lobo, you're right on: natural and aesthetic.
Wayne, you've got me down, for sure! I read your thing for first time parents and as hot as my apartment [flat] is I think I'd need a cool down place, no heat until winter.
Three years ago if someone had told me I'd cry over the death of a pet snake I would have looked at them as though they had two heads. Today, yes. It would kill to loose Winnie. Even grumpy old Ripley. I can imagine what it's going to be like with my own.
I like the slate - maybe a piece or two in there. But not the whole bottom like that. Wayne, I was out having a smoke and running all this through my mind and thought about the potting soil with the vertilizer(s) in it. We're your ears burning?
I'd not use a lot of potting soil as I'm going to keep the plants in pots under all this stuff for ease of maintenance. Just enough to make a soil-like stuff that's scooped as easy as kitty litter. I'm really liking the idea of potting soil, reptile bark chips, gardening bark chips, a wee tiny bit of aspen shreds and then some meadow grasses.