If this is your first snake enclosure, hopefully this tips will help guide you through the process, or at least give you an idea of what to expect.  We'll take a look at this assuming you have already purchased (or made) a standard tank type enclosure and review some of the key items that you are going to want to have installed in order to make it a nice cozy home for your new snake.

The first thing you want to do is clean out the cage.  Some people will advise on using bleach or other types of houshold chemicals to do this.  I do not.  I'm not a big fan of those chemicals to begin with, but more importantly I believe it is possible to do it wrong and create a toxic habitat for your snake.  I would take a look at the many pet/snake friendly cleaners that are made just for this purpose.  They are readily available at your local pet store or online.  I know if I use one of these products I won't be doing more harm than good.

Moving on.  The next thing you'll need to do is lay down some bedding, also known as substrate in the reptile world.  Here you'll have a lot of different options to choose from.  I could write a whole other article on this (and maybe soon), so I won't get into too much detail here.  However some of the common choices of bedding are plain old newspaper, outdoor carpet, soil or some close substitute, and aspen bedding. 

The one thing I will advise against is a couple of the substrates out there that can be harmfull to your snake.  Wood Chips can be hazardous if you snake ingests them or gets splinters from them.  Sand is advised against because it can cause your snake all sorts of proplems if it is ingested and becomes impacted.  And any sort of pine product should be avoided as it can be toxic to your snake.  If you have a question or are in doubt, ask your breeder first for advice.

Personally I like the looks of natural soil, but it can be hard to keep clean and change.  I prefer and aspen substrate or one of the synthetics, but the choice is up to you.  I like to have a mix of something that looks good, easy to keep clean, and makes my snake happy.

Part of the process in setting up a custom snake cage is adding the additional items needed to make it a complete habitat.  There are four items that we will cover here, but that doesn't mean you can't add a few more.

The first item is a water dish.  It should be good and sturdy, and preferably a heavier make.  I like to place it in the corner of the cage to try and try and secure it in place so that it doesn't tip over.  Which is also why a heavier model with a good base is pretty standard.  Your snake won't just drink in it, but will take a dip in pool from time to time.  If it spill it can make quite a mess.  As a side note you'll also want to keep the water changed as the snake may also do their business in there if you no what I mean.  But more on that when I talk about cleaning your snake enclosure.

The next item you'll want to add is some sort of branches or sticks for them to climb on.  If you have yourself a tree snake of some kind this is really important.  These breeds of snake tend to spend most of their lives living in trees and this is a natural part of their habitat.

You'll also want some sort of hiding spot for your snake.  Some place they can go crawl in and feel safe.  I usually put this in another corner of the cage away from the water bowl.  You may find that when you first put your snake in the new cage that they will seek out this enclosure and hide for a while till they feel comfortable.  This is quite normal.

The last item you want is to a lid that fits tightly.  Snakes have been known to escape from the smallest gap between cage and lid.  Once they find this they will try and exploit this again and again.  It may be a good idea to get a set of clips that are made to secure the lid.  It looks alot nicer than just placing a couple bricks or your old encyclopedia's on top to hold it down.  Do they even sell encyclopedia's anymore?  Maybe I should have said your old computer.

Now there are a few more items to consider.  Lighting, heating, and humidity.  These are best left to a separte topic from the snake lady.  I'll write that one up soon.

Well I hope you found these tips for setting up your snake enclosure useful.  I'll have some more tips on snake ownership up soon.