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some privacy. A half of a coconut shell with a hole cut in the side makes a great hide-box for a small snake and looks appropriate in a well decorated terrarium.

Your snake will also need constant access to water, not just to drink, but to bathe in. You'll want a water dish large enough that your snake can curl up inside it entirely. You'll need to change the water daily and after any detritus is left behind in it. The enclosure should be lined with pine wood chips. Note that using cedar wood chips could kill your snake. He'll also need a rough stone to rub up against when molting or whenever he needs a scratch.

Your snake will need to eat once a week and it is very important that you don't overfeed him. If you feed your snake and he doesn't eat the mouse, it could mean that he's ready to shed and you should give him a couple of days before you try to feed him again. When your snake is small, you'll be feeding him 'pinkie' mice ... these are newborn mice and are the right size of meal for a baby snake. If you choose a snake that is too small to eat pinkies, you may need to find an alternative food source of small lizards. In this case, talk to your pet store and find out what food items are available in your area. Feeder lizards will be much easier to come by if you live in Florida than if you live in Washington.

Your snake may be a fussy eater so you'll want to try to raise him to accept dead food. I was always able to get thawed mice into my snake and it meant that I could raise the population of my mouse colony to a critical rate, then freeze them in batches, and keep plenty of food on hand. For those less enthusiastic about raising rodents in the house (and if you do, there will be an escape at some point) being able to feed your snake frozen mice means infrequent trips to the pet store. As long as you keep your frozen mice in plastic bags and hygienically separated from your food, there's no reason you can't keep mice in your freezer. You'll want to thaw a frozen mouse in a dish of warm water. Do not microwave mice or heat them in boiling water as this will make them unpleasant to the snake. When you've thawed your mouse, leave it on a dish for your snake so that he doesn't get a mouthful of wood chips. If your pet is health, happy, and hasn't eaten for a week, he should make a go for the mouse quickly, bite into it, and wrap around it to choke it. He'll do this even if the mouse is already dead, frozen, and thawed. He'll then eat the mouse from nose-to-tail.

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