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What size of terrarium should I get?

BigCarnivourKid

It's been one of dem days
A couple weeks ago my daughter caught a garter snake.  It definitly needs a bigger home than the 6"x4" aquarium it's in now.  Since I am doing Wal Mart tomorrow <goodbye paycheck> I want to get an aquarium/terrarium and some stuff to put in with the snake to make an interesting environment for it.  Kalin is about 18" - 20" long if that helps.

Any suggestions are welcome especially if they aren't expensive
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A ten gallon aquarium would do fine. don't put dirt in the tank for it might have parisites or might mold. You should get the tank at wal mart,I got one for $8.00 there . feed the snake small feeder goldfish and crickets (you can get the fish and crickets at petsmart ) (Put the goldfish in a small bowl) . ask a petsmart worker what to put in the bottom of the tank/ terrarium for him/her. Hope I could help
                           
                                                Spectabilis73
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Thanks Spectabilis73,
For the bottom of the terrarium I was thinking of using Bone Aid Calci-Sand (definitely not CP friendly
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) or shredded paper from my cross cut paper shredder. Will these be OK?
 
Garter snakes require a smiliar setup as to a ribbon snake. Here is a good set up:

10-20 gallon tank with under tank heater on one side and a 50 Watt basking lamp on same side

A large water bowl for soaking and feeding (if fed fish)

A bedding of aspen shaving, care fresh, or any other snake bedding.

**Calcium sand might work, i have never tried it**

Temperatures:

Garter snakes are durnial, so the basking lamp will provide the image of day/night. The undertank heater will make sure the temps are around 80F

Feeding:

Graters feed well on guppies, earth worms, and other insects, but if you could, try to feed it a pinkie mouse. It will save some cash and the feces will be less watery.

Good luck with your new herp!
 
A note on the Calci-Sand:

I don't recommend it for most snakes, because it will occasionally get caught in between their ventral (belly) scales, where it can cause some MAJOR irritation. This can eventually lead to skin infections and even death. Not worth taking the chance. The exceptions to this rule would be sand-dwellers like Sand Boas and kin.

My personal preference would be cage carpeting (available from ZooMed) or sheets of newspaper (the less ink the better). Garter and Ribbon Snakes tend to be messy, so make sure it's something that's easy to keep clean!
 
Thanks for the tips and suggestions guys. I have an idea of what to look for now. Makes it a little easier to know what I should be shopping for.
 
walmart sells aquariums?? or do you mean the big rubbermiad containers? ive never seen them at the walmart near where i live. if they do, how much would a 20 gallon terrarium/aquarium cost?
 
I don't know how much their 20 gal. tanks are, they were out or don't carry them or can't get them. They had a couple of 10gal. tanks for $8.96 and tank cover for $6.96. These are glass aquarium tanks. Thay had a large tank. I don't know what size it was. My eyes hit the $150 price tag
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and just kept right on going to the 10 gal. tanks
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  • #10
Personal experience concerning the "Wal-Mart style" 10 gallon setup:

I would imagine this is a standard ten gallon aquarium with a plastic frame screen top that has built in "latches" of some sort. Exercise extreme caution with this combination!
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Many smaller snakes, such as garter snakes and small corn snakes, kingsnakes, milksnakes, etc. are prone to escape from these style setups. They will slide up the corner until their head is wedged in the small gap between the lid and the top rim of the tank, then pull the rest of their body up until they are completely wedged in the gap. Then they start cruising the gap until they find a weak spot, where they can push up the snap-down lid far enough to escape.
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I've had lots of people call me when this happens, asking me how they can find their newest family pet once it's out. This is difficult at best, since they normally hide if there is a lot of activity in the vicinity. The best I can suggest is 1) don't let them get out; get a setup that is escape proof (sliding LOCKING lids work best), and 2) once they've escaped, give up on finding them; that's usually when they "resurface!"
 
  • #11
I second the protective slide in screen covers sold like in petsmart, petco, etc. My mexican milksnake escaped from a tank with a "normal" top covering. He is yet to be found, but i have hope
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  • #12
my advice for all animals that live inside of something , give them an enviroment that is 3 times it's length , if any smaller it will affect it's growth .
 
  • #13
my sister and I have had several pets escape
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one time,my iguana escaped and I woke up to the scream of my mom when she looked over the bed and saw him!lol.I caught him and a couple months later he escaped again! my sister who worked at a pet store made a trap using cardboard! and it worked! and several times her snake escaped one time we found it under a rug a month later! and one time under her bed i think! so don't give up looking for a lost pet
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  • #14
Thanks for the warning everyone.  The screen rests in a recessed lip in the plastic trim around the top of the terrarium and latches in the four corners.  So the weakest point will be towards the center of the long sides.  So far he/she hasn't figured out how to get wedged up between the trim and the screen and force a way out.
 
  • #15
Please let the snake go. You'll only hurt it in captivity. If you must keep it please get reptile supliments for it so it isn't suffering from mineral and vitamin defficeny. I can't stress enough how importent it is to let wild things be wild. Would you steel a wild VFT from it's native home? If you want a pet snake, their are many tame beautiful colors of corn snakes for sail in pet shops. As for size of terrarium, a snake at MINIMUM needs a tank 1.5X it's body length.

-Darcie
 
  • #16
</span><table border="0" align="center" width="95%" cellpadding="3" cellspacing="1"><tr><td>Quote (goldtrap2690 @ Sep. 30 2002,01:16)</td></tr><tr><td id="QUOTE">my advice for all animals that live inside of something , give them an enviroment that is 3 times it's length , if any smaller it will affect it's growth .[/QUOTE]<span id='postcolor'>
*claps

I feel the same way, but I do 3X the min. So like since the min for snakes is usualy 1.5x their length I personally would give 7X the length, wich of corse can be impossible so I tend to be a believer in bedrooms for lizards and dayly outings for snakes. I did a very bad thing as a child. I took an eastern garter from the wild and took care of it for a month befor letting it go. I did however let her run loose for a few hours on the back porch each day (wich was a big deal cause I didn't want to tame it do she would attack anyone comethrough, lol)
 
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