Soil:
The basic carnivorous plant mix is 50% Canadian sphagnum peat moss, 25% washed sand (I use play sand from the hardware store) and 25% medium perlite. This mix works well for Venus flytrap's and sundews, it retains lots of moisture but still allows ample air to the roots. A top dressing of live moss helps re-create the natural environment of the carnivorous plant, looks nice on the flowerpot and helps retain moisture.

Water:
I cannot stress enough the importance of using distilled, reverse osmosis or rainwater to water your carnivorous plant.

Humidity:
Maintaining a humidity level of at least 60% around the plant is beneficial for the growth of most carnivorous plants. This can be accomplished by a terrarium environment, misting or the tray method. In the tray method a shallow container such as a garden flat or saucer has fir bark or gravel spread on the bottom and covered with distilled or rainwater which provides ample humidity around the plant as it evaporates. I've grown my most beautiful Flytraps outdoors all summer in large planters without drainage filled with live sphagnum and kept topped up with RO water. After acclimatizing to their environment they withstood a temperature range of 0-40 degrees Celsius and only slowed their growth with the shorter days of fall in preparation of dormancy.

Lighting:
An the east or west facing window are excellent places to place your carnivorous plant as that will allow them a few hours of direct sunlight a day to help bring out their colors. A south facing window will usually create too much heat for the plants and a north facing window will result in lanky growth. For indoor growing in a terrarium I have found the use of the two foot long, under counter florescent grow and show lights to work very well. A photoperiod of 16 hours per day during summer growth and 10 hours per day in the winter works well.

Dormancy:
If you have a temperate carnivorous plant (the most popular being the Venus flytrap) it requires a period of dormancy during the winter months, without this rest period your plant will grow weak and die. For winter dormancy it is best to let the soil dry a bit, you still want it to be a bit damp but not sopping wet. What we've found that works well is to make sure the plant is not sitting in water and to perform a weekly "finger test" in which you push the tip of your finger into the planting mix at the base of the plant and if some mix adheres to your finger when removed then it is still damp enough. A mushy feel means the planting mix is too wet and of course dry planting mix will be noticed. The plant is then placed in a cool dark area for three months, a November to February dormancy period works well for us in western Canada. A north facing window in the basement or garage are examples of good places to leave the plant for dormancy if the ambient temperature is between 7 and 12 degrees Celsius (45 to 55 F.) Artificial lighting can also be used as long as the light fixture doesn't radiate too much heat and is timed to provide no more than eight hours of light per day. If the plant is kept between 1 - 7 degrees Celsius then a dark area will suffice as the plant does not need to perform photosynthesis to survive at those lower temperatures.