# Other Pythons > Giant Pythons >  Riverrun

## CloudtheBoa

I picked up this little girl at the local expo today, been wanting one since I got Cloud, and finally decided to take the plunge.  So far I'm debating on naming her Riverrun, but name suggestions are welcome!

She's a female poss het purple albino reticulated python.  Her breeder wasn't at the expo, so I wasn't able to get her exact hatch date, but one of the vendors thought that she was probably born sometime in October.  She's 3'-3.5' and weighs 150 grams.  She was extremely laid back, and showed no signs of any stress or any irritability while I had her out looking at her at the expo, so hopefully that trend will continue once she's settled in.  She spent most of the time sleeping on my arm or crawling onto my head, which may have been an hour or two while we waited for my mom to show up.  Once we left the expo, she stayed in her plastic container, except for a few quick photos in the sun.

She's got some dry scales and a slight bit of nose rub, but I'm hoping that will clear up after a few days in a decent-sized tub and some humidity.  Other than the slight discrepancies, she looks to be well-hydrated and healthy.  No sign of mites or RI, so the quarantine may go well.

I've got her in her temporary set up while I wait for some more heat tape to ship in, and she's settling in.  Other than to bask a bit, she's been pretty much non-stop exploring.  When I went to go see what she was doing, she immediately locked onto me and started crawling in my direction, so she's perked up quite a bit now that she's got some warmth to her.





All snakes look huge in my hands.


So I had some help!


Showing off her sides.

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_AlexisFitzy_ (10-22-2015),_Bluebonnet Herp_ (04-04-2015),_BWB_ (05-27-2015),Gio (05-11-2015),Havok73 (04-04-2015),influence (04-05-2015),John1982 (11-28-2016)

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## JoshSloane

Looks awesome! I just picked up a tiger dwarf male myself.

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_CloudtheBoa_ (04-05-2015)

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## CloudtheBoa

There were some nice dwarfs at the booth where I got her, I'd say about 5', but these guys can be misleading in their length. Haha. There was a surprising number of retics and a variety of snakes for such a small expo, it was a great experience.


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## anicatgirl

Super lovely girl! I can't get over how pretty  :Bowdown:

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## influence

lovely retic you got there! her pattern and coloration reminded me of my first retic (also my first snake) during college years  :Smile:

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## rev.jeremiah.routh

I've been after a dwarf myself.  Beautiful animal man, keep us updated.

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## CloudtheBoa

Thanks everyone.  I'll definitely be updating this thread.  :Smile: 


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_Albert Clark_ (04-05-2015)

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## CloudtheBoa

I went ahead and fed her today.  I figured if she refused, I'd just offer next week, and it's been about a week since she was last fed.  She took two of Sanji's small fuzzy mice, but I plan on buying her some small adult mice in the shipment next week.


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## artgecko

Nice looking animal!
I wish I could get a regular retic... I just don't have the muscle strength to handle one and my husband isn't exactly cool with helping me out with a 10+ foot snake lol.  Cudos to you for taking the plunge!  She has great coloration for a normal.. Very nice orange tones and almost purplish grey areas.  

I hope she does well for you!

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## CloudtheBoa

Well it looks like she's going into shed.  Her belly has turned pink and she's hanging out in her humid hide rather than out in the open or in her plant.  I've suspected this for a couple of days now, but her colors have just now started dulling and her eyes are getting a milky hue.


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## Sauzo

Nice looking retic. You might luck out with a smaller female. Caesar is just over 5 months old and he's already almost 4' and hes a SD/D. I am kind of guilty of feeding him every 4-7 days though but I was told that's a good feeding schedule up to 1 year old or so.

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## CloudtheBoa

> Nice looking retic. You might luck out with a smaller female. Caesar is just over 5 months old and he's already almost 4' and hes a SD/D. I am kind of guilty of feeding him every 4-7 days though but I was told that's a good feeding schedule up to 1 year old or so.


