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Questions for my first viv

A

Anguissette

New member
alright so I'm looking to get a corn snake in a few months and I'd like to make my own viv as a summer project. I'd like to make it primarily out of wood so my questions with that are:

What woods are safe for viv building

which of the above are lightweight (I'm 115 pounds and have no upper body strength to speak of)

What stains are safe and what sealants are best

How do I go about safely heating the viv? I'd like to use a UTH but I haven't seen exactly how you put it in, do you just slap it on the floor of the viv or what?

Thanks for the help and any other pointers you could give me
 
You came to the right place.

Hello and welcome,

First off, you came to the right place. This forum has more good information than almost anywhere you can look. There are people here that have been keeping, breeding, selling snakes for a long time.

One of the things someone needs to know in advance in order to properly answer these questions is how many snakes you are trying to house. I'll give it a try anyways though.

What woods are safe? About any wood will be okay as long as it is sealed really well. Pine (and another I dont remember) is toxic to snakes; however, many people use pine and just seal it very well with several coats of a good quality paint or polyurethane. Pine boards are fairly light in weight compared to oak or other hardwoods, but plywood is easier to work with than boards. So there goes that advantage. To save in weight, you may be able to use a thin material for the walls (whether wood or plexiglass or whatever) if you beef up the joints. If you do your homework and plan it well, I am sure you will be able to build something that will suit your (and your snakes) needs.

The best way, in my opinion, to heat a viv that houses several snakes is with flexwatt. Its a heat tape you install and regulate with a thermostat. You can do a search for more info on flexwatt. I got mine from The Bean Farm. If you are only housing one snake, a UTH will work fine, but you will still require a rheostat or thermostat of some sort to regulate the temperature. Unregulated an UTH will get WAY too hot and cause severe burns to your snake.

By no means am I trying to talk you out of building a viv, but if you are only housing one snake a store bought tank will be soooo much easier. Good job on starting early and looking into what you need BEFORE you get your snake. Now you know that you have a proper home for it with all the bugs worked out when it does come home.

Also, you can do searches on here and find loads more info and some good looking vivs to look at for ideas. Hope this helps.
Good luck,
Jimmy
 
thanks for the info Jimmy! I intend to slowly add more herps to my collection but I'm strapped for room. I also heard that a plain tank can cause respiratory problems because the ventilation isn't right
 
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