Burrowing

Hi! I got a "free" 10 month old female ball python with "everything she needs." She's the first snake I've had in 25 years. I've had her almost 2 weeks now. Since "everything" wasn't anything close to adequate, I've spent the time getting her set up. She's eaten twice with no problem. I know I should have waited, but she wasn't being fed often enough in the first place and was already late for her regular feeding. I've also handled her and she's very sweet and friendly, not at all nippy or defensive.


Since I'd been struggling to get the heat situation under control, I hadn't dealt with the humidity problem yet- so of course she started a terrible shed. Today I went to get a little tub to soak her and also pick up some other stuff at the pet store. I'd been fretting that she was getting too big for her 10 gallon, and ended up meeting someone with a 20 long that wanted to trade for the 10. Since there was more room to work with, I got her some extra stuff like a second hide, a branch, and some fake foliage, and let her soak while I fixed up her new home. She's always had an aspen substrate, I put in cypress. The tank came with a UTH stuck to the bottom. I've never used the self stick before, I always just put it on the surface under the tank so there would be a little air space between it and the bottom of the tank. Anyway- I put her warm side hide over it and buried the probe of the thermometer under the substrate. The temperature of the glass hit 105 quickly. Since the substrate was thin I put a layer of aspen over it in that area, thick enough that she wouldn't accidentally come into contact with the glass. The temp on top of the substrate was 93 degrees.


Pandora loved her soak. I took her out and she happily worked her way through the towel in my hands until she had completed the shed except for a little piece on top of her head. She was pretty head-shy, but would sit still to let me spray it, so after a few attempts I put her in the tank to see if she could get it off herself. She cruised around, checking out her new enclosure and rubbing her head, then burrowed under the substrate on the warm side. I immediately unplugged the UTH and turned on the night light to keep that side warm. She popped out after a few minutes with the edges of the last bit of shed curling up and immediately rubbed it off on the glass. Yay! Figuring it was just shedding weirdness, I plugged the heater back in and watched her for a while. After a bit more exploring she burrowed under again so I unplugged the heater again. She came out after a while and went into the cool side hide. Fortunately I didn't plug back in before I fell asleep, because when I woke up she was almost completely buried in the substrate over the heater. She dragged the thermometer probe in with her and its reading 75.5 degrees (granted, it's 4:00 am) the cool side is 72 degrees. Too cold! It will warm up some during the day, but there's not going to be much difference between temperature zones and she's not getting belly heat. I'm not sure what to do. Any ideas?

Get a thermostat it'll help your heat issue :) place it between the heat pad and the glass. I have one tank still with a stick on heat pad, I sandwiched the thermostat probe between that an the glass an it works fine. I got the hydrofarm ones off of amazon for 30$. I never really have good luck with tanks and balls soon as I stop being lazy ill build a rack for males too

A t-stat is the most needed thing you will need. :gj:

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Originally Posted by PitOnTheProwl

A t-stat is the most needed thing you will need. :gj:

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x2

Budget:
http://www.hydrofarm.com/product.php?itemid=3372

High-end:
http://www.spyderrobotics.com

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Originally Posted by PitOnTheProwl

A t-stat is the most needed thing you will need. :gj:

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x3 and thanks for all the links! So what about tank temperatures? If I've got it set so the glass doesn't get any hotter than 90-95, and there's a 15 degree difference between temperature on the glass and temperature on top of the substrate... I guess the point is keeping the snake warm not the tank, and if she's cold she'll burrow towards the heat and then it doesn't really matter that there isn't much difference in ambient surface temperatures. But I really was hoping she wouldn't make it a habit- I like being able to see her and I didn't really want to encourage her to burrow. Oh well, I guess everything isn't always about me! :O

I'm figuring she's pretty stressed right now with all the changes and handling so I planned to leave her alone until Monday and offer a hopper, then another couple of days of solitude for digestion before I handle her again. I'll have to see what she does once she's secure in her new environment.

If she's happy she'll be under a hide anyways. Substrate shouldn't be more than 1/2" thick above the heat pad to make sure the snake can feel the heat without having to burrow too much.

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Originally Posted by Inarikins

If she's happy she'll be under a hide anyways. Substrate shouldn't be more than 1/2" thick above the heat pad to make sure the snake can feel the heat without having to burrow too much.

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How hot can the heat get? I thickened up the substrate because the thermometer said the glass was 105 degrees, and it was very warm to the touch. The substrate was thick, but 93 degrees on the surface. Since she spends a lot of time in the hide, I'm afraid she'll get burned. The glass in her last tank didn't get this hot because the heater wasn't in direct contact.

Unregulated a heat pad can get hot enough to burn your snake. If you get a t-stat and set it up so the heat pad is 93 degrees an put down some substrate like half inch or less it should be fine. Trying to regulate temps by adding or subtracting substrate doesn't work cuz the snake isn't gonna listen if you try telling her to leave it at a certain lvl. Buy the hydrofarm if money is tight it works good or the other one is a great t-stat but that will solve it

A UTH has been known to reach 120*+ unregulated. Having thick substrate doesn't necessarily guarantee your snake won't get burned because if the snake does burrow they can lay right on the glass and burn themselves badly.

Yeah, that's why I unplugged it as soon as she started to burrow. She was out for a while, now she's in the hide only partially under the substrate. I think she's hungry again, she looked like she was hunting. I'll get a thermostat as soon as I get paid again so I can plug the UTH in again. Meanwhile, daytime temps are in the low 80s in her tank and RH has been steady at 50 so she'll be ok until then. She never burrowed before, so I wasn't expecting it. Is it bad?