first experience with bp

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Originally Posted by The Serpent Merchant

Heat lamps do have a place in this hobby

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I'm not trying to argue or anything. You do you. Just put a temp probe where your heat lamp shines. Better yet, use a temp gun and tell us what your readings are. Also the readings at the "point of contact", physical or where the light hits, where the snake can actually touch. Just saying that in my experience the temps get way way too hot. Maybe you have perfected a method?

I've been doing this a long time, not saying that you haven't, but I've seen melted tops and equipment, severe burns and broken glass in tanks. Not to mention totally drying out the air in the enclosure. Like I said, if you can make it work then bravo! :D

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Originally Posted by cecilbturtle

I'm not trying to argue or anything. You do you. Just put a temp probe where your heat lamp shines. Better yet, use a temp gun and tell us what your readings are. Also the readings at the "point of contact", physical or where the light hits, where the snake can actually touch. Just saying that in my experience the temps get way way too hot. Maybe you have perfected a method?

I've been doing this a long time, not saying that you haven't, but I've seen melted tops and equipment, severe burns and broken glass in tanks. Not to mention totally drying out the air in the enclosure. Like I said, if you can make it work then bravo! :D

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I completely agree that heat lamps alone get far too hot. Personally I have a few hooked up to thermostats to keep them in the proper ranges (not for BP's but other herps I own) Even cheap thermostats are more than satisfactory for heat lamps.

wait, so you don't use heat lamps for your snakes?

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Originally Posted by jfaria1891

i have heard nothing but good things about jkobylka reptiles and New England Reptiles (NERD). as far as healthy beautiful bp's go NERD is probably the best place to go. you will pay more but from what i understand their snakes are in perfect health and selectively bread to be beautiful. jkobylka is an awesome dude even if you dont buy off of him watch the videos on his youtube channel very informative and entertaining http://www.youtube.com/user/jkobylka?feature=CAQQwRs%3D His playlist called ProTips is very useful.

as of the last few years i refuse to buy anything from these places petsmart, petco, any chain petstore. i wont even buy items never mind animals i dont want to contribute to them being in business they get so many animals miss treated and killed because of the amount of false information they give out, not to mention they dont take care of their animals they couldnt even if they wanted to because they dont train their employees to care for the animals correctly. all they see is money and thats where they get off selling a normal bp baby for 80 bucks... seriously you can get a perfectly healthy one off any reasonable local dealer for 20-30 bucks who can give you correct advice so that this doesnt happen. Im sorry for your loss, petsmart and petco really are horrible places.

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I do see this in quite afew pet stores but to be honest the people at my local petco are quite knowledgeable. Most of them have quite a large collection of snakes and other reptiles from tegus to giant tortoises, I know that this is not the case in all petcos. Also I have seen these animals they are encouraged to bring pets to work with them and they all look healthy. Basicly Im trying to say that not all chain pet store employees are idiots.

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Originally Posted by cecilbturtle

wait, so you don't use heat lamps for your snakes?

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I use heat lamps on my Desert king snake, Leopard Gecko, and Bearded Dragon cages. My BP's, Carpet Python, and Dumeril's Boa cages all use flexwatt and/or radiant Heat panels. I live in florida so my apartment stays in the mid-upper 70's year round without having to run the heat too much.

The humidity in my apartment is very high 60% + usually, so I actually have to burn some off for my desert species.

Oh I didn't think I needed two hides I thought u really just need the one. I don't have a temp gage yet but I'm getting one today

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Originally Posted by Megz

Oh I didn't think I needed two hides I thought u really just need the one. I don't have a temp gage yet but I'm getting one today

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Check out this thread: http://ball-pythons.net/forums/showt...t-Thermometers

would it be better if I bought a small BP one or went ahead and bought a little bt bigger one??

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Originally Posted by shelby9189

would it be better if I bought a small BP one or went ahead and bought a little bt bigger one??

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If you are planning on putting it straight into size that tank, then a larger ball python would be the better choice.

wel what i was going to do was go to walmart and get one of those sterile tubs with a lid if i got a little one? would that be fine had a bunch of people tell me it would be?

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Originally Posted by shelby9189

wel what i was going to do was go to walmart and get one of those sterile tubs with a lid if i got a little one? would that be fine had a bunch of people tell me it would be?

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Yes, that would be perfect.

Checkout this thread if you plan on doing this: http://ball-pythons.net/forums/showt...e-Basics-*DUW*

Okay so I got the combo hygrometer and thermometer, i know that humidity should be 60% normally and yah 75-80% during shedding but what should the overall temp. be? That being said, i was wondering where the best place to put the probe is, should i put it in the hide or just anywhere on the warm side or a central location? To clarify i do not have a lamp i have a UTH (heating pad). I was given the impression that having the pad was enough, and that yah the heating lamps can dry out the cage and make it too hot. But i know that they have to bask so do i need the lamp as well or just one or the other?

