Help With BP setup

[David Manning]

I have recently acquired 2 adult BPS, 1 pastel male and a normal female. They are a breeding pair. The guy i got them from gave me the 2 rubermail tubs that he keeps them in and also a 55 gallon glass tank that he also kept them in. He told me that he had kept them in the glass tank together before and had no problems and that i could do the same, but from what i am reading this is a no-no. Also, i keep my house pretty cold around 68-70 degrees. i have a undertank pad for each rubermaid and i am getting a therm for each tonight to just see what is going on in there. i have had them for 4 days now and they are pretty much staying coiled up above the heat pad. should i move them to the glass tank and add a heat lamp on the top to increase the ambient temp inside? any suggestions are welcomed as i am new to this.

[Inknsteel]

You need to find out what the temps are in the tubs. The snakes should remain separated unless you are putting them together for intentional breeding purposes. And even then, it is a short-term situation. Once you have something to accurately measure the temps inside the tubs, we can give you more advice on tweaking your setups. You should be able to use just the UTH to maintain temps in a tub. Do you have a thermostat or a rheostat/dimmer regulating the UTH on each tub?

[llovelace]

Look over this
http://ball-pythons.net/forums/showt...ius)-Caresheet

Welcome to BP.net

[kitedemon]

Welcome! housing two snakes together can be done but is very difficult and certainly NOT recommended with out TONS of knowage.

Tubs are fine but with cool room temps difficult to set up. The hot side isn't a problem but regulating the cool side is. I can't tell you how to do things but I can offer some Ideas.

a. You could place the tubs in a room and add supliment heat to the room to keep the ambient temps at 80º

B. if you can run cool side heaters to regulate the cool side temps they MUST be controlled with a T-stat.

C build an insulated box to hold the tubs that will help hold the escaping heat of the hot side and raise the ambient temps, and or add a ambient secondary heat source to the box.

D. Build custom enclosures (or a duplex enclosure, a really large enclosure that is divided with a single hot spot heater and cool spot heater spread across the divide) that are better at holding ambient temps and or use custom enclosures with primary (hot spot) and secondary (cool spot) heaters.

Some ideas, lots to think on. The correct answer is individual. My house is hard to heat so I use secondary heaters on everything but that is me. You might have a small space that can easily be used to house snakes that stays warm due to its location (beside a hot water heater or something)

REMEMBER, do not guess temps thermometers are needed, heaters get hot they need controls, and there are very few absolute answers just lots of opinions and this works for me.. options. It often take some common sense and tinkering to get things tuned.

[David Manning]

Thanks for all the tips. I got a thermostat and i have placed the probe down in the substrate right next to the hide. The uth pad is right below the hide. i also have one of the 60w red lights that i have positioned to shine in the area right in front of the entrance to the hide box. i just got the thermostat in and it is only reading 78 degrees F. i have checked with my hand to feel the substrate that is in the hide and it is warm to the touch and also the snake's belly is warm as well (had to move her outa the hide to check) I have attached a picture of the tank so you can see what i am referencing.

[kitedemon]

If it is warm to your hand it is likely too warm. You run 96º 90 is perfect you really need a thermometer to check. Are you planning on separating them? I'd advise that as the best for the animals. Also you should take a look at the care sheets there are lots around.

http://www.vpi.com/publications/the_...hon_care_sheet
http://ballpython.ca/care.html

2 hides are recommended for one snake. Although some have housed two together sucessfully it isn't easy or less work or less cost it is more of all, again is isn't something a beginner should even consider.

[David Manning]

WOW, I moved the probe so that it is buried in the substrate right above the head pad and now...it's 100.09 reading on my thermostat. Good thing i got that cuz it shut the heating pad off almost emediatly. Is this a good place to position the probe?

[kitedemon]

The probe usually goes at the substrate level under the hot side hide. Personally I use one under the cool hide and one for ambient temps. What are you using for a control? T-stat Proportional t-stat or rheostat?

[David Manning]

http://www.amazon.com/Hydrofarm-MTPR...0865802&sr=8-2

[kitedemon]

I may have missed something the t-stat probe is in on the glass above the UTH? It should be on the glass or outside. Typical of everything there are 2 schools of thought. One is to place the T-stat probe inside and one outside. If you place it inside it should be at the very bottom and be absolutely secure. I use hot melt glue to to that job. The thermometer probe I place inside the hot hide on the substrate. I don't keep tons of substrate over the uth so heat transfers efficiently.