Florida Banded Water Snake

[darkness_falls8]

I've always loved these snakes and finally decided to get some soon. But, I have a few questions, since there isn't many good care sheets on them.
Here's what i'm doing.. I'm going to buy 3 babies, keep them in a 20L terrarium, half pond/half land. (I know it isn't necessary to keep them all in the same cage AND have a semi-aquatic tank, but it's something I'm pretty sure I can keep up with.)

I have well water, but should I use distilled instead so that it doesn't dry up on the glass? I also bought a tetra filter that uses those carbon cartridges. I REALLY wanted to buy the waterfall that has a filter built-in, but I heard alot of bad things about it breaking down after just a few days.

What is the healthiest diet for these? I was thinking about getting 2 sets of male and female guppies to live in the pond part of the tank so they can reproduce and be a steady food source. I was also thinking of buying some earthworms from time to time as well.

I bought a incandescent 60watt bulb for basking, I also have a 25 watt black icandescent bulb for nighttime. Does that sound ok?

I was also kinda wary of what should cover the bottom of the tank. So, I bought 2 kinds: 10lb bag Flourite Red, 5lb bag Riverbed Sand. I want the sand in the pond part and I got the Flourite red to build up the land. Are these alright?

I probably should have came here first before I bought all this crap-lol. But any extra advice on this snake would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you.

 

[pitbulllady]

I've always loved these snakes and finally decided to get some soon. But, I have a few questions, since there isn't many good care sheets on them.
Here's what i'm doing.. I'm going to buy 3 babies, keep them in a 20L terrarium, half pond/half land. (I know it isn't necessary to keep them all in the same cage AND have a semi-aquatic tank, but it's something I'm pretty sure I can keep up with.)

I have well water, but should I use distilled instead so that it doesn't dry up on the glass? I also bought a tetra filter that uses those carbon cartridges. I REALLY wanted to buy the waterfall that has a filter built-in, but I heard alot of bad things about it breaking down after just a few days.

What is the healthiest diet for these? I was thinking about getting 2 sets of male and female guppies to live in the pond part of the tank so they can reproduce and be a steady food source. I was also thinking of buying some earthworms from time to time as well.

I bought a incandescent 60watt bulb for basking, I also have a 25 watt black icandescent bulb for nighttime. Does that sound ok?

I was also kinda wary of what should cover the bottom of the tank. So, I bought 2 kinds: 10lb bag Flourite Red, 5lb bag Riverbed Sand. I want the sand in the pond part and I got the Flourite red to build up the land. Are these alright?

I probably should have came here first before I bought all this crap-lol. But any extra advice on this snake would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you.

I keep Nerodia just like any other snakes, on newspaper substrate, with a large enough bowl to soak in. These are messy snakes, so their enclosures have to cleaned up often. Even though they live near water and catch prey in the water, they DO move away from water, often miles away, and great care must be taken that they are not kept in a wet environment, otherwise they will develope scale rot and bacterial infections that can kill them. Snakes do not need any lighting at night, as unlike lizards, they do not require UV lighting to metabolize calcium. I don't use any auxilliary lighting on my Water Snakes, but keep them at normal household room temperature, and they do just fine. Basically, you keep these just like Garters, just be aware that they get a LOT bigger than any Garter, and I DO mean a LOT! Babies can eat fully-grown guppies or "rosy reds", but will very quickly "graduate" to goldfish or bait minnows. It is VERY important that fish be fed either alive, or be frozen while still alive, since when fish die, their gut produces an enzyme that can block the absorbtion of vital nutrients, and the snake can starve to death. The sooner you can switch over the babies to eating pinkie mice, using scenting, the better. An adult Water Snake will easily devour a good-sized Bream or Sunfish, and feeding them fish when they reach adult size can be extremely expensive, to say the least. I have a source of jumbo-sized Shiners at a bait shop, but that's still expensive, and if I had to buy extra-large goldfish or Koi, feeding one snake would definately be cost-prohibitive! That's why I switched mine over to rodents, and an adult can easily eat a fairly large rat with no problem. These snakes are voracious eaters, and seem to have a high metabolic rate for a reptile, so what goes in, quickly comes out, and their poop will stink up your house in no time if you feed a fish diet!

pitbulllady

 

[darkness_falls8]

Awesome,
Thank you pitbulllady for the info and advice!