Holli Friedland: I am Holli Friedland, Program Director of the Mid-Atlantic Reptile Show. This is how to care for a corn snake and in this section, we will be talking about how to set up the enclosure. First you start by your substrate or what's on the bottom of the tank. You can use a variety of things. There are commercial beddings available or you can just use a newspaper. We are going to use Aspen bedding. You can get this at your local pet store. You put the aspen bedding in just enough so that the snake can feel comfortable and climb around in it.

You want to put a heating pad which goes underneath of the tank. That will keep your animal warm in its hide area. The only thing that you will need is some kind of a hide box. We are going to use a piece of cork bark, there are also logs and even plastic containers. You can even use a cardboard box if that's what you want to do. This is a much more natural setting. Then you will also want to have a water bowl and you want the water bowl away from the heating pad so it doesn't evaporate all of the water. Then you are going to have a securely fitting lid because snakes are notorious escape artists and these are cage clips and these cage clips fit on the side and they keep the snake secure inside of the cage. So that's setting up the basic enclosure. In the next clip, we will talk about the lighting and the temperature for a corn snake enclosure.