Planting is a good way to run with your imagination and bring some wild back into your home (albeit in a glass box!). There are a few things to keep in mind, but for the most part, just be creative. Or play it safe. Whatever makes ya happy!

Randomly inserted into this post are pictures of tanks I’ve planted over the years. Most of them would work well for Solomon Island Tree Boas with a little tweaking, or for Ground Boas if you consider their larger size.

So, we start with – obv – the cage itself.

If you have a ground boa, you’re probably going to go with a large aquarium or maybe a plastic cage with sliding doors. If you have a tree boa, you might want to consider something like an Exo-Terra, or just a taller aquarium. Either way, it’s probably best to make sure it holds water, at least for the first few inches, and that damp soil will not corrode or warp the material.

Background

A nice background can really make a cage, but a poorly installed one can be a death trap. If there are any gaps or pockets between the glass and the background, your snake will find a way into it, so if you do go with a background, go with something straight and flush and silicone it to the tank properly. Zoomed makes a nice cork bark background, and you can also get rolls of coco fibre that are pressed together. Both look pretty natural and certain plants will climb them. Alternatively, you could simply paint the back of the tank (the outside) in a neutral colour, or even paint a scene (just remember, you are seeing it from the other side, so if you paint a blue sky with a green bush on top of it, you won’t see the bush from the other side; you have to paint the bush first).

This one actually has a water fall and a pond, but you can't see it in the photo.

Substrate

Before we go into substrate itself, consider whether you’d like to put in a drainage layer. This is essentially a 1-2″ layer of something, such as gravel or expanded clay pellets, under the dirt, that holds water and wicks it up into the soil to keep it damp but not water-logged. If you have a tree snake, do it. Drainage layers are awesome. Top the drainage layer with a layer of poly fill or plastic window screen so dirt doesn’t get into it.
If you’re making a cage for a ground boa, don’t use a drainage layer. My snakes burrow given half a chance and that would be bad news.

So, back to the substrate. I’ve used lots of substrates over the years and I don’t have an exact formula, I just sort of mix different ingredients together until I get what I like.

Just mix it up in a bucket until you get the consistence you like. I’m happy with it when it sort of holds its shape when I squeeze it in a ball, but also kind of falls apart.

I will then add some springtails and other buggies from the forest, a worm composting bin, or another tank. The dried leaves help with this, too. And voila, you have bio-active substrate. You still need to spot clean, of course, but the buggies will help break down fecal matter.

Lighting and Plants

Before you can pick out plants, you have to decide on your light. Is the tank getting some light from a window (which I don’t advise anyway since a tank can overheat in sunlight)? Or just room light? Or are you going to put a fluorescent light fixture over the tank? If you are in a low-light scenario, you will have to limit yourself to low-light plants:

If you have higher light, you can pick from many other plants such as:

And the following, which will get squished by ground boas but should hold up well to tree boas:

Maintenance

The easy part is setting it up, the hard part is keeping it going.

Décor

Cork tubes and half rounds look great and I find my snakes really use them. Driftwood works great too, and you can also use plastic ornaments if you want.

Anyway, this is my list of items and why they might be useful:

First aid tape – Adhesive and non-adhesive.
Aloe / vitamin E – To treat first degree burns.
Bandaids – Various sizes and materials for covering open wounds.
Betadine – Diluted, it is great for treating mild scale rot. In regular concentration, it is great for disinfecting small areas. I’ve heard that it will soon be unavailable, so get a bottle soon!
Clippers – Useful for lizards with long nails, for trimming bits of skin, etc. I’ve used them to cut a rubber ring that my snake managed to get herself jammed into; safer than scissors in this case.
Condoms – Unroll them and cut off the closed end and they make great bandages with some adhesive first aid tape to keep them in place. Use the regular kind without spermicide.
Eye droppers and pipettes – I have eye droppers with bottles as well as plastic pipettes. The former can be washed and stored, the latter can be disposed of after use.
Flamazine – Ideal for treating burns.
Gauze
Hand sanitizer – The plain, alcohol gel stuff. For your hands, not for the animals.
Heat packs – Handy for emergency transports and power outages. Get the 40-hour kind; the 5-hour kind lasts, in my experience, less than 2 hours.
Hot water bottle – Also handy for emergency transports and power outages.
Goo-gone – To remove stuck tape, glue traps, that sort of thing. Avoid contact with mouth and eyes, and wash off with mild soap immediately afterward.
Hydrogen peroxide – For disinfecting.
Kwik stop – Or corn starch, applied to a bleeding wound, will stop the bleeding. It is handy to have a few film canister-type containers of this to avoid cross-contamination.
KY Jelly – Water based lubricant for inserting probes, removing objects wrapped around your reptile, etc.
Liquid bandaid – A bandage that can’t be rubbed off. Great for sealing small wounds to keep dirt out of them. Not for open wounds where flesh is exposed and would be in contact with the liquid bandaid.
Listerine – Antiseptic for cleaning out mouths etc. Also an anti-fungal.
Magnifying glass – I bought one recently and boy, it was about time. For identifying mites and other parasites, and anything else you can’t see very well because it’s too small.
Needles – Probably not necessary in most first aid kits, since most things requiring an injection should be done by the vet, but needles can be handy for emptying eggs that are causing a female to be blocked, for injection medicines, and, a syringe without the needle, for dosing oral medicines. Ask for them at the Pharmacist counter at the drug store.
Pedialyte – For re-hydrating lizards who are not eating or drinking properly.
Penlight – So, so handy for so many reasons.
Pillowcases – For emergency transport or separation of snakes. I have at least one pillowcase per snake and I get them for fifty cents at Valu Village.
Polysporin – Or Neosporin; the regular formula, not the pain-management kind. Apply to wounds and burns frequently to promote healing and discourage infection.
Polysporin eye/ear drops – Broad spectrum antibiotic for treating mild eye and ear infections.
Probe set – For probing and coaxing mouths open.
Q-tips – Cotton swabs, for cleaning out small areas, applying topical ointments, removing stuck shed, etc.
Repashy MRP – Crested Gecko Diet; meal replacement for malnourished lizards, lizards with facial injury, etc.
Rubber gloves – To avoid cross-contamination or getting fluids on yourself.
Saline – Handy for flushing out wounds and eyes.
Scissors – Little bathroom scissors, nail scissors, fabric scissors – you never know when they might come in handy.
Spray bottles – Definitely worth having a few of them (Dollar Store purchase for sure).
Thick rubber bands – For restraining
Thread and needles – For binding / emergency suturing
Towels / Terry Cloths – For absorbing spills, catching lizards and restraining animals.
Turkey baster – I have yet to find a use for it, but you never know.
Tweezers

Equally important to have on hand is a camera (so you can send photos to online forums or vets for their input), a notepad and pens to take notes, and phone numbers for your local vet(s) that treat reptiles.

Lastly, I recommend setting aside some money in case you need to take your reptile to the vet. Putting aside enough for an initial exam and a little bit extra (about $100) makes it a lot easier to rush your reptile to the vet when you need to instead of letting the problem worsen while you wait for your next paycheck.

Reptile Room - Candoia Cages

Back Wall Candoia Cages

The  “back wall” cages as I call them – the two on top are 3′ x 2′ x 1.5′ (the top cage is divided into two) and the bottom one is 3′ x 2′ x 2.5′.

All of the cages in the other stack (picture below) are 3′ x 2′ x 2′.

The bottom cage is the only Candoia cage I have that is heated with a Radiant Heat Panel. If I had a thousand bucks to spare, I would upgrade all of my cages in this manner. In the meantime, however, heat tape works well on the other cages.

Each cage (including the other stack of cages shown below) contains a number of cork bark pieces (tubes and half-tubes), an Exo-Terra snake cave (not usually one to spend money on frivolous, brand-name doo-dads, I highly recommend this product), a water dish, and a plant. Some of the other cages have a plant and/or a shelf.

Each snake has its own preference – some like to chill in the moss in the plant pot; others rarely leave their snake caves and others yet stick to the cork bark.

This stack is over 6' high!

And now for the best part (and I hope you’ll agree): pictures of the inhabitants.

Spike - Red Solomon Island Ground Boa

"Pretty sure I'm safe in here..."

Axis, aka #1 cranky snake!

Our first SIGB. I swear her nose tip isn't cut off - it's just shadow.

His name is "Poirot", and as we speak I am watching Agatha Christie's Poirot on DVD.

What a pointy face you've got!

"Isabel-type", I suppose. I love how this female looks.

Well, that’s the lot of em.  There are a couple more snakes and lizards kicking around the place, but we’ll save those for another day.

I figured that this would be a good place to post random thoughts and experiences that don’t quite fit into the rather static www.candoia.ca website content.

If the website has taught me anything, it’s that there are so many more Candoia folks out there than I originally thought.  I know you’re out there: in Europe, America, Canada – heck, next door, and everywhere else!