I'm thinking so too but I haven't been feeding her all that heavy, either.  She's always been fed every 7-14 days, and judging from that SD thread that resurfaced, just feeding them 7-10 days vs 4-6 makes a big difference.  Plus, she was 6 months and 3' 150 grams when I got her and in that thread a 3' retic was quoted at 300-400 grams (don't remember exactly).  Give her a few more years and see where she tops out at, she may exceed our expectations but I'm expecting 10'-13'.

I would try and up her feeding but when I had her on 1 lb rabbits (almost 20% of her current weight - which had been average prey size when she was smaller), I noticed a sharp decrease in her interest in food.  She still ate, but instead of snapping it up the moment she saw it it took several minutes of jumping the rabbit on her back and wiggling it around for her to finally take it.  I think if I kept up with that level of feeding she'd eventually start refusing food.  She doesn't have the biggest feeding response for a retic to begin with.  Probably on par with my boa constrictors, she'll bite and constrict but doesn't snap at any movement unless it's rat or rabbit and no feeding response bites from her yet.  She won't even strike at a rat/rabbit with the door closed, which is usually when I'm coming up to the doors with her food in tow.


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## Mangiapane85

I love your wording. The way you talk about your snakes is just awesome lol. "With her food in tow". Badas$...... I just read this entire thread from the very first page. Great GREAT progression thread and I can't wait to see where River tops out at.  :Smile: 


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## CloudtheBoa

> I love your wording. The way you talk about your snakes is just awesome lol. "With her food in tow". Badas$...... I just read this entire thread from the very first page. Great GREAT progression thread and I can't wait to see where River tops out at. 
> 
> 
> Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk


lol Well, with only the tongs holding it, the rabbits are pretty heavy.  I'll have to get heavy duty tongs when she starts eating bigger rabbits.

And I'm excited to see where she ends up, too!  I've been around for awhile now so I'll probably still be here even if takes her a few extra years to get big.

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Mangiapane85 (11-08-2016)

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## CloudtheBoa

River is in shed as well, her last feeding all she got was a regular large rat because forgetful me forgot her last half pound rabbit out all day and I wasn't going to chance it.  I have no more jumbos and she's not _quite_ large enough for the 2 lb rabbits.  I gave her the largest large left, though, which was maybe 20 grams short of the smallest jumbo I had.


Also, funnily enough I thought she'd outgrown her hides months ago but she's currently comfortably holed up in one.  Every inch of her fits in there with room to move around, too.  So she's 7'-7.5' and still fits in a medium-sized RBI hide.  So much for only fitting 700 gram ball pythons. bahaha  Even my ball python is nearly twice that weight and the hides are large on him.





I took her out because her bedding got a thin coat of mold over it and I wanted to clean it out.  I'll have to start fluffing up fresh bedding, I forgot in the T12's they don't dry out as easily when first put in.  After that, I can control how wet it is.

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John1982 (11-28-2016),o.r hill (11-29-2016),_Sauzo_ (11-28-2016)

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## Sauzo

I like that picture.

And yeah seems the APs hold humidity really well. Mine sit at around 60ish with just the large exo terra waterbowl.

And that's why I hate Eco Earth, it does mold. Soon as my 2 bails of aspen run out, i'm going to try ReptiChips. I've heard awesome stuff about it from guys on the retic boards and boa boards. Also Jmcrook here uses it too for his retic and he loves the stuff.

As for hides, my god, how does your snakes fit in the medium RBI hides lol? I got the larges and my BP girl is about 4' and 1680g and she fills that hide up. half the time you see part of her hanging out lol. And the retic is 4' and he takes up about half the large hide although he does like to sit with his face in the door way of the hide lol. Then whenever someone walks by his cage, he instantly pops his head out like a jack in the box lol. I cant believe how much he eats. it's been 3 days since he had 2 small rats and today I opened his cage to do the sniff test for a piss and he shot out of his hide like a freakin bullet and perched on the lip of the cage looking for dinner. When nothing was in smell distance, he backpedaled into the hide and I was able to lift the hide and pick him up and find the secret pee he left and spot clean it. I'm expecting a nice present tonight or tomorrow as he has a nice sausage butt going lol.

