Re: Young BP and new owner feeding concerns
Quote:
Originally Posted by
Sunnieskys
Even breeders use heat tape or heat panels for their snakes in racks. That's like saying I'll just heat my basement to 82 degrees and everyone should be fine. you will still have varying degrees all over the room. And heat rises so unless your snake is on the ceiling......lol
I am a breeder. The only thing that has heat tape in my little operation is my isolation rack because it is kept outside the main environment. I just turned on the heat tape in that rack last night because the ambient hit 82. It was off all spring and summer. I have over 100 animals that get by just fine on ambient between 84 and 88.
When you are keeping only one species, it is pretty easy and economical to set up an entire room like a giant incubator. The top of the rack does get warmer than the bottom, but that is what fans are for.
Re: Young BP and new owner feeding concerns
Quote:
Originally Posted by
SDA
Here is the thing about that and it irks me a bit...
Yes, heat pads and heat panels are necessary for a large amount of the people keeping cold blooded animals in temperate climates. I wish this hobby would be more uniform like the other pet care hobbies and stop saying conflicting information simply because someone is lucky enough to live in an environment that matches their pet snake's ideal habitat. An under tank heater and if the house temperature demands it, an above tank emitter or other sort of radiant panel is very necessary and should not be told to someone starting out they are not needed. Temperature and how to achieve it with the equipment in the hobby doesn't change. The only factor that changes is how warm the room that cage is kept in... period.
Something that is a proven in the vast majority of climates to support the healthy growth and vitality of a reptile should never be discouraged when advice to a new user is given. It is far simpler to tell someone get a heat mat/heat tape and CHE/RHP than it is to try and explain the engineering principles of heating a confined space to the exact conditions necessary in the geographic location of your point on the planet. It would be as foolish of me to explain the conditions I keep my snake in in West Tennessee as the gospel truth as it is to assume someone should do the same because they live in Canada or Southern Florida. Instead we offer standards of care that should be endorsed and followed to avoid confusion.
If you were not referring to my post, ignore this otherwise please give this some thought.
I also do not like inconsistencies so I deal with what is consistent. The needs of the animal are not going change. There are desirable methods to provide them and undesirable ones. On the desirable side we can say any heating or cooling source provided must be regulated. When you keep a lot of animals of the same species and you have the space life is much easier and in my case more economical to just treat an entire room like a giant incubator. This works for every climate.
If regulating a room is not feasible and or you do not have a lot of animals, regulated heat tape is the next best bet however even this method needs to be supplemented with radiant or ambient heat in extremely cold climates.
On the undesirable side there are tanks with screen lids with a heat lamp on top. It can work and some here have made it work great however this is the most inefficient method to heat and maintaining humidity is a war.
What I am getting at is understanding what the animal needs. Before I had a lot of animals I used heat tape and just left it on all year until a light bulb went off in my head and I realized that for most of the year I was solving a problem that didn't even exist. My house was already the right temp for the animals, why was I trying to heat them? They were never over the heat tape anyway.
Re: Young BP and new owner feeding concerns
To directly address the OP's question it's all about monitoring their weight and body condition.
They can lose ( at that size ) a few grams just through pooping and peeing but when their weight loses more than approx 5g I would be treating it as slightly worrying.
The advice given in the thread so far should hopefully help him start eating for you and avoid any panic. :)