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Originally Posted by Megz

Okay so I got the combo hygrometer and thermometer, i know that humidity should be 60% normally and yah 75-80% during shedding but what should the overall temp. be? That being said, i was wondering where the best place to put the probe is, should i put it in the hide or just anywhere on the warm side or a central location? To clarify i do not have a lamp i have a UTH (heating pad). I was given the impression that having the pad was enough, and that yah the heating lamps can dry out the cage and make it too hot. But i know that they have to bask so do i need the lamp as well or just one or the other?

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You want the probe to be directly over the center of the UTH placed on the glass floor of the tank. This is the same place that I would put the hot side hide.

You want the hot side to be 90 degrees and the cool side to be 80 degrees. No part of the cage should ever be over 95, or below 75 degrees. The box with the screen should be placed on the cool side of the cage (the side opposite of the UTH)

What type of substrate are you using in your cage? how thick of a layer?

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Originally Posted by shelby9189

would it be better if I bought a small BP one or went ahead and bought a little bt bigger one??

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If you want an older one maybe check http://www.petfinder.com They have lots of rescue places and animal shelters on there with BPs and other animals needed good homes. This way you could give a good home to a homeless BP :)

Yah I did that sweet but if its under the hide isnt it just taking that temperature. how do i measure the cold side? it had said to keep the box on the outside of the cage.

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Originally Posted by Megz

Yah I did that sweet but if its under the hide isnt it just taking that temperature. how do i measure the cold side? it had said to keep the box on the outside of the cage.

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Did you get this one? or something different?

http://i1186.photobucket.com/albums/...nt/photo-3.jpg

http://www.google.ca/imgres?q=exoter...9,r:1,s:0,i:78
I got this one cause i couldnt get the other.

if you dont see it: http://www.google.ca/imgres?q=exoter...9,r:1,s:0,i:78

ok, that one only measures 1 temperature so you will need a second one to measure the cool side temperature.

To answer your question i have Aspen shavings and its 2inch thick

To clarify i do not have a lamp i have a UTH (heating pad). I was given the impression that having the pad was enough, and that yah the heating lamps can dry out the cage and make it too hot. But i know that they have to bask so do i need the lamp as well or just one or the other?

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Originally Posted by Megz

To answer your question i have Aspen shavings and its 2inch thick

To clarify i do not have a lamp i have a UTH (heating pad). I was given the impression that having the pad was enough, and that yah the heating lamps can dry out the cage and make it too hot. But i know that they have to bask so do i need the lamp as well or just one or the other?

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You need to remove some of the aspen, your UTH can't do its job through that much aspen. I have found that 1/2" or less is best.

IF the room your cage is in stays above 75 degrees then a heat lamps isn't necessary. a UTH will be enough. UTH MUST be regulated by a thermoSTAT and monitored by a thermoMETER. unregulated UTHs will get to to 150+ degrees F more than enough to burn or even kill a BP.

UTH's do not change the temperature of the air in a cage so if the air temperature falls below 75 you will need a heat lamp to increase the air temperature.

how do you regulate it with a thermostat would it basically just tell u when to unplug it sorta thing?

Ok I'll check petfinder never thought of that thank you

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Originally Posted by Megz

how do you regulate it with a thermostat would it basically just tell u when to unplug it sorta thing?

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A thermostat uses a temperature probe to measure the temperature and automatically turn the UTH on and off (like the thermostat on a home air conditioner)

You set the temperature that you want it to stay at and it does the rest.

Here are some good thermostats. Stay away from the stuff sold at pet stores, they are overpriced and of very low quality.

Budget: The hydrofarm thermostat isn't very accurate, but will get the job done.

http://www.amazon.com/Hydrofarm-MTPR.../dp/B000NZZG3S

Quality: The herpstat is extremely accurate and has multiple safety features that make it the safest thermostat on the market currently. These are what I use on all of my cages:

http://spyderrobotics.com/home/products.html

Oh thats perfect okay thanks so much. what was the temp of the UTH again that it has to remain at? Also would the thermostat prob go on the outside of the UTH or between the UTH and tank?

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Originally Posted by Megz

Oh thats perfect okay thanks so much. what was the temp of the UTH again that it has to remain at? Also would the thermostat prob go on the outside of the UTH or between the UTH and tank?

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The probe should go in between the UTH and the bottom of the cage. You will set the thermostat so that the top of the substrate is between 88-92 degrees and the glass floor the the tank never gets above 95 degrees. (this is why the substrate layer needs to be 1/2" thick or less as a large amount of heat is lost to heating an inch or so of substrate)

I would stat by setting the thermostat to 95 and see what your cage temps are then adjust from there.

thanks :)

is misting the only way to increase humidity? sometimes i find it drops below 60% how can i fix that

Misting is one way, using a larger water dish is another. You can cover part of the screen top with aluminum foil or a damp towel to help keep it in.

Have another question. What do you feed a small BP again I know y'all said a pinkie is to small

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Originally Posted by shelby9189

Have another question. What do you feed a small BP again I know y'all said a pinkie is to small

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Aim for 10-15% of his/her body weight. For hatchlings, this is typically a rat fuzzy (smaller) or pup (larger). A $25 digital kitchen scale from Walmart/Target/etc. will save you a LOT of guesswork on what the feed, if your BP is losing too much weight during a fast, etc.