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## CloudtheBoa

So I remeasured the hides...I got the MEDIUMS from LLLReptile, so they're slightly bigger, and I got the large hides from RBI.  I guess I got confused on which was which. Lol

This is the ball python in the medium hide from LLL.  The flares at the bottom sit at 12", the top is  right around 10".  He currently weighs 1,245 grams but is normally 1,380.  Thinking of moving him to weekly from 2 weeks since he still hasn't gained all his weight back.  Can't move up prey size as he begins refusing after two mediums in a row.




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## Sauzo

Haha yeah my BP girl doesn't like to eat medium rats either. She eats a couple and then quits eating as well. I just feed her a small rat every 5-7 days, about the same schedule as Caesar. She pounds the small rats. Kind of funny your BP is the same way.

As for the hides, looks like LLL medium hide is the same size as the RBI large hides. Think the RBI large ones are 13x10x3. So that makes sense as to why mediums work still lol.

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## CloudtheBoa

> Haha yeah my BP girl doesn't like to eat medium rats either. She eats a couple and then quits eating as well. I just feed her a small rat every 5-7 days, about the same schedule as Caesar. She pounds the small rats. Kind of funny your BP is the same way.
> 
> As for the hides, looks like LLL medium hide is the same size as the RBI large hides. Think the RBI large ones are 13x10x3. So that makes sense as to why mediums work still lol.


Lol it does say Vivarium Electronics on the inside so either I'm still getting it mixed up or I got a different size when I ordered. :/ Still with how much room the BP has in this I might try a medium one.  Depends on how he fits when he's back up to weight.

When he's a regular weight he maintains 1,380 grams eating a small every other week without faltering a gram after defecations and urates, but this last fast was really odd.  He lost 13% of his weight after only 3 months when he's gone 8-9 months and didn't lose close to that much.  Then for almost a year he'd eat nothing but a single jumbo mouse or 2 if I was lucky rather than 3-4.  I thought being on small rats would change that but he's been eating them a few months now and gained maybe 50 grams tops.


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## Sauzo

> Lol it does say Vivarium Electronics on the inside so either I'm still getting it mixed up or I got a different size when I ordered. :/ Still with how much room the BP has in this I might try a medium one.  Depends on how he fits when he's back up to weight.
> 
> When he's a regular weight he maintains 1,380 grams eating a small every other week without faltering a gram after defecations and urates, but this last fast was really odd.  He lost 13% of his weight after only 3 months when he's gone 8-9 months and didn't lose close to that much.  Then for almost a year he'd eat nothing but a single jumbo mouse or 2 if I was lucky rather than 3-4.  I thought being on small rats would change that but he's been eating them a few months now and gained maybe 50 grams tops.
> 
> 
> Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk


Hmm weird. Maybe try feeding him a small one every week. My BP girl usually fasts from the beginning of this month until around Mar/Apr but for some reason, she is going crazy and eating as often as the retic and she is curious like he is. Whenever I open her door on her cage and mess around inside, she pokes her head out and looks around too. I personally never really paid much attention to her weight as she ate when she ate but with all these people I see saying their 4' females weigh 2000g+, it makes me kind of worried. I mean she still looks good. Here are a couple pics of her fairly recently.

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## CloudtheBoa

> Hmm weird. Maybe try feeding him a small one every week. My BP girl usually fasts from the beginning of this month until around Mar/Apr but for some reason, she is going crazy and eating as often as the retic and she is curious like he is. Whenever I open her door on her cage and mess around inside, she pokes her head out and looks around too. I personally never really paid much attention to her weight as she ate when she ate but with all these people I see saying their 4' females weigh 2000g+, it makes me kind of worried. I mean she still looks good. Here are a couple pics of her fairly recently.


When he eats he eats year round.

And your's definitely looks good to me that's about how mine looks at 1,380 grams.  Right now he's really lean, so I'll take the weight gain/maintenance as a good thing and just temporarily up his feeding until he's gained some weight.  When he flexes he looks lean like a boa constrictor.  I'll have to weigh him when he poops, but he takes awhile.


