Few questions about and Racks/Cages

Hi,

Background

I'm relatively new to BPs I have only had one for a about a year now. I have a large 40g glass tank and it takes a ton of work to keep the humidity above 55%. I have tried all the tricks, foil top, moss, automatic mister etc.

When I first got him Benji was a great feeder never missed a meal. In the past 4 months his eating habits have gone sporadic. Sometimes when I put him in the feeding cage get ready to be feed and sometimes he just tries to escape. It looks like he has lost some weight and I'm little concerned. I'm attributing his change in eating behavior to the lack of humidity and perhaps the dryer season. He also rarely sheds and when it does it takes a while.

TL;DR Snake not eating/humidity issues.

Questions
1) I'm thinking of switching to a PVC rack http://www.animalplastics.com/ t3 or http://www.dragons4you.com/Cages.html any suggestions?

2) Can I use my UTH on these types of cages?

3) Can I put my glass tank on top of these cages?

4) What kind of snake would you suggest for a beginner that would work well in a 40g glass cage?

5) No shedding enough? Due to lack of growth and or humidity issues?

Thank you for taking time to read and answer my questions.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by narist

Hi,

Background

I'm relatively new to BPs I have only had one for a about a year now. I have a large 40g glass tank and it takes a ton of work to keep the humidity above 55%. I have tried all the tricks, foil top, moss, automatic mister etc.

When I first got him Benji was a great feeder never missed a meal. In the past 4 months his eating habits have gone sporadic. Sometimes when I put him in the feeding cage get ready to be feed and sometimes he just tries to escape. It looks like he has lost some weight and I'm little concerned. I'm attributing his change in eating behavior to the lack of humidity and perhaps the dryer season. He also rarely sheds and when it does it takes a while.

TL;DR Snake not eating/humidity issues.

Questions
1) I'm thinking of switching to a PVC rack http://www.animalplastics.com/ t3 or http://www.dragons4you.com/Cages.html any suggestions?

2) Can I use my UTH on these types of cages?

3) Can I put my glass tank on top of these cages?

4) What kind of snake would you suggest for a beginner that would work well in a 40g glass cage?

5) No shedding enough? Due to lack of growth and or humidity issues?

Thank you for taking time to read and answer my questions.

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1). Animal plastics is awesome for either racks or cages (so I've heard)

2). I suppose you could use your UTH. Usually you get flexwatt with a thermostat though.

3). I have. I laid a towel down before I placed the small tank ontop.

4). Dunno. I only keep bps.

Did Benji hit the 100gm mark or around this weight recently? BPs in my experience often stop reliably feeding at this mark. I prefer enclosures to racks, racks really do better in rooms at or near 80º they also are a pain to clean, many say other wise but I personally seem to spend forever doing mine. Reaching in to a 6 inch opening two feet deep is very difficult to thoroughly clean I have never found it easy or fast.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by narist

1) I'm thinking of switching to a PVC rack http://www.animalplastics.com/ t3 or http://www.dragons4you.com/Cages.html any suggestions?.

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I prefer tubs;)

Quote:

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Originally Posted by narist

2) Can I use my UTH on these types of cages?

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Yes

Quote:

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Originally Posted by narist

3) Can I put my glass tank on top of these cages?

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Yes

Quote:

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Originally Posted by narist

4) What kind of snake would you suggest for a beginner that would work well in a 40g glass cage?

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King or better yet a Dragon;)

Quote:

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Originally Posted by narist

5) No shedding enough? Due to lack of growth and or humidity issues?

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I would say growth. What is his weight?

Quote:

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Originally Posted by kitedemon

Did Benji hit the 100gm mark or around this weight recently? BPs in my experience often stop reliably feeding at this mark.

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I haven't weighed him in a while, but I'm pretty sure he is over 100g.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by PitOnTheProwl

I prefer tubs;)


King or better yet a Dragon;)


I would say growth. What is his weight?