Ok so weight the snake and then 10-15% of the snake body weight?

Yes so if you had a 100 gram BP then you should feed him/her a 10-15 gram rodent

100 grams x 0.10 = 10 grams

100 grams x 0.15 = 15 grams

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as far as healthy beautiful bp's go NERD is probably the best place to go. you will pay more but from what i understand their snakes are in perfect health and selectively bread to be beautiful.

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Regarding the comment about NERD.... And Kevin is a good friend of mine.

Their snakes are not any healthier than any other reputable breeder. Even NERD loses animals from time to time, as do all the big breeders... It's a numbers game and as anyone's collection gets larger, they will too. It's part of keeping them.

That said, NERD is a breeder I often recommend, as well as many other smaller reputable breeders. My point is that Kevin's normals, or spiders or any other morph aren't "magically" better, just because they come from NERD and have a designer label on them.

Sent from my ADR6400L using Tapatalk 2

ok thank you.. and im not looking to spend a bunch of money right now on a bp i love them just cant afford some of the peoples prices i can really only afford normals trying to keep my price at $100

A Sterilite tub with a lid is exactly what I have shelby9189. I picked up a shelving unit from Walmart that had the proper dimensions to hold the tub ($30), a 32 quart Sterilite tub with the "locking" latches ($8), a small heavy bottomed crock dog bowl (-/+$2), an Accurite thermometer posted above ($12), a Hydrofarm thermostat, 2 identical hides (the RBI ones are great), and one 1 foot section of 11 inch Flexwatt heat tape (also from RBI). They will even mount the clips the conduct the heat for you for no charge. :) I used to have a glass tank like you and it was horrible to keep the humidity. The tub really does work waaaay better for that. I use the newspaper for the substrate which is easy and free thanks to those solicitous ads... make some holes in the tub for ventilation and voila. Snake enclosure. And room for more eventually. :gj: Pinkies are too small; we started off with a large hopper every 5 days and are now up to a full sized mouse or large rat pup every 5 days. The general rule of thumb without having to weigh is get food approximately as big around as the fattest part of the snake. Good luck with your next pet. Good to see you come and get yourself informed for next time... it's too bad you can't really rely on the stores selling the animals to have extensive knowledge of how to keep them long term.

Don't know if this has been posted yet or not but try looking at Vypyrz Set-up basics.

ok thank yall so much ladywraith is there anyway you could post or send me an email of what your bp home looks like?

where would be the best place to buy a thermometer/hygrometer

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Originally Posted by shelby9189

where would be the best place to buy a thermometer/hygrometer

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I buy mine at walmart or online. Pet stores charge way too much for their low quality products.

Here are a few good reptile online stores:

http://reptilebasics.com

http://lllreptile.com

http://www.bigappleherp.com

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Originally Posted by shelby9189

where would be the best place to buy a thermometer/hygrometer

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This is where I get mine. The thermometer takes a few extra days to get cause it's not from amazon directly. I have seen other ones posted from place that might be quicker. Just google searh for acu-rite.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00...A1FWOG4NHCL26V

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00...=ATVPDKIKX0DER

ok thank yall so much im just trying to figure out what else i need to do to get my tank set up for my new BP have a friend going to reptile expo for me this weekend since i live 9 hours from it lol my tank is already posted on one of theses pages if someone wants to give me their input:)

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Originally Posted by shelby9189

ok thank yall so much im just trying to figure out what else i need to do to get my tank set up for my new BP have a friend going to reptile expo for me this weekend since i live 9 hours from it lol my tank is already posted on one of theses pages if someone wants to give me their input:)

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You can't go wrong by following this thread.....http://ball-pythons.net/forums/showt...e-Basics-*DUW*
This is how I did mine and what Ladywraith described for you is pretty much how this guide shows you.

ok thank you so much

i think im going to stick with my 55 gal tank, i mean its already pretty much set up.. and if i have a heat lamp on one side do i have to have the heat pad?

I use tubs and im even gonna give you a tub when your husband comes to get him.
Tubs are so much easier to maintain.
So if you chose the tub route all you will need is the uth, thermostat, and thermometer/hygrometer.
I will even show your hubby my tub set up, you guys might like it more then the tank. If you do you can sell the tank for a little extra $$$

Sent from my LS670 using Tapatalk 2

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Originally Posted by shelby9189

i think im going to stick with my 55 gal tank, i mean its already pretty much set up.. and if i have a heat lamp on one side do i have to have the heat pad?

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No a heating pad is not required as long as the heat lamp can create a 90 degree hot side and an 80 degree cool side.

If you do end up getting a heating pad make sure that it is regulated by a thermostat.

ok lol thanks we may go that route if its easier ill just sell the tank and keep the stand that it is on if the tub will fit and im kinda going thru whats all been posted and writting notes down that way by the time my hubby gets home all i have to do is set it up

Depending on how old a snake i get you i will make sure to get you a tub that will last you awhile :)

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ok girl lol thanks again

So you can having just a heating pad and no lamp as long as the pad is regulated by a thermostat? I thought u need a lamp for basking purposes; or is that not necessary?