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## CloudtheBoa

River ventured out to say hello.  :Smile:   She was hoping for food, but alas I was empty-handed.


And here I thought she'd outgrown her hides.  She still fits in them perfectly, doesn't even lift them off the ground.  Won't be much longer before she does though, I don't think there's any leftover space in there.

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Gio (01-02-2017),Mangiapane85 (12-23-2016)

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## CloudtheBoa

I borrow the heater for a few minutes and her heat falls by a few degrees and this is what I found. -.-





She scraped up her scales pretty bad because she was barely holding on.  I got her down and let her crawl on me and she seems to have calmed down.  I was nice and warm from a recent shower, and she just sat there sniffing my hair and face before crawling back into her enclosure.


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Gio (01-02-2017),o.r hill (12-30-2016)

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## o.r hill

Is she also wanting to climb up on things when she is out of her enclosure?   Mine are just dying to reach the ceiling fan.  There is a video of a guy in an Asian jungle looking for retics.  He would find them doing a banana bunch imitation over a stream. When disturbed they would drop into the water and attempt to swim away with the current.

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## CloudtheBoa

She's a retic so that goes without saying. Lol

She does climb the walls in her new enclosure but this is the first I've seen her clinging to her CHE.  I haven't seen her on it since the photo was taken, either.


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## Sauzo

Just switch to a RHP. Then you don't have to worry about it. I personally would be way too scared to put a CHE anywhere inside my cages.

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## CloudtheBoa

> Just switch to a RHP. Then you don't have to worry about it. I personally would be way too scared to put a CHE anywhere inside my cages.


These cages require both a CHE and an RHP.


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## CloudtheBoa

As an update, her scales are still rough looking but nothing too major.  If she shows any sign of an infection I'll take her to the vet, but the damage looks small enough it should go away after a shed.  There's no open wounds at least.  She's been soaking in her water dish, though, so it must feel a bit uncomfortable having all those peeling scales.

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## CloudtheBoa

She's shed twice since the incident, the second shed cycle began within a week of her previous shed cycle and she's since shed that one, too.  No more cycles and her belly is completely clear so I think it's safe to say she's fully recovered from the damage.  :Smile:   These retics are definitely more prone to self-destructive behaviors than any of my other species, but luckily she has yet to do any outstanding damage. lol

Last I measured her, she was a few inches short of 8' but she's shed two or three times since then so I'll have to try to get another picture soon.  She doesn't appear to have grown much just looking at her, so I'll probably wait on that.

This was during her second shed cycle, she was hanging out in her water dish and was coming to meet the camera to see what was going on.



Then when she touched it, she jumped back violently, splashing water everywhere and just staring like this.



And some even older pictures that I just skipped riiight over.












Yes, at ~8' she STILL fits in those hides and they still don't lift off the ground at all.

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_Lady mkrj58_ (02-10-2017)

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## ShaneSilva

Glad she's okay (:

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_CloudtheBoa_ (02-14-2017)

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## CloudtheBoa

> Glad she's okay (:


Me, too.  The rest of scales aren't in good shape at the moment because she's still constantly soaking.  All over, even on her back, they're starting to get rough-looking.  Not really chipping, just dry-looking patches.

I've been having a hard time keeping her enclosure humid.  It's a mixture of the fact I still have to occasionally run the space heater, and the EcoEarth in her enclosure is unusually large-grained.  So it's been drying out extremely quickly even when the heater is off, and doesn't seem to be able to hold as much as usual in the first place.  I bought Cloud's bedding at the same time, but it's got the classic smooth dirt-feel to it and it's been holding humidity a lot better now that I'm able to turn the heater off most days.  But River's continues to lag behind.  I have a third set of blocks I never expanded that I'm going to try mixing in with River's and see if that helps.








I got her out to dampen her bedding.  She's got such strong silver coloring.

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_Sauzo_ (02-14-2017)

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## Sauzo

Try ReptiChips. That stuff is a lot bigger chunks so it soaks up and holds water well. Even running my oil filled radiator plus setting my house to 77F and the humidity is over the top most of the time lol. Seems the smaller the chunks, less water it can absorb and thus release too.

