I have had a bearded dragon and monitor before and am currently considering a snake. I have decided on a corn snake because i want to get the basics down before moving on to more advanced ones. I was wondering if a hatchling could be placed in a 4ft long by 2 foot high tank. If not when would be an appropriate size, age for this.[/b]
To be honest, you're probably going to overwhelm the snake with that kind of space. In the wild, corn snakes are prey to a multitude of predators... Wild cats & dogs, birds, king snakes, as well as various other mammals n' reptiles living out here... Corn snakes are pretty secretive by nature, however they will "warm up" to people and start being more public in their enclosures rather quickly, but they do actually like things small & compact. They like to curl up to sleep in the tightest spaces they can find. All mine have lived in various sized rubbermaids, except for one amel hatchling we picked up in August at the Daytona show... These are the tubs I've used. They work great, and while the water bowl does double up as a hide box (I got one of those small cat food bowls that has holes for your fingers to go in to lift the bowl up), here's usually another separate hide in there too. Usually some kind of moulded resin type thing (the fake-rock looking stuff you see in pet stores) for easy clean-up. This is a 24" Neodesha Display cage that we got for this one amel girl. She loves it in there, and she's just a pet, so we like to be able to see her. Neodesha make great cages for all kinds of snakes. The paper towels were in there for a few weeks so that we could easily spot any mites (one of the first things to look for in a new snake) that fell off her. After 2 months, we hadn't seen a single mite, so we've now switched her over to shredded aspen now. But, her water bowl's still the same, the wood is still in there for her to hide under, and crawl through. The main problem you'll have with such a large enclosure is cleanup. Because a hatchling is so small, and it drops little poops, it's going to take you time to spot where they've actually pooped so you can clean it up. Once they're adults, they drop a fairly hefty load, so it's easier to find and clean. Personally, as I do with most reptiles, is start them off in a smaller enclosure, and then have the enclosures grow as they do.
Thanks but.... Hey thanks for the info it helped tremendously. Would you reccomend another snake that would be able to use such a large enclosure?
You could possible look into a Dumerils Boa. They're GORGEOUS snakes, and I'd love to get some myself one day. They're usually pretty mellow babies, and if they get handled regularly whilst they're growing, they're pretty mellow as adults too... They don't get enormous like some other boas do, generally topping out around 5-6ft, so a 4ft long enclosure should be pretty good for them, but I'd let it out to roam once in a while. Of course, if you're handling it often, it'll get plenty of exercise.
You could always get a good Captive Breed Ball python. a 4ft long enclosure would be WONDERFUL. However, you could put a corn in a 4ft long enclosure. Just make sure to put about 2 hides for every 1ft of spac, put plenty of fake plants and vines in there, and put more than 2 water bowls in there because I have heard of hatchling corns dieing because they can't find their water in a little rubbermaid shoebox....
I think one of the best beginners snakes is the Children's Python. Very easy to handle, they don't usually get over 3-4 feet in length, and they love to climb. I agree also, that Dumeril's are wonderful snakes. They're a little more tenacious than a Children's but still wonderful animals to handle.
Yeah, a Children's python is a good choice. Like biochic says, they don't get too big, and they're generally pretty mellow.
