Meet the gang!

[ConcinusMan]

Well Marnie, for a basking bulb, nothing special or expensive is needed. I use 60 watt household flood lamps. (But I also use a full spectrum florescent with it, and those aren't cheap) I get the flood lamps for basking, at dollar tree for a buck. No need to pay $12-$15 for a reptile basking bulb.

The wattage needed depends on your setup. The idea is to have one end of the enclosure be the "sunny" spot, around 85-90 degrees underneath it as long as you can accomplish that while still keeping the cool end in the 70's and keeping your snakes from getting too close to the heat bulb. 60-70 degrees at night is fine. I recommend using a fixture with a dome, and a ceramic socket with your heat bulb but the bulb itself need not be anything special.

This is how I do that:

[EasternGirl]

What a nice enclosure you have...and all of those beautiful snakes! Hopefully, I will have an ideal set-up soon. Chantel told me where to find a nice terrarium tank with a slide lid so that Selena Houdini won't get out. She is also sending me a 25 watt night bulb since they don't have any around here. I have a dome lamp and I ordered a stand for it. I also ordered the seedling heating pad. I am going to buy some Carefresh substrate because the aspen I have is getting in Selena's food. When I have it all set up, I'll take a pic and show you. Thanks so much for the video!

[ConcinusMan]

I was browsing on craigslist today and found 2 tanks. 20 gallon long, (like the one in my video) screen tops, perfect condition. They are asking $15 for one or $25 for both.

[EasternGirl]

I looked on craig's list here and they didn't have anything...well, one person had a 20 gallon for $30...I'm waiting to hear back from him.

[ConcinusMan]

I look there every day. Every now and then, a great deal on tanks, lights, or something useful comes up. I hear about people paying up to $150 at a pet store for a setup like that one. ^^^

I spent around $40 (for everything you see) by being patient and checking craigslist every day, buying plants and light bulbs at the dollar store, and only buying substrate online when I find a really good deal.

[kibakiba]

Today Snap was acting a little weird. I was checking on them all and Snap was slithering around slowly and laying against the glass and when I put my face up to the glass to see her she looked at me. Something about the way she was looking at me looked sad. I couldn't see anything visibly wrong with her, so I went to pick her up and she was completely calm... After I picked her up she seemed to perk up a bit. She was being such a sweetie. She sat in my hands for 30 minutes and let me rub her neck. After I looked her over and gave her some love she seemed perfectly fine. I'm thinking she was a little lonely, I rarely hold her any more other than to feed her or clean the tank. I'm glad I got to spend some time with her without being pooped on and struck at.

[guidofatherof5]

Nice to hear. When they trust it is a special thing.
You know they really trust you when they don't react to having raspberries blown on them

[kibakiba]

Haha, I give my snakes kisses and for the most part they don't seem to care. Mama will even come up to my face and press her nose up to my lips sometimes. She really is a lovable blob. I got a video of her before I held snap, I'll have to put it on youtube sometime tomorrow.

[kibakiba]

Tiny is getting ready to shed again and this time I'd like to have a shed box, however, I don't have anything to make one with at this time. I have a glass jar I could use, or if I ate a thing of yogurt I could wash out the yogurt container (its a really small one). Here's a picture of the glass jar. Would it work for a shed area if I put some moist paper towels or news paper in there?

[ConcinusMan]

Personally, I don't use shed boxes unless a troubled shed is in progress. You may not need it if there's enough plastic plants, wood, or other objects for him to assist him, and the humidity is high enough. I usually start misting their enclosure(and the snake) after the eyes go clear, to keep the humidity up. That's usually all that is needed.

My northwesterns seem to love nesting down in damp substrate when they're about to shed. It couldn't hurt to keep an area damp (not wet) for them for a few days until the shed happens.