And here's to hoping her scales smooth out. Caesar got his stupid butt stuck in one of the plastic rings on his plant chain. I had to cut the ring with scissors to free him. It folded a few of his scales and left a ring around his body lol. The next day, everything was fine but I also had like 70-80% humidity for him.

I say just push that Eco Earth into a pile and pour a glass of warmish water on it and mix it up and see if a few days of some 80%+ humidity doesn't get those scales all squared away. Good luck.

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_ShaneSilva_ (02-15-2017)

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## CloudtheBoa

> Try ReptiChips. That stuff is a lot bigger chunks so it soaks up and holds water well. Even running my oil filled radiator plus setting my house to 77F and the humidity is over the top most of the time lol. Seems the smaller the chunks, less water it can absorb and thus release too.


I would, except it's more expensive than EcoEarth and isn't available on Amazon at the moment so idk where else to get it.  EE is only $5 for a 3 pack block on Amazon now.

I am happy with EcoEarth and don't plan on switching.  It's not a problem with the bedding itself, it's a problem with the particular batch I got in River's enclosure.  Instead of being fine grained like it normally is, it's chunky, so it's releasing moisture too fast.  I'm not having any problems right now in Cloud's enclosure with EE.

I'm also not using an oil-filled radiator in the main snake room because I couldn't get one to heat it properly, I'm using a quartz heater, which pushes heat out with a fan so it also pushes humidity out with it.

I have been wanting to use in a mixture with EE in my tubs though so I'll probably still grab some when they get available, I just don't plan on switching my enclosures with ambient heat over.


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## CloudtheBoa

Also that's exactly what I do with the EcoEarth.  I pour water in it and mix it up.  Her bedding doesn't hold as much water as I'm used to EcEarth holding and it's releasing moisture fast.

Here's a comparison of normal EE vs her's.  I'm not sure how well you can see it but at the top is her chunky bedding and bottom is from Cloud's enclosure.  Both are equally wet.




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## Sauzo

> I would, except it's more expensive than EcoEarth and isn't available on Amazon at the moment so idk where else to get it.  EE is only $5 for a 3 pack block on Amazon now.
> 
> I am happy with EcoEarth and don't plan on switching.  It's not a problem with the bedding itself, it's a problem with the particular batch I got in River's enclosure.  Instead of being fine grained like it normally is, it's chunky, so it's releasing moisture too fast.  I'm not having any problems right now in Cloud's enclosure with EE.
> 
> I'm also not using an oil-filled radiator in the main snake room because I couldn't get one to heat it properly, I'm using a quartz heater, which pushes heat out with a fan so it also pushes humidity out with it.
> 
> I have been wanting to use in a mixture with EE in my tubs though so I'll probably still grab some when they get available, I just don't plan on switching my enclosures with ambient heat over.
> 
> 
> Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk


You can get this stuff cheaper. It's basically the same stuff as ReptiChip. http://www.greenhousemegastore.com/p...oil-amendments. But if you are happy with Eco Earth, more power. And yeah any heat source that pushes the heat with air/fan is bad for humidity. That's why I like the Oil radiator heater except my house's forced air heating kills it on really cold days lol. I'll probably actually go back to ReptiChips for Caesar. Switched him to paper towels and he seems happy with it but my humidity in his cage tanked to around 60%. I usually keep everyone around 80% except the dumerils. And the downside for the paper towels is it doesn't kill the smell of pee like RpetiChips does haha. Even F10SC doesn't kill it completely. I guess they make a pine scented F10SC which is premixed in a spray bottle but I bet the stuff is way overpriced haha.

Anyways, you can check out that PlantIT GrowIT stuff. Little smaller blocks but half the price and basically looks like the same stuff really. Maybe Jmcrook will chime in here as I think he ordered some and can give more of a first hand experience with it.

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## Sauzo

> Also that's exactly what I do with the EcoEarth.  I pour water in it and mix it up.  Her bedding doesn't hold as much water as I'm used to EcEarth holding and it's releasing moisture fast.
> 
> Here's a comparison of normal EE vs her's.  I'm not sure how well you can see it but at the top is her chunky bedding and bottom is from Cloud's enclosure.  Both are equally wet.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk


That stuff looks almost like potting soil lol. That is rather chunky for Eco earth.

