got my new snakes

well i got in my two large females and my pastel male ill get some pictures this weekend. still waiting on my thermostats that were supposed to be here last week. but despite that im only having a slight problem. the temps seem to be staying in the right area not exactly right the warm side is 88 ish and the cool side seems to be around 74 ish the the females seem to stay on the coool end though. will that be a problem? the male pastel in a seperate tank has a warm side of 90 and a cool side of 77. anyway once the my thermostats come in they are going into rubbermade tubs on heat tape. so i guess my question is will the temperatures being off hurt the snakes if its just for a few days?

Well first thing Congrats on getting the new kids.


Now for the big red flag...the way you wrote the post it sounds like you have housed the females together? If so you need to seperate them. Ball's are very shy and stress easily so one will end up dominating the other (whether you see it or not it is happening).

Also, how are you measuring your temps...they are still low. The cool side needs to be in the low 80's not the mid-70's. Here is a link to the care sheet on them.

http://www.ball-pythons.net/modules....warticle&id=59


Can't wait to see pictures

Temps that low could very well cause a RI. You need to get them bumped up ASAP. 92-94 on the warm side, 82-84 on the cool. What are you using to heat now?

well the females are together for now i have tubs for them as soon as my thermostats come in so its just temporary. i am using a 150 watt blacklight bulb for the females in a 75 gallon tank and the male has a 50 watt bulb in a ten gallon. i have a heater and an air conditioner in the room to try top temp controll it. the main problem is the heat tape fluctuates too much i have it on a dimmer switch but it will go from 80 degrees to 120 and there seems to be no way of controlling it. ill kick up the heat in the room a bit untill the thermostats come. hopefully today or tomorow. ive called every pet store in a 90 mi;le radius and most of them dont know what im talking about when i ask for a thermostat for reptiles. anyway thanks ill keep you posted. got to go to work now.

Who'd you buy the thermostats from?

well i work at a pet shop and i ordered them from loveland pet products. they were supposed to be on last weeks shipment but were on back order. then this week they were on the invoice as shipped but they werent in the shipment anywhere. so we called and made a big stink and they shipped them ups to us. but they still haven't showed up. so its driving me crazy. and the other question i forgot to answer... im have a digital thermometer with a probe in the cool ends and the stick on esu reptile temp humidity gages on the warm end of the tanks. what do you guys think the temp of the room should be im worried if i get room temp in the eighties it will get too hot. but would it be better for them to get a little too hot than too cold? i mean if the room is in the upper eighties then the lights would warm the tanks up to the high 90s would that be too warm or do you think that they would be better off?

ok so i turned up the AC to 84 and turned the heaters up to 80 so hopefully if the ambient room temp is above 80 then the lights shouldnt cook the snakes. ok so now im officially off to work . im gonna check one more time before i go . wish me luck