temperature ?!

They do not coil not because they are fat or obese, but because that is how they seemingly prefer to lay. For example, reticulated pythons are often seen resting in coils, and even ball pythons will rest in a loose coil. Contrary to this, bloods tend to lay loosely and sometimes quite stretched out. I've seen this in juveniles to adults; they are not tight coilers. Even the snake in your video is not tightly coiled when you take him out of the mulch. Has nothing to do with weight.

Just watched a bit of the other video.

He is right about some things but not about others imo/ime. Like I agree there is a comparatively narrow optimal temperature range for these guys, but as far as not keeping them in racks because they don't like being shoved? Sounds silly to me, and contrary to what I have found. There is nothing wrong with proper caging, and yes even proper rack caging.

And this guy LOST several bloods just a couple years ago to URI from low temps? That seems extremely preventable...

And then he is surprised that the blood python takes to the branch when it is stressed from being handled and there is absolutely no cover on the ground. I don't find that surprising. No one said bloods can't climb. If there was substrate or a hide on the ground though, I think the blood would much rather retreat there than into the branch.

Thank you Joe for the way you responded to my post. I was not trying to offend or anger you and it seems I was successful in sharing my views with you.

My big girl can definitely coil she is not obese and is very healthy and puppy dog tame. Like said above she, like my young ones just seem to lay out and not coil up.

I will have to watch the other video later. For some reason my phone will not play it.

Something to keep in mind on the cage vs. rack video is that the creator of the vid is also trying to sell cages, and is presenting a biased perspective (he doesn't build racks). Both racks and cages can be the right solution for bloods/STPs in a given situation, provided that the rack or cage appropriately meets the needs of the snake.

We have successfully bred bloods & STPs in both over the years, but ultimately find that our snakes are "happier" in rack systems. They are calmer, less flighty, less likely to meet us with a feeding response, and generally more predictable than when they were housed in cages. When they were in glass-fronted cages, they spent most of their time sitting under layers of paper. In the racks, they still have paper available under which to hide, but this behavior seems to be more the exception than the rule that it was in the cages.

I realize this deviates a bit from the original temperature question, so I'll also note that our snake rooms are calibrated to 80-82 degrees on average, and most of our animals do not receive supplemental heat. Those that do receive supplemental heat have radiant side heat creating a warm spot of 86-88 degrees.

$.02

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Kara

Something to keep in mind on the cage vs. rack video is that the creator of the vid is also trying to sell cages, and is presenting a biased perspective (he doesn't build racks)...

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The creator of the vid is also trying to sell racks, start the vid @ 4:20

Quote:

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Originally Posted by JoeNapoli

The creator of the vid is also trying to sell racks, start the vid @ 4:20

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I'm sorry, I should have specified that he is not trying to sell racks for blood pythons in this video, and apparently does not build racks of a size that is appropriate for adult bloods. Naturally he is going to present things from the perspective of "cages are better for bloods" since that is what he suggests & builds. My point is that it is beneficial to research more than one perspective before saying that racks aren't good for bloods, or that they are somehow detrimental to the snake's overall well-being. Just because one person couldn't successfully keep them in racks, doesn't mean that cages should be the ONLY solution considered, and vice-versa.

I agree with what has been said about the other video. Some good things, some bad. I think Kara summed it up pretty well.

I bought my pvc cages because I do enjoy being able to see my animal and I like how they display over a rack, but recently I got my first rack for my young bloods.

Now having used both I think my personal preference is the rack for bloods. The main reason is I like to keep them on a deep layer of mulch so they can burrow. I Feel they prefer this over hides. The problem with the mulch and the cages is even though the cage has a good size lip on it my big girl required such a thick layer of substrate that it would get pushed up past the lip and fall out when I opened the door(I have fold down doors). Also when I wanted to take her out she would drag her tail and usually knock out a good deal of mulch each time.

I now keep her on paper with a big hide. She doesn't seem to mind. She is well behaved, eats everything, and shows no sings of stress. I would just prefer to keep get on mulch.

In a identical cage I have a six foot BRB on a thinner layer of mulch. Even though he roots around the layer works out just fine and I really enjoy having him in the cage. I think it is great for him.

The reason I'm enjoying the racks is I can have the think layer of mulch and when I remove a snake I can lift it straight out and all the mulch stays in the tubs. I'm trying things out for now and have them set up with a big water bowl, hide, and a corner of deep mulch. One enjoys the hide, one the water bowl and hide, and the other the mulch. Eventually they will be on mulch alone but I didn't want to take their hides and give them new homes. I don't like to change to much to fast.

I know mulch falling on the floor is a pretty small complainant but I just don't like it. I have also enjoyed the ease of cleaning a tub vs. cleaning the cage.

One thing I did find strange about the video is his choice to use bloods to show off arboreal cages. It seems to me I would want to display the type of animal the cage was intended for. On the consumer side I would much rather see bloods in the type and size cage he would recommend so I could get a better idea of what I was buying. Maybe he doesn't have any arboreal snakes, I just thought that was alittle weird.

do i need to keep the heat mat 24 hours per day? or should i turn it off during night ?
right now i have night temps of 79F without heat pad on .

24/7 is good. Let them decide I'd they want to use it but keep it available.