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Since he is in my bedroom, I like the look of the cages over the tubs. I was thinking about getting a Dragon before I got my BP.

I think Kitedemon meant 1000g, as that is normally the "wall" I hear about.

Get yourself a food scale in the kitchen section of walmart/target, they run around $20 and are an invaluable piece of equipment for keeping an eye on weight and growth.

As far as racks vs glass cages vs pvc cages, I would go with a PVC Cage (like the t3 mentioned) as it is a gem at holding humidity, and maintaining ambient temps while still getting the display aspect from glass. Racks are great for multiple ball pythons, but if you are content with your single, pvc cage all the way.

Have you always moved him into another enclosure to feed? That is generally not recommended for BPs because it can stress them out. They can be more interested in finding security / safety than eating when moved to a new area for food. Not to mention, the whole "Cage food aggression" that pet stores like to tell you is a complete myth (at least with bp's, feel free to correct me as I thought it was a complete myth with all species but I'm not personally familiar with the more aggressive feeding species)

The growth could also be attributed to how often / size of prey. You say you have had your bp for a year, what is he eating / how often?


Edit: I see you mentioned you haven't weighed him in a "while" so disregard my part about the scale. Oopsie for misreading :)

I agree with roseyreps that it is better to feed in there enclosure. Look up snakebytes on YouTube. They had a myth episode where they did a not that scientific experiment on feeding in and feeding out of the enclosure.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by RoseyReps

I think Kitedemon meant 1000g, as that is normally the "wall" I hear about.

Get yourself a food scale in the kitchen section of walmart/target, they run around $20 and are an invaluable piece of equipment for keeping an eye on weight and growth.

As far as racks vs glass cages vs pvc cages, I would go with a PVC Cage (like the t3 mentioned) as it is a gem at holding humidity, and maintaining ambient temps while still getting the display aspect from glass. Racks are great for multiple ball pythons, but if you are content with your single, pvc cage all the way.

Have you always moved him into another enclosure to feed? That is generally not recommended for BPs because it can stress them out. They can be more interested in finding security / safety than eating when moved to a new area for food. Not to mention, the whole "Cage food aggression" that pet stores like to tell you is a complete myth (at least with bp's, feel free to correct me as I thought it was a complete myth with all species but I'm not personally familiar with the more aggressive feeding species)

The growth could also be attributed to how often / size of prey. You say you have had your bp for a year, what is he eating / how often?


Edit: I see you mentioned you haven't weighed him in a "while" so disregard my part about the scale. Oopsie for misreading :)

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Yes I have always fed him in a separate cage. Though recently I did try feeding him in his cage and it worked the first time, but twice after that it did not. I knew about the food aggression myth, I did it so he wouldn't digest substrate. Also it made it easier to do some spot cleaning/full on cleaning etc.

I was feeding him more frequently when I first got him, now I feed him (or try to) once a week. He eats large mice f/t. I haven't tried feeding him rats yet because he is too small and none of the local pet stores carry frozen rat pups.

I will weigh him when I get home and let you guys know.

I'm pretty set on getting the PVC, I'm just going to wait till I save up a bit of money.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by narist

Yes I have always fed him in a separate cage. Though recently I did try feeding him in his cage and it worked the first time, but twice after that it did not. I knew about the food aggression myth, I did it so he wouldn't digest substrate. Also it made it easier to do some spot cleaning/full on cleaning etc.

I was feeding him more frequently when I first got him, now I feed him (or try to) once a week. He eats large mice f/t. I haven't tried feeding him rats yet because he is too small and none of the local pet stores carry frozen rat pups.

I will weigh him when I get home and let you guys know.

I'm pretty set on getting the PVC, I'm just going to wait till I save up a bit of money.

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I think it's a if its not broke dont fix it type of thing. If you feed outside of enclosure and it works and you like it great. It's just not necessary. But why change what works.

I did mean 1000 gm. oops.