my snake is squishy...

[shining apprentice]

i noticed lately that one of my BPs is for lack of a beter way of saying it, squishy. When i pick him up with very light pressure on his underside it squishes. Where hes constricting its fine but elswhere its not muscly. Is he fat or is this common and ive just never noticed?


thanks


o and on a side note of my BPs keeps pushing the sustrate out from under his hide so that hes practicly right on the UTH, is there some way to remedy this, Im thinking maybe his hide is too small and hes trying to make more room but im unsure.

[Kaorte]

The mushy belly is normal.

You need to use a thermostat with your UTH to prevent burns. There is no way to keep them from moving the substrate.

[j_h_smith]

There is no way to keep them from moving the substrate.

Sure there is, it's called concrete substrate. If you use newspaper, it's more difficult to move that around then a mulch.

Jim Smith

[rabernet]

Some of my kiddos are "squishy" and some are more solid - seems to vary from snake to snake.

[shining apprentice]

on the whole thermostat question can anyone suggest a good one ... i bought one from a local pet store last summer and it was horrible, i turned it down all the way and the temp was still above 100 F.

[hoax]

Whoa it sounds like you should have been here around last august asking about T-stats.

I use spider robotics herp-stat II, not a cheep unit but IMO the best. If you only have the one snake I think a herp-stat I is around a hundred buck. If your wanting to go a more cost effective route I think they have rheostats (dimmer switch, like for a lightbulb) at any hardware store formless than 5 bucks.

It is very dangerous for a snake to have unregulated temps as they can get burned very badly.

Mike

[chapskis1]

What are you using for an enclosure? You said he is "practically on the UTH". You don't actually have the uth in the enclosure, right? It should be on the outside of the glass or tub (depending on what you are using).

What is the temp directly on the surface above the UTH (given that you have the uth placed properly)? It should be between 88-94 degrees. If it is on the lower end of those numbers, you might want to bump the temp up -- he might just be trying to get closer to the heat source because he wants to be warmer.

[shining apprentice]

its a 20L ... when i said practically on it i meant the only thing seperating him from it is the glass.

i keep him at my GF's house so i cant check right now but i have a thermometer on the substrate and its usually mid to high 80's, i havent checked the temp right on the glass.

I have two more at my house that i would ideally like to by 1 thermostat for as apposed to one for each(i assume it would be more cost effective).

im going to a reptile expo on sunday will they have a good selection of thermostats or should i look online.

thanks

[chapskis1]

You should be taking the temp right on the glass -- you want to know the warmest temp that the snake could possibley be exposed to so it will not get burned. I would say 95 would be the very warmest you want the glass to get. With that temp, depending on your substrate, it should be around 90 on top of the substrate.

You could use one thermostat for both cages, given that the heat source for each is exactly the same, and they are set up the same (you probably could run all three cages if all variables are the same).

If they are set up differently, you would need to get two thermostats, or something like a Herpstat II which can contol two things. Herpstats are expensive, but reliable. Reptitemp 500r is cheap, but then you run more of a risk of failure.

I don't know for sure, but I would think thermostats would cost about the same online as they would at a show. I don't think there is much room for bartering like you could with livestock.

You can pick up a Herpstat direct from Spyder robotics for about $100 (or around $200 for a Herpstat II). I picked up a Reptitemp off of Amazon for just a little over $25 including shipping.

Good luck!

[BigBlue56]

My brand new snake I had for about a week now, decided to somehow get under my astro turf bedding and got stuck there.

I woke up this morning and saw no snake and was about to flip out before I realized there was a moving "bump" under the carpet.

After interrogation, he claimed he was, and I quote "burrowing my way to China".