Went up to visit Kara at NERD to get a snake and setup, have major questions.

Yeah its really a great thing getting everything set up before hand, Im sure more questions/issues will come up before its time. Once you get it all set up you can just toss in the snake and let it chill for a week without having to bother it with rearranging and messing with stuff while its already stressed from the move.

What are you picking up btw? what morph?

oh man! I just lost my entire post!

*sigh* butterfingers!

anyway, I will try to retype it....

lots of good advice here!

My experiences are as follows:
I have a 48"x24"x18"tall plastic enclosure. It has flexiwatt under the floor that covers about half the bottom. I have that on a thermostat and the probe in my case is taped to the bottom of the enclosure under the substrate.
I have a digital thermometer/hygrometer on the cool side about 2 inches off the floor.
my room is 71 degrees and I have no other enclosures stacked on/under/around this one. (they add heat to each other if you do...nice benefit of multiple setups!)
I found that my cool side temps were not high enough with just the flexiwatt. The cage is just too large.
I insulated the enclosure heavily (if you want info on that let me know) but still it wasn't quite good enough.
Luckily I had ordered my enclosure with a built-in fixture on the hot side that could run a ceramic heat emitter. I added it and was all set for ambient heat on the cool side.
Many people recommend that you use a human heating pad laying on top of your enclosure to boost temps on the cool side if you need to. These pads have their own thermostat. I would recommend laying something heat reflective over the pad to make it more efficient.
This might be the way to go for you IF you end up needing it.

Another aspect of having a large display enclosure (I love them too!) is the process of transitioning your snake into it. Your snake will come from the breeder where it has lived its whole life in a small tub. Moving to a new place with a new owner is going to be stressful enough, and if the enclosure is large like yours it might really set your snake back on feeding due to being overwhelmed. So, in my case what I did was buy a medium sized tub about 12" x 20" x 8" deep with a secure lid. I burned ventilation holes in it, outfitted it with two hides and a water dish, and put the whole thing INSIDE the large enclosure on the cool side, which I maintained at 80F. Newspaper or paper towels as substrate since the tub runs humid.
When I brought my 6 month old snake home he lived in that tub with the lid on tight for many weeks while he adjusted. Once he was eating agressively and had shed for me, I slowly transitioned him into the larger enclosure one step at a time until finally I removed the tub completely. Minimizing change keeps the snake feeling secure and feeding well.
The tub will not go to waste after the transition since when you need to clean the enclosure you will need a secure place to put your pet while you are busy cleaning. That old tub will be the perfect thing for the lifetime of your snake!

So that's my $1.25
here are some pics:
The tub setup the day I brought my snake home:
http://i.ugtz.com/albums/Jens-Terrar...7_07.sized.jpg

longer shot showing the large enclosure with the tub in it:
http://i.ugtz.com/albums/Jens-Terrar...3433.sized.jpg

Enclosure post-transition. It took many weeks of changing one thing per week but it's finally done!
http://i.ugtz.com/albums/Jens-Terrar...8_07.sized.jpg

cypress is a mess when you first put it in. I recommend opening both doors for a few minutes every hour until it stops sending the humidity above 80%.
all that moisture is definitely what slows down the temperature response of the enclosure. Plus in my case my snake is living in there and all that humidity can't be good for him!

I plan to use Aspen in the summer when the room humidity is reasonable. Winters are so dry here I use cypress to compensate.

good luck!

Fish,

Your snake is gorgeous to say the least. You must be overwhelmed with joy having a setup like that and having it dialed in correctly. I am sure you remember the worry going into this, I just keep thinking "am I going to be able to provide the snake with what it needs" or is it just not going to happen? I live in New Englans and the weather here fluctuates so much it's insane.

I am just hoping to get things figured out by Saturday so I can get the snake and have 3 full days to monitor him in his enclosure before I head back to work.

I am in contact with Kara so I am sure she will help me figure things out. I just have that Saturday deadline in my head and I have been doing nothing other than reading here, reading the book Kara gave me and tweeking the enclosure. Last night when I went to bed I stuck the thermometer probe under the hide on the hotside and it was sitting at a nice 95 which was a nice starting point to start dialing things in. This morning due to recomendations here I took the stat probe out of the cage and taped it to the heat mat and I havent been able to get a temp over 82 and right now it's at 79.

I just want to get the fundamentals down and i'll feel better, it's allot to think about at first. I drank about 8 beers last night to cope with the stress, maybe that wasnt the smartest thing to do when your trying to use your brain huh ;)

Thanks for chiming in!

OMG!!! You got to meet Kara and see the NERD facility??!!! :O I am like, soo jealous. Lucky!!!!! :P Gorgeous snake. Whatcha gonna call em'?

I sure did 4thsnake!

All I can say is Oh My God! I could have walked around there for 8 hours. Hell, I was blown away just walking around the petstore, nevermind the upstairs area.It's not every day you can see a ton of beautiful BP morphs, two King Fishers, a couple cobras, a Gaboon Viper, and anything else you can imagine. Hearing those King Fishers laughing just reminded you every movie you have watched with a jungle scene, soo damn cool! I can't wait to go up and bring my snake home but he's in good hands ;)

Kingfishers??? I thought they had Kukkaburras (sp?)

Quote:

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Originally Posted by 4theSNAKElady

Kingfishers??? I thought they had Kukkaburras (sp?)

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They are Kookaburras :) And cuties.

you'll get there BostonMAck....I was exactly in your shoes just a couple months ago....reading, dialing in, visiting NERD, etc.

it seems like a huge mountain to climb but before you know it you'll be on top of things and amazed at how quick it was :)
one thing for sure: you are on the right track coming here and hooking up with Kara :rockon:

the temps thing you just need to play with for a few days. if you need to buy a heating pad it's just a quick trip to the drug store and you're good to go :)

Just about to head off to work. Man I wish I couls stay home and keep working on this.

Anyway, when I went to bed last night the temp was 82.1 under his hide on the warm side. After looking at it this morning it's only at 84.9 and the heat pad is not showing that it's even heating. It's like it cycled off yet I have it set to 100. My main concern is that this one pad is not going to be enough to heat this enclosure in my house. The area it's in has an ambient temp of about 70-72. When I get home tonight I am going to cut a piece of styrafoam to fit the bottom of the enclosure and hopefully direct some of that lost heat into the snakes enclosure.

I am going to give kara a call today and see what she says. Thanks!

~Jason

Azure,

My mistake, but they look very much like King Fishers. Very cool birds to say the least.