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## CloudtheBoa

I heard of a lot of staining issues with the Grow!t stuff so I'm not going to buy it.  It seems to be in more humid areas that it stains their skin, in drier climates people don't seem to experience it, but at 50-60%+ in the summer I live in a humid area.  So I'd invest in the name brand stuff myself.

I have an oil filled radiator in my quarantine room but it's half the size of the main snake room.  The radiator heaters just simply could not keep up in the main room, and there's no room to safely place a fan to push air around between the heater and all the cages.  So I got the quartz heater.  First year in 4 years I haven't had to struggle with temps, but the first winter I've struggled with humidity.  Everyone's shedding whole sheds so I'm not complaining too much but still.


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## Sauzo

Oh didn't know about the staining issue. Good to know. And yeah if it's at 50-60%, that's not good as like I said, I keep my boas and retic at between 80-85%. I would be pissed if it stained their bellies haha.

Yeah I use the 1500 watt Pelonis one and it is plenty for a 20x20x10 room. I actually keep it at low power with the t-stat set to half on really cold days. Otherwise it turns the reptile/tv room into a freakin oven haha.

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## CloudtheBoa

> Oh didn't know about the staining issue. Good to know. And yeah if it's at 50-60%, that's not good as like I said, I keep my boas and retic at between 80-85%. I would be pissed if it stained their bellies haha.
> 
> Yeah I use the 1500 watt Pelonis one and it is plenty for a 20x20x10 room. I actually keep it at low power with the t-stat set to half on really cold days. Otherwise it turns the reptile/tv room into a freakin oven haha.


I meant 50-60% inside my house not their enclosure. Lol Higher home/starting humidity seems to make the issues more likely whereas arid areas with lower home humidity don't cause the issues.  The humidity inside the enclosure doesn't seem to be the cause.

I have a 1500 watt Pelonis in the smaller snake room and it seems to be about the limit for that room.  On colder days the temps drop.  If it's 40 or above it's almost overkill, but on the average winter day it's just enough or barely enough.  The room the Pelonis is in is 8'x8' I think?  Or 7'x7'.  Something close to that.  It's probably more due to an insulation problem than anything.  I had to stuff a blanket in between Dominika's T12 and the walls to keep the cold drafts out of her enclosure.


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## Sauzo

> I meant 50-60% inside my house not their enclosure. Lol Higher home/starting humidity seems to make the issues more likely whereas arid areas with lower home humidity don't cause the issues.  The humidity inside the enclosure doesn't seem to be the cause.
> 
> I have a 1500 watt Pelonis in the smaller snake room and it seems to be about the limit for that room.  On colder days the temps drop.  If it's 40 or above it's almost overkill, but on the average winter day it's just enough or barely enough.  The room the Pelonis is in is 8'x8' I think?  Or 7'x7'.  Something close to that.  It's probably more due to an insulation problem than anything.  I had to stuff a blanket in between Dominika's T12 and the walls to keep the cold drafts out of her enclosure.
> 
> 
> Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk


Oh. Heck inside my house is like 40% if that haha. Pretty dry.

And yeah, I would bet it has to do with insulation. The big room I use the heater in is half underground as its the basement so its half insulated really well. If it's 40 or above, I don't even run it here since I keep my house set to 77F. I only use the heater if it gets freezing or below as the early mornings can get a bit chilly down there. The heater knocks that chill off. Yeah the windows in my house are still single pane so winter time, the big front window, I leave the curtain down and then just tack a blanket over the curtain to keep any drafts out. the smaller back window and the bathroom window I leave alone as the draft from them is minimal for a single pane window lol.

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## Slither Seeker

wow, what a beautiful snake and it's holding it color really well as it ages!  if I had stumbled across a snake like that for sale I might have been in big trouble with my wife!  not sure if it would be applicable, but you might consider adding insulation to the outside bottom, sides and top of the enclosure if you are finding keeping it warm and humid is tricky.  I really like thermax brand, it has foil on both sides and looks half way decent.

