Is there something wrong with him??

[ocean girl]

My son's snake is about to shed. He isn't going into his hideout on the warm side and it's not too warm, I think its around 90 ish. He spends his days and nights in the cold hide which we can't seem to get over 75 ish. My son placed him on top of his warm hide yesterday to see what he would do and he remained there all night, didn't move an inch. This morning we thought we better put him inside his warm hide so he could be warm and he then came out and went over to his cold hide and thats where he stays. Both hides are the same size, but one is cardboard and one is plastic.
The other problem is the cold side temp, no matter what I do I can't raise it. We have put foam board around the outside and on the inside (3 sides) of the tank, we also just bought a 60 watt ceramic heat bulb, and covered 90 % of the roof with tinfoil and foil tape. What the heck? So now what? Has anyone built a tank?
Is there a better material? Should I line the bottom of the inside of the tank with foam board as well? Help please.

[MissDizzyBee]

What are you using to measure temps? My snake did that when I had the little round sticky guages...turned out, the hot side was way too hot so the cooler side was in a better temperature range for him.

Styrofoam or foamboard can help insulate.

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[Simple Man]

You should never be reading temps (ish). A digital temperature/hygrometer is $13 from Walmart. That will show your hot/cold side and humidity. Something is wrong with your husbandry. You just need the right tools to figure it out.

Regards,

B

[Skittles1101]

Agreed +1 to both. You should invest in a digital thermometer, or a temp gun, to read temps more accurately. 90-ish isn't good...

[ocean girl]

I put a thermometer under his hot hide it was 91. I agree I should get a digitol thermometer.
The gun ones here are $50 though, haven't tryed walmart yet.
Should I take out the aspen and just put newspaper, maybe that would be better for reading temps because it could be hotter if hes al curled up in the aspen. So as for being on the cold side at 75, is he okay or is that too cold?

[MissDizzyBee]

75 is about the coolest your bp should ever get. Its normally considered an acceptable nighttime low. Unfortunately, you're not going to get an accurate reading on whether that side is actually 75 until you at least have a digital thermometer.

Temp guns can be found online for $30 or so. I have a temp gun and an accu-rite themo/hygrometer. Ran me about $45 total but they're much more accurate than the stickies.

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[Simple Man]

That's pretty close to what you need. You might try covering up some more of your aquarium to try and get that number to 80ish. 75 is on the low side. My ambient temperature stays at 80 degrees on the dot. Perhaps you should try making two identical hides out of a plastic cool whip tub or something similiar depending on the size of your snake.

Regards,

B

[Bones]

Your snake is probably too hot. They don't really need you to try to guess whether they are too hot or too cold, they will move around themselves to regulate their temperatures. If you don't use a digital thermometer to read the temperatures or have some kind of temperature control device (rheostat or thermostat) to control the temperature, it would be a good idea to invest in them. Do you use a UTH on the warm side of the tank?

In regards to the issue of not being able to raise the temperature, I don't know what to tell you. I keep my BP in a 30 gallon glass tank. I did the foil treatment and I use a CHE to raise the temperature on his cool side. The foil treatment works great for me. Maybe try covering up a little more of the roof? That's about all I can think of. I'm sure someone more experienced will chime in and try to help.

Also, I'm not sure if this is possible, but maybe your BP prefers the texture of his other hide.

[ocean girl]

How hot can the hot hide be? How much more of the roof can I cover up? The foill covers the entire middle with 3 inches left uncovered on either end as well as an opening for the che, but that is pressed right up against the roof.

[Bones]

According to the caresheet (which you can find here):
http://ball-pythons.net/forums/showt...s%29-Caresheet
it should be between 88-94*F. I keep mine around 91*.

What I did with mine was I foiled and taped the entire top of my screen cover and I left a square about 6"x6" or so above the cold side, just big enough to fit my CHE and for air to circulate. I also didn't use the foil tape, I used HVAC duct tape (which is duct tape made specifically for air conditioning purposes i.e. ductwork and whatnot). I don't know if that would make a difference, though.