Back Story and Questions.

[Meech]

This Sunday i went to the reptile expo in White Plains, it was amazing, People were everywhere and the snakes were beautiful. Most venders keep their snakes in good shape I went home with a beautiful 1 year old Orange Ghost, i just fell in love with her, she was so playful and i really wanted to get her home. I introduced her to her home and she stayed in the cool side for a while, i started to get nervous because i thought the tanks was too hot but then she went to the warm side about an hour later and has been in there overnight, im worried she might get too hot, the temperatures are good and the humidity is fine ( although its a constant battle) so here are my questions...


- how long do snakes usually stay on one side
- how long should i wait till i try to feed her
- how long should i wait till i handle her, my nephew wants to see her but i dont know if shes too stressed
- my daylight heat bulb fell yesterday so i used the red heat light overnight (like i usually do) but i have to keep that on til i get the other later, ( is this bad for her?)


Thankyou everyone for your answers in advanced, i appreciate everyone on this side.

[pariahdog]

with my ball pythons I usually wait 2 weeks before feeding to make sure they're settled and hopefully hungry. I try to wait the same length before handling. Ditch the heat light bulbs and get a UTH. The red light's not "bad" for her but she's not getting anything out of it. I don't use them but afaik they don't produce much heat. Don't worry, bps are sturdier than you might think

[Meech]

i have a UTH nut everyone talks about just using that but it doesnt make the tank temp anywhere near enough, its the correct size and it works, this is the second one i had because i thought it was broken but it just doesnt heat a 20 gal tank at all.

[pariahdog]

What size is it? How much of the tank does it cover? And most importantly, is it connected to a thermostat? When I used UTHs they got super hot when not on a thermostat. What brand are you using?

[Meech]

I have a Zoo Med heat pad for a 20 long tank, its stuck on the bottom under warm side hide.

[Willowy]

Yeah, you need a thermostat for the UTH. They don't do much for ambient temps, they're meant to provide belly heat. But if they're unregulated they can get to 120 degrees easily and cause burns. For some reason BPs don't realize when they're being burned so they don't move off the heat fast enough. If you don't want to spend too much, you can get a Hydrofarm seedling thermostat from Amazon for around $30. That's what I'm using, so far so good.

[Meech]

i have a thermostat, both the uth and heat lamp are connected

[pariahdog]

Can you post a pic of your setup? If the UTH is on a thermostat at the correct temps, there might be other issues (ex. substrate) that are causing it not to be as warm as it should be. Can you measure the exact temp that her hot spot is currently at? You might need to adjust the tstat (due to other factors I used to keep mine at 95 or so for the hot spot to be at in low 90s)

[Coluber42]

A lot depends on the room temperature outside the enclosure. I know that in my house in the winter, there's no way in heck that a UTH would heat a 20-gal tank anywhere near 80 degrees without some NASA-grade insulation. I use a UTH for the hot spot and heat the ambient temperature with a radiant heat panel, but a heat lamp or CHE would do that too. The difficulty of both of those is that they have to shine through the screen to do their job, which means you can't block off as much of the screen as you probably need to retain the desired humidity. So the warm air rises out through the screen where the lamp is, and carries away the moisture with it.
In any case though, insulation around three sides plus the bottom will help.

[Coluber42]

- how long do snakes usually stay on one side
- how long should i wait till i try to feed her
- how long should i wait till i handle her, my nephew wants to see her but i dont know if shes too stressed
- my daylight heat bulb fell yesterday so i used the red heat light overnight (like i usually do) but i have to keep that on til i get the other later, ( is this bad for her?)

Forgot to add... snakes may well stay on one side all day, particularly when they're new and scared and just don't want to come out right now. It's not a problem. And she may well have moved to the hot side and back when you weren't looking, too. Also, just because she's in the same spot in the morning that she was when you went to bed doesn't mean she didn't go for a stroll overnight.

She doesn't care what color the light is during the day, because she'll hide anyway. You only need the lamp for heat, so it really doesn't matter if it isn't daylight colored. She would not appreciate a full spectrum light overnight, though.

It's generally recommended to leave a new snake alone with no handling until it has fed successfully. But taking her out briefly to show her to your nephew is probably not a huge deal if you're letting her have her peace and quiet otherwise.