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## CloudtheBoa

> wow, what a beautiful snake and it's holding it color really well as it ages!  if I had stumbled across a snake like that for sale I might have been in big trouble with my wife!  not sure if it would be applicable, but you might consider adding insulation to the outside bottom, sides and top of the enclosure if you are finding keeping it warm and humid is tricky.  I really like thermax brand, it has foil on both sides and looks half way decent.


It's the humid part that's proving tricky she's staying plenty warm.  I'm going to try mixing in a new batch of EE or completely switching everything out and see if that helps.  I normally have no problems with humidity.


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## jmcrook

> Anyways, you can check out that PlantIT GrowIT stuff. Little smaller blocks but half the price and basically looks like the same stuff really. Maybe Jmcrook will chime in here as I think he ordered some and can give more of a first hand experience with it.


Still haven't tried the plant !t/grow !t stuff yet. Two blocks of reptichip are lasting a good while with only two enclosures. Hadn't heard about it staining at all, if and when I do try it I'll make a thread to review it. Heard that Pro Coco is literally the exact same stuff as reptichip for half the price but plant !t has a better price on shipping multiple blocks. Also, Reinz has stated that he uses flower bed cedar mulch from lowes with no problems at $3 for a bag that's 2 cubic feet. Not as "presentable" as reptichip or similar but who cares if it works for what you're looking for IMO. 
I will say that I've been very pleased with reptichip so far in terms of humidity, appearance, and odor control. 


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## Sauzo

> Still haven't tried the plant !t/grow !t stuff yet. Two blocks of reptichip are lasting a good while with only two enclosures. Hadn't heard about it staining at all, if and when I do try it I'll make a thread to review it. Heard that Pro Coco is literally the exact same stuff as reptichip for half the price but plant !t has a better price on shipping multiple blocks. Also, Reinz has stated that he uses flower bed cedar mulch from lowes with no problems at $3 for a bag that's 2 cubic feet. Not as "presentable" as reptichip or similar but who cares if it works for what you're looking for IMO. 
> I will say that I've been very pleased with reptichip so far in terms of humidity, appearance, and odor control. 
> 
> 
> Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk


I think I saw the stuff Reinz is using in the pics of his cages. That stuff looks like it has sharp pieces like prison shanks!! I'd be worried about an overly active snake poking itself. Dottie somehow managed to poke herself on the back end of her with a sharp piece of aspen. I saw a little blood. It healed fine but the only thing I could think of was the aspen as that was what I was using at the time and there was nothing else sharp in the cage. And I have gotten poked before while cleaning the aspen.

I'll just stick to ReptiChips. Its more expensive but what the heck, you only live once. And just wait, soon enough, you will have lots of snakes and be complaining about substrate, poop, pee and food!!!  :Very Happy:

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## Gio

River looks sensational. 

I wonder if you just just mist several times daily until you get your substrate dialed back in.

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## CloudtheBoa

> River looks sensational. 
> 
> I wonder if you just just mist several times daily until you get your substrate dialed back in.


I don't even want to imagine misting a 6'x2'x3' daily. Lol I'm going through at least 10 gallons of water a couple times a week as it is.

If it isn't maintaining humidity now, misting won't help, either.  I have never had any luck with misting.  It's why I maintain EcoEarth like I do (pouring water in it and mixing it up).  When I tried misting I'd have to do it every 1-2 hours and the hours I wasn't home or asleep the humidity would just stay low.


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## Gio

> I don't even want to imagine misting a 6'x2'x3' daily. Lol I'm going through at least 10 gallons of water a couple times a week as it is.
> 
> If it isn't maintaining humidity now, misting won't help, either.  I have never had any luck with misting.  It's why I maintain EcoEarth like I do (pouring water in it and mixing it up).  When I tried misting I'd have to do it every 1-2 hours and the hours I wasn't home or asleep the humidity would just stay low.
> 
> 
> Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk


Well, it may be your only option if things don't straighten out. I'm talking short term and in combination with your substrate process. I'm not sure why the Eco isn't holding on to the moisture. 

