Problem Feeder

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Originally Posted by Kaorte

Ditch that half log hide. Those are useless. Find some of the "rock cave" type hides or find some opaque plastic containers and cut a small opening.

What are you controlling your heat source with and how are you measuring temps? With what kind of thermometer?

Also, when you say you are building a enclosure for her and your male, you are housing them separately right? just checking :)

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I have to look to see what kind of thermostat I have, cant remember, and yes they will be in different enclousers. Do not want either of them wanting to eat the other!

I will get the new hide for her this week. I am thinking it is stress related, but you never know.

Sounds like it. I would get two hides though, one for the warm side and one for the cool side. I would also have the UTH regulate the hot side and the CHE regulate the cool side or ambient temps. The CHE will kill your humidity, so you might has well have it on a lower setting so it doesn't eat it as much. A UTH is generally preferred for the hot side.

There is not enough room for a hide at both ends, she really likes to site in her water dish, so I had to up its size. And that was with me misting her tank every day when we first got her home. I was keeping the humidity at around 50-55%, slowly dropped it over the remaining weeks, and she still sits in the thing. She is just crazy!

I will also see about switching the two for right now. I am thinking that I will build her new enclosure this weekend, we will see how it all goes though.

Thanks for all the input.

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Originally Posted by ckeezer

I have to look to see what kind of thermostat I have, cant remember, and yes they will be in different enclousers. Do not want either of them wanting to eat the other!

I will get the new hide for her this week. I am thinking it is stress related, but you never know.

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I understand that they WILL be in separate enclosures.

Are they separate now?

Regarding sitting in her water dish - have you checked her out for mites?

Quote:

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Originally Posted by ckeezer

There is not enough room for a hide at both ends, she really likes to site in her water dish, so I had to up its size. And that was with me misting her tank every day when we first got her home. I was keeping the humidity at around 50-55%, slowly dropped it over the remaining weeks, and she still sits in the thing. She is just crazy!

I will also see about switching the two for right now. I am thinking that I will build her new enclosure this weekend, we will see how it all goes though.

Thanks for all the input.

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Ball pythons don't normally soak. Have you checked her and her enclosure for mites?

If you can't fit two hides in a 30g long then your hides are either too big, or its not really a 30g long. You should be able to fit two in there. There really is no need to have a gigantic swimming pool in the tank.

Yes I have checked her for mites. I did not see any on her. I check both of my snakes everytime I get the out of the cage.

Both snakes are in their own tanks now, and will be, unless they are breeding.

I am going to fix the whole situation with a new enclosure. I am building one this weekend that will be 3'X2' and will be using flexwatt to heat it. Should be a all around better environment for both snakes to be in. I am going to leave the small male in his 10gal until he gets a little bigger. No need to stress him out in a 3x2 enclosure.

It will take about a week to finish up the new cage, having to wait for everything to cure and all is a pain in the neck, but dont want to kill them.

I will let you all know what happens after that is done.

As an update:
I have moved her hide over to the side that has the UTH and am now trying to regulate the lamp to keep the AAT (ambient air temp) were it needs to be. I will remove the bigger water dish, and put back in my little one for her, this will also give her some more room to move around in.

I feel like such an amiture(sp?), I have owned snakes my whole life, and cant get this one right.

Thanks,
Chuck

No need to feel bad. If you raised the others from babies, they probably just adapted to your way of housing them. Her on the other hand, if she is used to something different that's why she is stressed. Of course balls can survive in lower humidity, and half hides. The information here is just what's best for them. So that we can try and get everyone uniformed. I took tupperware bowls and cut a hole in the side for my baby. It took me a week to get her to use them instead of her half hide. Now, that's all she uses. At least you have most of the basics down. :) Two heads are better than one :)

She may have been going into her water bowl because that is where she felt secure (if there are no signs of mites) because her hides didnt give her the security she needs. Can you take a picture of the enclosure with the hides? I think people may be able to offer you better advice then.

Sorry for the delay on the pictures. I took some time last night and re-did her enclosure. I added the tin-foil to the top 3/4 of the lid, Humidity is getting there at a steady 44-46%. I also hooked my thermometer up to the uth... that was dangerous, it was ready 102 when I first did it! no wonder she was not doing well!

So right now I have my thermostat hooked up to the uth with my thermometer as well. Reading 92-94 after some adjusting. Cool end is ready 80-85 with the heat lamp for right now. All this will change once I build her new enclosure this weekend.

I also took out the old half log thing and made a temp hide out of a tissue box.. put it in the tank and if she could have ran, that is what she did. Made a bee line right for it, and seems to love it now.

I would post a couple of pictures... but is does not give me this option. Says it is disabled or off for adding attachments.

load your pics thru photobucket.com, then use image code for pics, very easy :)