First Time Feeding!

Yikes!!


That night time drop is nasty - If you have the means I'd recomend getting it sorted as quickly as you could.

There are a few things you could try off the top of my head.

Insulate the tank on 2 sides plus top and bottom (leave ventilation though please :) ) on it's own this isn't going to be enough but might help a little.

move the bulb holder over to the hot end and up the wattage of the bulb (and change it to a red bulb so it can be left on at night) . Fitting a lamp dimmer will give you partial control over the temps. This is the cheap option as a stopgap measure as the dimmer would need constant readjustment unless your room temperatures are stable.

But to be honest what I would actually recomend is getting a ceramic lamp socket and a ceramic heat bulb and finding a way of fitting it to the warm end controled via a good thermostat. It is however important that when you do that you make sure it isn't going to melt damage the lid ( I can't see what thats made of) and that the snake cannot come into contact with it and burn herself.

What kind of undertank heating are you using? the most recomended version on here is flexwatt but that also neess thermostatic control as it can reach 110f+ apparently.

you humidity is fine (50%-60% normally and 70% in shed are the recomended values) but thats probably down to your substrate drying out. What might be worth trying is switching over to newspaper - it looks less attractive and wont help you maintain humidity but it will not insulate the heatpad either. try reducing the depth of the substrate over the heat pad and moving one of the new hides over that area.

I forgot to mention when looking for the new hides you want something that is tight on the snake as that makes them feel more secure - upside down tupperware containers with holes cut in the rim for access work great and are extremely inexpensive.

I just spent yeasterday afternoon sawing coconuts in half to use as hides for my babies. :)

As to the guy in the petstore I don't know what to tell you - well I have a few ideas but this is a family friendly forum.

What you might also want to consider is keeping her in a tub as opposed to a tank - have a search on the caging section to see what I mean. As you might have to replace a lot of the equipment you are using it might be worth your while to go the whole hog.

Even if you don't you might want to look at securing the lid on your tank with straps or clips - ball pythons are great escape artists and are far stronger than you think. lifting off that lid would be little challenge for them. One of mine busted the metal hinges on an old aquarium lid once in an escape attempt.:eek:


dr del

On the mouse thing.


If they are not hungry/ secure enough they will ignore or even try and get away from the mouse.

This is why people who feed live have to watch the encounter as, left alone overnight say, it's not unknown for the mouse or rat to attack the snake and severly injure it.


dr del

great advice...seems like i'm going to be busy for the next few days, i'll get right on it. thanks again.

um...question...you said, "Insulate the tank on 2 sides plus top and bottom"...what exactly does that mean...and also, "move the bulb holder over to the hot end"...what exactly does that mean too? we already have everything on the hot end.

oh my god...so, i tried one last time tonight, to try and feed her. i don't know what happened, but it could've been that we didn't even take her out today, or something, but she ate :) i'm so happy right now...thanks for all of the suggestions everyone.

Good news,


Now make sure you get the temperatures up so she doesn't regurgitate her dinner. :)

Fingers crossed everyhting works out fine. :rockon:



dr del

Great looking snake but could you please resize them to be a bit smaller so they are under 800 pixels wide.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by nlankas

thanks dr. del, she is gorgeous, which is one of the reasons why we got her.
i know, the temperatures are too low, which is what we told the guy at the pet store, but he said it was fine? Our setup right now averages around 80 F on the warm side everyday, but drops to around 65-70 F at night! this is with how the cage is right now. The problem is, we can't seem to get the temperature to rise at all, even when we put everything on one side, like how it is currently. This is the only way we can even keep the temp. above 80 F.

---

you need to raise the temps to 90-92 (ground temp) on the hot side and 80-82 (ambient) on the cool side. For no reason should your snake's tank get below 80. If you don't warm it up your snake will most likely get sick.
Thank you for taking the initiative to seek help for your snake. It is now your duty to explain to your roommates that the snake is not a toy and it will never "want" to come out and be messed with. This could also be a reason that your snake is not eating. My advise to you is to fix your temps, get two identical hides, make sure your humidity is correct and don't handle your snake for a week or more so that it can become more comfortable in its new environment. Then it may think about eating again. I know its hard not to take them out but try to explain to your roommates. Good luck! Hope this helped.

everyone was a big help...thanks alot...i'm glad i have somewhere to go to get legitamate answers to all of my questions :) thanks.

Here is a forum link regarding insulation. We did this with our BP's and the temps instantly went up, so much so we had to get a smaller wattage bulb.

http://forgottenfriend.org/forum/viewtopic.php?t=642

We got our first BP about 2 months ago, the first week he didn't eat and the second week he did. We got 2 more about 2-3 weeks ago and still working on them, but I can tell they are a little more timid and stressed then the first one we got. Good luck!!!