This means a tank with an inch or two of shredded bark/leaves or sand as substrate, a piece of bark or corkbark for the hide box, and a water container that looks just a bit nicer than the cap to a 3-inch PVC pipe.



Here's where the rubber hits the road for snake keepers. If snakes are your choice, the in-tank housing can't be more elaborate than this because snakes are determined and powerful movers of things (just try to dig a burrow with no arms or legs; snakes do this all the time!). Snakes can and will bulldoze aside anything in their tank, clunk CLUNK, and they do their noisiest work between midnight and 3 AM. If you're keeping a snake with an adult length of over 6 feet, your sleep patterns and the snake are better off with an enclosure strong enough to withstand a snake's ability to brace himself or herself and push.

Keepers of snakes of medium sizes (4 to 6 feet) can create good-looking enclosures by literally going outside the box. You put the plantings behind the tank, out of harm's way. All you need is a four-inch gap between the back of the snake cage and the wall.

I used a narrow plastic seedlings box that came with a half dozen tomato seedlings and I've used a wallpaper water box. Add gravel to the bottom for drainage, top it off with good soil and the plants of your choice, and viola! You have a planted box, ready to slide into place behind your tank. All you need to ensure is lighting, placed so it will illuminate the tank and behind the tank for a minimum of six hours a day. You can use a flat newspaper for the substrate, or use mulch. Add your hide box and a too-heavy-to-tip water bowl, and you're all set. Just remember to water the plants regularly.

If you're a lizard-keeper or keeper of snake less than a foot long, your in-cage decorating options expand enormously, starting with the tank you select. Better access means easier tank set-up and better maintenance. If you aren't happy with an open topped tank with a screen top, you simply buy additional access points. There are tanks with an open top and paired doors across the front. If these aren't enough, you can buy a tank that offers a removable top, doors across the front, and a hinged panel across the bottom front. Just make sure you latch every door that can be latched.

Add mulch or leaves to the bottom, a hide box placed where it will be used (some lizards/small snakes would prefer an elevated hide box or find enough shelter amidst the leaves of the plantings), a food dish, plants (we find pothos attractive and it provides large surface area for water droplets if your lizard doesn't use a water bowl for drinking), and a water bowl for those lizards that drink from containers.

Patti Bartlett spent her formative years chasing lizards and butterflies in New Mexico. Although she has more than dabbled in museum management, Asian studies, and publishing, at the end of every day she goes home to a resident population of snakes, frogs, turtles and mammals. She is the author or co-author of some 65 books-- most about reptiles. For a list of current titles, please visit the Richard and Patricia Bartlett page in our bookstore.