Cage Setup - Dos and Don'ts?

[deadserious]

Hi, I'm new to the world of owning a snake and i have more questions than i thought i would.

I guess to start, I had assumed that the original owners were pretty knowledgeable, but based on the feedback my few snake owning friends provided, the cage and supplies they passed on to me leave a lot to be desired.

What he has now is a 20 gallon tank with a heat rock, a branch, and a water bowl. The top is ventilated.
From what i understand i should ditch the heat rock for an under the tank heater and establish a way to keep humidity in and keep a warm to cool gradient.
- What kind of under the tank heater should i buy and how much will it cost?
- how do i measure humidity and keep the tank humid enough?

Also, they gave me the rest of their aspen wood chips and that seems like a weird substrate. Should i be using something else?

Thinking about all the changes that need to be made also brought to light a bunch of other questions for me about the snake's health and happiness.
- Is it stressful for t he snake to have things moved around, added, or taken away?
- The snake has no hides and seems to enjoy hiding inside shirts and hats while being handled. Can i use a beanie as a hide/hammock without posing safety issues?
- what should i look for to know if my snake likes or dislikes the decorations or items in his tank? Is he happy?
- once all of his necessities are taken care of, i'd like to decorate his tank in a unique and creative way. Are there any materials that i should avoid or any i should definitely include?

I like to keep my animals h a ppy, safe, and pretty damn near spoiled so any advice at all pertaining to my questions or just anything you think i'm missing would be greatly appreciated

[PitOnTheProwl]

1st throw away the heat rock yesterday
2nd http://ball-pythons.net/forums/showt...Husbandry-FAQs

[SamO]

I just read through the FAQ, one thing I did not see was the mention of tape. No tape inside the snake enclosure. Tape is deadly, your snake will find a way to get stuck and rip it's skin off.

[deadserious]

Okay, cool! That was really helpful.

I still need some help by way of safe and unsafe decorating and whether or not rearranging will stress him out.... should i gradually make changes as needed or is it safe to do it all at once?

[deadserious]

Oh, good to know. I don't think i have any use for tape anyway but just in case that ever comes up, I'll avoid tape....,

[bcr229]

Under-tank heater (UTH) for heat + thermostat to control it. Do not run the UTH without the thermostat or it will burn your snake.

[Sonya Bailey]

I am new to this like you and have tried to get everything as right as I could,, many people have different ideas but all around the same ball park...

My set up that finally works is this, I have a 3 foot wooden tank, ceramic non light emitting bulb down one end, 3 hides, one in hot end ( temp 88-92 max) one in the middle, one in the cold area... water bowl, deep enough for her to go in if she wants, in the middle, not right in hot end, humidity is around 77% but lowering now she's shed to around 50%-60%. I have a humidity sensor in the middle, and temperature probes at the hot and cold ends...

I use bark and mist to get humidity up, now i have it all set up right i just mist in the morning, and this seems to work fine.. I noticed that layout of large log in tank makes a difference to how the heat grade works, so play around and also think about your rooms temps, and watch how they effect the tank when night comes, say at 4am and check it's all still stable at that time.

I have a probe attached to the thermostat about one inch above the bark substrate at the hot end right in the middle near under the Ceramic bulb... I tried it in different places but this positioning seems to work best for a constant gradient.

I have stressed a lot over the last two weeks, I think this is normal Good luck

[Sonya Bailey]

And my thoughts on your questions...

- how do i measure humidity and keep the tank humid enough?

buy a digital humidity sensor

- Also, they gave me the rest of their aspen wood chips and that seems like a weird substrate. Should i be using something else?

I think bark is best, some people use newspaper or kitchen rolls.

Thinking about all the changes that need to be made also brought to light a bunch of other questions for me about the snake's health and happiness.
- Is it stressful for t he snake to have things moved around, added, or taken away?

I have moved things round a lot in the past 2 weeks, maybe each snake is individual, mine seems to have dealt with this ok.

- The snake has no hides and seems to enjoy hiding inside shirts and hats while being handled. Can i use a beanie as a hide/hammock without posing safety issues?

Really think you need hides in there. You can use many things, ,most people seem to like plant pot bottoms with a hole cur out, but no sharp edges. Many say all hides should be identical so the snake doesn't favor one over the other and sacrifice heat or lack of for the hide.

- what should i look for to know if my snake likes or dislikes the decorations or items in his tank? Is he happy?

Thats a hard one, just watch and go with your gut feeling

- once all of his necessities are taken care of, i'd like to decorate his tank in a unique and creative way. Are there any materials that i should avoid or any i should definitely include?

Don't use tape ever! if you use things from outside make sure you clean them well, freeze them for 24h and then if you can heat them for 30mins, just to be sure they are safe. Don't ever use cedar bedding, it's toxic to snakes.

[marya1962]

One thing you can do, and it keeps humidity up, is to put in a water dish. I like to do it for my snakes because one likes to soak in it occasionally and the other drinks from hers.

Sent from my LGLS740 using Tapatalk

[Tash]

One thing you can do, and it keeps humidity up, is to put in a water dish. I like to do it for my snakes because one likes to soak in it occasionally and the other drinks from hers.

Sent from my LGLS740 using Tapatalk

Don't they all need water dishes/bowls of some kind? What else would they drink from?