This does the work for you if things don't come around.

http://pro-products.com/pro-mist/

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## CloudtheBoa

> Well, it may be your only option if things don't straighten out. I'm talking short term and in combination with your substrate process. I'm not sure why the Eco isn't holding on to the moisture. 
> 
> This does the work for you if things don't come around.
> 
> http://pro-products.com/pro-mist/


It's not working because the granulation or whatever the term would be is different than usual.   I'm sure if just adding a better batch to the existing bedding won't work completely replacing the bedding will.  I just have to find the time to expand what I've got.


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## CloudtheBoa

This one was taken before I picked up the piece of urate.  I think the little bits of urates are probably the most irritating part, the pee and poop isn't so bad. lol

















She's in shed yet again.  I thought she'd recovered enough that her shedding would go back to normal, but apparently not.  None of the scrapes look new, but I'm currently planning on adding a shelf so I can take the CHE out.  So if she actually is still climbing on it she won't be able to.

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## Gio

I hope everything snaps back for you.

She's an unbelievably good looking snake.

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## Reinz

I understand your frustration with the urates. Sometimes my big Coastal Carpets will drop little dabs of urates in 5 or 6 different spots. 

And then it really gets annoying when they do it a few days in a row.

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## Sauzo

Heck last night, Caesar thought it would be fun to drop little poo balls in sort of a line across the back of the cage. Then he sat in his cool hide. Once I cleaned them, he came out and went and sat over on the flexwatt behind his warm hide and stared at me lol.

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_CloudtheBoa_ (02-22-2017)

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## CloudtheBoa

Well I ordered an XL hide and that was definitely not the size of River's other hides, her's must be the Large ones.  Oh well, at least I'll have a back up when she does outgrow her other hides (if she hasn't already).  I'll order another one for her soon.

And yeah her poops actually aren't that bad but there's always millions of teeny tiny pieces of urates strewn everywhere across her bedding.  Most are too small to pick up.  I think what happens is she lays a urate and breaks it up frantically crawling around.  Or she just takes really tiny multiple urates for whatever reason.


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_Sauzo_ (02-22-2017)

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## Sauzo

Haha, Caesar dropped an ungodly urate 2 days ago. The thing was like 2" wide and almost 2" high. Luckily he ran from it and sat in his cool hide until I cleaned it. That seems to be his MO. He drops deuces and urates around the back of the cage and then hides in cool hide until I clean it. Then he comes out and cruises around. I actually just ordered 4 of the RBI jumbo hides last night. Two for Caesar and two for Dottie. Supposed to be here next Tuesday but we'll see. When I ordered the 2 medium hides for Luna, they were like 3 days late.

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## CloudtheBoa

> Haha, Caesar dropped an ungodly urate 2 days ago. The thing was like 2" wide and almost 2" high. Luckily he ran from it and sat in his cool hide until I cleaned it. That seems to be his MO. He drops deuces and urates around the back of the cage and then hides in cool hide until I clean it. Then he comes out and cruises around. I actually just ordered 4 of the RBI jumbo hides last night. Two for Caesar and two for Dottie. Supposed to be here next Tuesday but we'll see. When I ordered the 2 medium hides for Luna, they were like 3 days late.


Well when they get there don't be too surprised by how huge they are on him...I think River finally outgrew her Large hides as she immediately went in her XL hide when I put it in and has been laying on top of the Larges rather than in them for a few days now.  She's 8' and the XL hides are reaaally roomy for her.  I think a jumbo hide MIGHT fit Dominika, if the entryway is big enough to accommodate her girth.


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## Sauzo

Yeah, when I looked at the measurments of the larges compared to the jumbos, it was only about 4" inches bigger so should give Caesar some room as he doesn't seem to be much of a hider anyways. He always is instantly popping out of the hide and coming to the front whenever his cage or any cage under his is opened. The jumbos will fit Dottie as the larges are pretty small on her now. She can fit in them but its a very tight fit and most of the time 1/4 of her is poking out from under it haha.

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