Help Getting Started

[Poddy]

Hi guys
Newbie to the forum and my first post here. Always had an interest and want to keep snakes and finally pulled my finger out and trying to get organised. What im chasing from anybody is some help on everything i should be looking at to start off with. I have a nice glass tank about 6ft long 2ft wide 2ft tall with a lid. it comes on a nice stand also. So far ive been reading a few books and the sort chasing knowledge but thought id ask here aswell. Im interested in getting a python of sorts so any info on species / availability and all that caper would also be helpful please. what would be the first steps id need to start turning the tank into a nice snake enclosure? what kind of material for the bottom of the tank , heating , lighting , hides , water anything like this?
Any help would be muchly appreciated guys
thanks in advance
poddy

 

[someday]

Welcome. To start off a lot of people usually get a hatchling to yearling snake as a first.
The snake depends on what you prefer and like, A glass tank that big as long as you can heat it i recon you could house nearly anything in that.There is plenty of threads that pop up with all these questions just about every week that will have these answers for you. I Don't doubt that you will get plenty of advise later on when every body wakes up.
Good Luck.

 

[ronhalling]

As a complete newbie could i please advise you to get hold of copies of Snakes in Captivity by Scott Eipper who is a member here, The Complete Carpet Python By Nick Mutton and Justin Julander or Keeping and Breeding Australian Pythons By Mike Swan, these are 3 of the best books on Australian Pythons i have ever read, particularly Snakes in Captivity by Scott Eipper as it has some of the best straight forward Husbandry advice i have read. The reason i suggest these books before doing anything else is "to be forwarned is to be forarmed", there are a lot of issues you will come up against that no one will think of telling you at the start and to me $120 worth of books that are going to tell you "EVERYTHING" you will ever need to know is alot better than losing $200-$1000 worth of snakes coz of a bit of missing info. Also in my opinion reading those and other books on the subject is almost as enjoyable as the keeping of the snakes themselves and is part of the journey, By all means get plenty of varied advice from the guys and gals here that have done it all succesfully, but i guarantee if you read the books yourself and gleening the info from our members afterwards everything will slot into place in your head, happy herping and welcome to the addiction..............................Ron

 

[Miker84]

if you read the books yourself and gleening the info from our members afterwards everything will slot into place in your hea

I agree with Ron whole heatedly! I was a newbie 12months ago and read tons of forums threads before purchasing my first snake, however, nothing was more definitive and concise than these hard copy book.
There are also some fantastic articles written by Simon Stone on his website. These were hugely helpful to me understanding better how a snake's brain works...how they think.
http://www.southernxreptiles.com/RA ARTICLE PAGE.htm

All the best!!

 

[andynic07]

After reading one of the above books you will probably realise that glass is not the best material for a vivarium. I have used a glass enclosure before but have made an artificial rock wall from styrofoam and liquid sandstone on three of the sides to insulate the enclosure and then there is the task of making the escape proof lid that still has ventilation , lighting and possibly heating. Saying that if all done correctly my choice of snake for the particular dimensions would be a woma or possibly a blackheaded python. I really think that if you want to keep a python that you research the different species of python and decide what sort you want then worry about an enclosure that will suit that snake rather than finding a snake to suit the possible enclosure you have.

 

[eipper]

Thanks for the kind words guys.... Glad the book is helping a few people out. To the op. find your local Herp society... Like minded local people generally very happy to help.

cheers
scott