he wants to while staying warm. If you feel that this arrangement should change in any way, please tell me so. Right now i feel like the tank is just so empty tho, and I don't know what to do to make it better for him. Please, any advice would help! :hmm:

[Lankyrob]

Ideally youwant a hide at both ends of the tank so that he can hide and keep warm/cool as he wants.

[pdomensis]

I would check your temps with a temp gun. Your hide is also too big for that little guy. you might give him something he can fit tightly into.

You're right in thinking it's too empty. the open space will just stress him. you could fill in with fake plants or other decorations. I get mine at the dollar store, or from goodwill type places.

[Gungirl]

I wouldn't worry to much about hides and filling in the tank. You seem to have a good layer of aspen for him to burrow into. I don't think my corn ever used hides until he was about 3ft or larger. Then he only started using hides when I ran out of aspen and tossed paper towel in instead.

[SkyesRingo]

I'm extremely limited on $ at the moment, so is there any way I could make things to put in the tank? If so, does anybody have any ideas? I plan on buying all the temperature and humidity things tomorrow (I was unable to do so last Friday due to cash shortage >.<) The only places to get pet type things out here are Petsmart, PETCO, and minor pet businesses, which all suck the life from my wallet :(
so any ideas on homemade things would be much appreciated!

[brylecc1989]

Typically it goes buy snake supplies, then buy the snake. Not the other way around my friend.

[SkyesRingo]

We had planned on doing it all on the same day... but the monetary value was miscounted and we had already bought the snake.
We ALSO thought that our tank had come with the temp and humidity things, however those had been lost by the time we opened the box. The previous owner of the tank wouldn't give me the tank until I got the snake :/
I'm doing my best but I deal with part-time morons.

[brylecc1989]

I'm not hatin man, but how is "the monetary value was miscounted" different than you didn't have enough money? Im sure you love your little corn and he will be just fine and you'll get everything you need. it's just all too often that snakes (most of which are more sensitive than corns) are brought into less than ideal conditions due to lack of patience.

On another note, congrats he's a beaut.

[Starbuck]

you can use pretty much anything as a temporary hide.
I know a local pinesnake breeder who uses macaroni boxes for all her hatchlings. Pretty much any clean, empty food box should suffice. And you can just discard them if they get dirty, or put a new, larger one in as they grow. They arent the prettiest, but they work very well.

I would avoid using any clear plastic boxes, as this defeats the purpose of a hide.

[jarich]

Paper towel tubes work quite well too.

I would probably not bother with the red light. The one light/heat source should be enough, and you want to have a good gradient from the hot to the cool side.

[valid]

Try amazon rather than the larger chain stores, for things like bedding/gauges etc. You will not get the items immediately, but I have found they typically run 2-5 dollars cheaper.

[Gungirl]

My snakes love cardboard boxes, toilet paper rolls, paper towel tubes, tissue boxes. Anything like that is perfectly fine as long as you change it when it gets dirty and you dont have high humidity. For higher humidity animals I have use colored plastic food storage bins from the dollar store.

[SkyesRingo]

The money was literally miscounted actually. We thought we had more but after we bought the snake, we realized we had counted wrong.
He seems to be doing all right so far. Everything else we need will be bought tomorrow evening.
Would an egg carton work as a hide? Like partially opened?
Thanks for these ideas by the way everyone :)

[SkyesRingo]

I've added 4 more items to the tank :)

two toilet paper rolls, an egg carton, and a flat rock.
The way I have them set up, one tp roll is under the small branch and covered in aspen, another is next to the large hide covered in aspen as well, and the egg carton(half dozen carton) is in the middle of the tank, upside down, with the rock on top. I figure this way, Ringo has 6 new hides which are smaller and scattered around the tank.

Is this a good setup?

[KORBIN5895]

You could get rid of the heat all together. I never kept mine on heat at all. Corns are great because all you need is a plastic tote, substrate, hides and a water bowl.

[SkyesRingo]

The problem with getting rid of the heat, is my room is normally cold, or have my fan on. He seems to be fine with the heat so I plan on keeping it.