New to forum, new to BP's.

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Originally Posted by sw204me

I read on a couple sites that the belly pads mess up their body heat. so didnt grab one. I dont know what kind of thermostats they are, made by Flunker or something like that. Last he was fed was weds, but he wont leave his hide so im kind hesitant to even attempt to feed him..

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I would recommend you to provide belly heat, also when you say Flucker you mean thermometer not thermostat right?

If so those kinds are not accurate you need to measure your temps and humidity at the bottom of the enclosure with a digital thermometer/hydrometer that you can find at Walmart for 12$/13$ dollars it look like this http://i127.photobucket.com/albums/p...hermometer.jpg

When you mean wednesday you mean the last one or yesterday? Just feed him once a week same day every week, and he will get out of his hide when he will smell the prey.

BP spend most of their time hiding it is normal, as long as your BP is healthy, eating weekly, he will be ok.

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Originally Posted by sw204me

When I was a little kid, right now im 22, my best friend had a BP and that sucker was active as hell and was always all over the place....that cause the thing was stressed beyound belief? we also had a heat rock in there, which I now is not good to do... :(

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Well, Balls are like people... they're all different. I have some that spend nearly all of their time hiding, and will come out at night and basically sit on top of their hide. I also have others that love to roam around when the sun goes down and wake up frequently during the day if they "hear" a noise and like to come out and see what the commotion is all about.

Stressed snakes will quite often be moving around during the day and act very restless or act aggressively by hissing or striking out at you. It sounds like you're on the right track, though. :sweeet:

how ironic is that, I got a snake thats as lazy as I am...

he was fed Weds as in last week. And I was just reading about the digital thermostats, I got the ones that stick on the sides of the cage, which you all say are in accurate. So ill be swinging by wal-mart to take a look and see what they got, these allow you to monitor both sides are the same time? or only a side at a time? And what makes the ones that stick to the cage so bad?

Hello and Welcome to the sight!

on another note I have a 75w white heat light and I had a 75w infered heat light, the infered took the temp gauge and pegged it at 120 degrees, and the white like keeps it right at almost 100 degrees, I swapped out the 75w red bulb for a 50w and it keeps the gauge at 100ish degrees as well. are those temps ok? Ill post pics of my set-up, its nothing fancy, but I jsut want to make sure I'm doing everything the best I can...the reason I ask is I just read a post where a person was using like a 125w light and heat pads and thermisters and all this and that....my tank is no where near that complicated, are your all's?


Edit: Sorry for all the noob questions, just seems everything I read is the same thing I read previously just using different words and is rather vague, but with you all I get more exact answers.

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Originally Posted by sw204me

So ill be swinging by wal-mart to take a look and see what they got, these allow you to monitor both sides are the same time?

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You will be able to monitor the temps on both side as well as the humidity.

You just place the display on the cool side and the probe on the warm side.

The Accurites at Walmart measure both sides simultaniously PLUS the humidity accurately. It's definitely worth having.

GA Mentioned a "thermostat"--this is something that you plug your heat pad (or lamp) into and you use the thermostat to monitor how hot your heat source is getting--so you don't end up with a cooked BP! They're definitely good investments. A few good brands are: Ranco and Johnsons (~$75), Herpstat (~$100) and Helix (~$130). I know it seems pricey...but when it comes to your pet's safety over the course of his life, it's really not all that much money :)

And 100+ degrees is waaay to hot for a BP's warm side! It's not a wonder he hangs out in his cool hide--I imagine it's too hot for him with heat spikes of 120 degrees :) Also, there's the issue of the little stick-on heat readers being -reaaaly- inaccurate...so it could be hotter or cooler than the temps it's reading.


Cold side: 80-84 degrees
Warm side: 90-94 degrees
Humidity: 50-60%

Those are the generally-suggested guidelines--at least around this site :)

Also, I think it's generally believed that belly heat helps BPs digest their meals, so it might be a good idea to look into one.

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Originally Posted by sw204me

read in the 80's is where you wanna be....my buddy was laughing me, the one with the store, cause he just an emerald green tree boa in and it has to have 100% humidity, lol.

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Erm...I'm pretty sure that Emerald Tree Boas need more like 80-90% humidity? Someone can correct me if I'm wrong...but I think 100% would be a little high.

thanks for all the post, I just got done reading that huge sticky at the top of the forum and will make the proper adjust ments to the tank to make it a better home for it. And I took that bulb that spiked the temp to 120 out the sec I saw what it was doing. now on the warm side it ranges from 95-100, which also is really high, so my idea is to put a dimmer switch on the lamp to tone down the intensity of the light, yay or nay on that idea?

Quote:

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Originally Posted by sw204me

thanks for all the post, I just got done reading that huge sticky at the top of the forum and will make the proper adjust ments to the tank to make it a better home for it. And I took that bulb that spiked the temp to 120 out the sec I saw what it was doing. now on the warm side it ranges from 95-100, which also is really high, so my idea is to put a dimmer switch on the lamp to tone down the intensity of the light, yay or nay on that idea?

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A dimmer switch, or rheostat, will work fine as long as your room temps are stable. A thermostat would be better as it will keep the temps steady no matter what the room temps are. Also, I'm not sure how accurate your temps are anyway. If you're measuring the temps using those stick-on thermometers, you're getting temps of the glass and not the floor of the cage which is more important. The floor may be much warmer or colder than what is being reported by your stick-ons.