Vivarium Products

[Momo]

Hello!

I have been looking around different websites and I have to say I am sort of overwhelmed with all of the different brands of products- like ZooMed and Exo Terra just to name a few- that are out on the market and I was wondering which brands or products, in your personal experience, are better than others in regards to substrates, UTH, thermometers/hygrometers, etc. and what you personally use in your own collections.

I have heard of people using regular products instead of "official" products especially made for reptiles like lights for lizards and such, which are ten times cheaper than the "official" brand sold in pet stores. As anything that will make the snake comfortable, won't stress me out trying to use, and won't break what little of a bank I have is more than I can ask for honestly but any little bit would help.

I will probably be using a fish tank when I finally get my corn snake so anything relating to that would be most helpful for me personally.

Also, if there are any threads that have already been made for this that I obviously missed I wouldn't mind a link to that thread so there won't be a repeat of information. I bet you guys get these kind of questions a lot anyways. Lol. So the less stress on you guys the better.

Thanks for your time,

Brittany

 

[bitsy]

I have heard of people using regular products instead of "official" products especially made for reptiles like lights for lizards and such, which are ten times cheaper than the "official" brand sold in pet stores.

I'm in the UK so I can't really offer advice on makes/models of equipment specifically.

As for the "non-reptile" equipment, sometimes it's OK, sometimes not.

With lights, some reptiles need UV and should have the ones made for reptiles. However, Corns don't need UV. In fact they don't need artificial light at all, so you can skip it as long as the room where they're kept has some natural daylight. If you want some lighting for your benefit, then I've seen folks here recently opting for domestic LED lights that generate very little heat. This means that your carefully set-up heating arrangements won't need adjusting.

Heating is a bit more dodgy. We mainly recommend under tank heaters (UTHs) which are heat mats. There are heat pads made for human use that are cheaper, but these can't be turned down low enough for Corns - their maximum safe temperature is 90 degrees, but as this is below human core temperature, a heat pad at this temp would only feel lukewarm to a human and wouldn't be any use. So you really do need the reptile-specific heat mat.

However, even reptile mats get too hot for a Corn by themselves as they're designed to heat a range of reptiles, some of which need higher temps. To keep it safe for a Corn, you need to use a mat with some sort of controller. There is the cheap option of using a domestic dimmer or even a home-made rheostat for this, although these will need constant monitoring and adjustment. The thermostats made especially for use with reptile heat mats will adjust themselves automatically, so once you have them set up you can just leave it to do its job and just keep an eye on your thermometer as a check.

The most flexible part of a setup is usually the hides and decoration. A Corn needs lots of places to hide in so that it can stay stress-free and healthy. BUT they don't care whether they're hiding under a $10 purpose-made replica cave or an old cereal box with a hole in it. They seem particularly keen on toilet paper or kitchen paper cardboard tubes, cut in half lengthwise. Plastic foliage gives them great ground cover and it also looks fantastic. The stuff in reptile shops can be costly and the cheaper option is to buy it from hobby stores, where it's sold for use with artificial flower displays. Slight wrinkle is that these usually have some sort of wire infrastructure where the reptile ones don't, so you need to keep an eye out for exposed sharp ends.

 

[Momo]

Awesome!

Thank you very much Bitsy! I wasn't sure if anyone was going to reply. :shrugs: Lol. That really helped me out in one aspect so I appreciate it.

 

[darth-hayzer]

What I did was did a lot of research first on what my corn snake needs and then I went to all the pet stores and did price comparison on each store . All of them have a "membership " system where you can get a savings on certain products at certain times .Last week Petcetera had a online coupon for members only , spend $50 save $30 , so you only spend $20 . So I ended up buying 3 exo terra hides and 2 h2o dish and saved some money !
So check around and see what can get and I would recommend getting memberships at any place that offers it .

 

[Momo]

Brilliant!

What I did was did a lot of research first on what my corn snake needs and then I went to all the pet stores and did price comparison on each store . All of them have a "membership " system where you can get a savings on certain products at certain times .Last week Petcetera had a online coupon for members only , spend $50 save $30 , so you only spend $20 . So I ended up buying 3 exo terra hides and 2 h2o dish and saved some money !
So check around and see what can get and I would recommend getting memberships at any place that offers it .

I didn't even think about memberships! That is a really good idea. Thanks!

 

[arimaris]

I have had great success with a temp control made for plants Here is the thread including the like to Amazon where it is only $30
http://www.cornsnakes.com/forums/showthread.php?t=103875&highlight=saving

 

[Momo]

I have had great success with a temp control made for plants Here is the thread including the like to Amazon where it is only $30
http://www.cornsnakes.com/forums/showthread.php?t=103875&highlight=saving

Thanks! I'll check out the thread!