New owner concerned about possible respiratory infection

I am a new ball python owner, and I'm a little concerned about my snake. I hope that I am just overreacting but I've noticed that over the past week or so my snakes nostrils have become quite red. It's possible I'm overreacting, he has no other signs of respiratory infection: No mucus or crust around the nose, no mouth breathing, no wheezing or popping while breathing. However if there is something wrong i'd rather catch it fast. My snake Azul is a Blue Lucy and as such is pure white, this makes the red nostrils quite visible. I've already reduced the humidity and changed the substrate entirely, but I don't know what else I can do. I'd appreciate any suggestions or advice on how to further diagnose if this is early stages of a RI or just me being paranoid. Thanks!

I'm new too and I hope you get some good advice because I have not been able to find a checklist of symptoms for early RI either. My snake has made a few popping sounds but no other signs and is eating fine and I'm not sure if it is a possible RI or something else! Hope you get some good advice!

Pictures would help. What is your humidity and temps?

I will post pictures as soon as I can. My temp ranges from about 90 to 80 on the warm side and 80 to 70 on the cool side. I try to keep my humidity at around 60 but because I don't have an automated mister hooked up yet it tends to fall to about 30 when I'm at work or away from home for a few hours.

You need to stabilize your temps better. If you consider worst case.... 80-70... Your snake can and probably will get RI at those temps.

Any tips on how to stabilize the temp? I have a ceramic heating element, a basking light, and a blue night bulb, as well as an under tank heater.

That humidity range should be fine.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by ItzalRevenant

Any tips on how to stabilize the temp? I have a ceramic heating element, a basking light, and a blue night bulb, as well as an under tank heater.

---

Do you have a thermostat regulating any of those heating elements? How much temperature swing is there in the room you keep him in?

How are you measuring your temps and do you have a thermostat?

Yeah when you consider the wide ranges you have on both temps and humidity, you're going to be susceptible to RI. If things dipped to 80/70 and 30% for even just a moderate span of time, you're looking at perfect conditions for an infection

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Annarose15

That humidity range should be fine.



Do you have a thermostat regulating any of those heating elements? How much temperature swing is there in the room you keep him in?

---

x2

Anything below 75 is dangerous and can cause respiratory infections.

You should aim for:
Cool: 79-81
Hot: 88-90

Your humidity sounds fine.