New to all of this.....LOTS OF QUESTIONS

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Originally Posted by ziggy7

Oh wow.....I do tend to be a bit obsessive at times so it's possible I may turn into a snake person....

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Sounds very familiar ... that's exactly what happened to me - our little Ball is my daughter's snake - she'd wanted one for a couple of years but we held out on it because I didn't really want one and my husband HATES all snakes - but she finally got her way and this little creature was infiltrated into our home some few months ago. I totally adore her and now have a (rescue) Corn of my own :) There's definitely something about BPs though .... :)

My goal is to get one of Adam's Morph Balls ;) - even though I live in the UK!!

I have finally (as in, this week) gone heat-lamp free, and I think it's terriffic! The humidity is finally consistantly over 50%. I didn't believe it was possible to get enough heat with UTH's alone, but it is. Of course, I have a larger tank, a 40, with a UTH on each side, each controlled by a probe thermostat. I'm certain you couldn't manage that with a 10 gallon. I'm so fed up with heatlamps. I got to a point where I was using three at once, and they're the biggest pain in the butt! I can only hope you don't end up buying tons of stuff you won't need like I did, lol. This snake of mine has cost me a fortune.

By the way, I don't recommend those half-logs either. I know they look all rustic and stuff but they really don't make the snake feel secure as they aren't "enclosed". You want something not only small in width but low and flat as well. They don't need headroom. And I use the cage carpeting because the aspen I used to use impeded the UTH's heat transfer way too much. I think newspaper might be okay, but the UTH manufacturers don't recommend it. My vet however said it was fine, even with the UTH's.

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Originally Posted by neithersparky

I have finally (as in, this week) gone heat-lamp free, and I think it's terriffic! The humidity is finally consistantly over 50%. I didn't believe it was possible to get enough heat with UTH's alone, but it is. Of course, I have a larger tank, a 40, with a UTH on each side, each controlled by a probe thermostat. I'm certain you couldn't manage that with a 10 gallon. I'm so fed up with heatlamps. I got to a point where I was using three at once, and they're the biggest pain in the butt! I can only hope you don't end up buying tons of stuff you won't need like I did, lol. This snake of mine has cost me a fortune.


By the way, I don't recommend those half-logs either. I know they look all rustic and stuff but they really don't make the snake feel secure as they aren't "enclosed". You want something not only small in width but low and flat as well. They don't need headroom. And I use the cage carpeting because the aspen I used to use impeded the UTH's heat transfer way too much. I think newspaper might be okay, but the UTH manufacturers don't recommend it. My vet however said it was fine, even with the UTH's.

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Oh I'm slowly but surely spending a fortune....I'm thinking of just screwing the whole glass aquarium thing and getting a cage that Adam recommended......heating it is for the birds:(

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Originally Posted by neithersparky

I have finally (as in, this week) gone heat-lamp free, and I think it's terriffic! The humidity is finally consistantly over 50%. I didn't believe it was possible to get enough heat with UTH's alone, but it is. Of course, I have a larger tank, a 40, with a UTH on each side, each controlled by a probe thermostat. I'm certain you couldn't manage that with a 10 gallon. I'm so fed up with heatlamps. I got to a point where I was using three at once, and they're the biggest pain in the butt! I can only hope you don't end up buying tons of stuff you won't need like I did, lol. This snake of mine has cost me a fortune.

By the way, I don't recommend those half-logs either. I know they look all rustic and stuff but they really don't make the snake feel secure as they aren't "enclosed". You want something not only small in width but low and flat as well. They don't need headroom. And I use the cage carpeting because the aspen I used to use impeded the UTH's heat transfer way too much. I think newspaper might be okay, but the UTH manufacturers don't recommend it. My vet however said it was fine, even with the UTH's.

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Question for you....is your tank a 40 gallon glass aquarium? And if so...I'm assuming you have a screen top...how do you keep the heat in there? I need to do something to make my snake less miserable....and now I think he's sick.....God I hope I don't kill him.

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Originally Posted by ziggy7

Question for you....is your tank a 40 gallon glass aquarium? And if so...I'm assuming you have a screen top...how do you keep the heat in there? I need to do something to make my snake less miserable....and now I think he's sick.....God I hope I don't kill him.

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My snake got sick the first week I had her because the &%#@ (as explained in another thread :) ) who sold her to me gave me a bunch of wrong info, namely, the wrong temp range, and sold me an inadequate setup. I'm going to give you some advice: take your snake to a vet, an exotics vet if you have one there. I'm not telling you to spend a hundred bucks on bloodwork, just have a vet *look* at the snake. I didn't take Duchess to a vet until last month, almost a year after getting her, and that was a mistake. I'd never had a snake before and I had no idea that she didn't even *look* right let alone as the bloodwork showed, had lots of problems. :( At least find somebody that you *trust* and know that they know what they're doing to look at the animal. Especially if its wheezing (as I assume you mean when you say its sick). Duchess is on antibiotics for her recurring respitory infections now, that's a total of seven injections over the course of a month I have to give her myself. It's to my advantage that I am a diabetic and am skilled at syringe-fu. ;) I'm not trying to freak you out, I just think if you've never had a snake before that you should find someone to look at it and feel it and listen to it breathe, and just make sure you didn't get a "lemon" like I did (I love Duchess but holy cow, she came with some serious baggage). But if it means anything, they're tough little buggers, as Her Royal Duchess plainly demonstrates. :) I doubt you'll "kill" your new baby.

Anyways yes I have a glass tank with an all-screen top. I'm thinking about covering the top with contact paper but I don't know if it will be necessary. I have had no problem with the heat, not now and not when I used heatlamps. The humidity is great, and that is with me running a humidifier in the room, not by humidifying the cage in any special way. If I put contact paper on now I figure that will actually *reduce* the humidity as the humidity of the room wouldn't be able to get in.

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Originally Posted by neithersparky

My snake got sick the first week I had her because the &%#@ (as explained in another thread :) ) who sold her to me gave me a bunch of wrong info, namely, the wrong temp range, and sold me an inadequate setup. I'm going to give you some advice: take your snake to a vet, an exotics vet if you have one there. I'm not telling you to spend a hundred bucks on bloodwork, just have a vet *look* at the snake. I didn't take Duchess to a vet until last month, almost a year after getting her, and that was a mistake. I'd never had a snake before and I had no idea that she didn't even *look* right let alone as the bloodwork showed, had lots of problems. :( At least find somebody that you *trust* and know that they know what they're doing to look at the animal. Especially if its wheezing (as I assume you mean when you say its sick). Duchess is on antibiotics for her recurring respitory infections now, that's a total of seven injections over the course of a month I have to give her myself. It's to my advantage that I am a diabetic and am skilled at syringe-fu. ;) I'm not trying to freak you out, I just think if you've never had a snake before that you should find someone to look at it and feel it and listen to it breathe, and just make sure you didn't get a "lemon" like I did (I love Duchess but holy cow, she came with some serious baggage). But if it means anything, they're tough little buggers, as Her Royal Duchess plainly demonstrates. :) I doubt you'll "kill" your new baby.

Anyways yes I have a glass tank with an all-screen top. I'm thinking about covering the top with contact paper but I don't know if it will be necessary. I have had no problem with the heat, not now and not when I used heatlamps. The humidity is great, and that is with me running a humidifier in the room, not by humidifying the cage in any special way. If I put contact paper on now I figure that will actually *reduce* the humidity as the humidity of the room wouldn't be able to get in.

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Wow....sounds like we bought our snakes at the same place.....gotta love it....I was given all the wrong info and just hope the snake doesn't suffer because of it...I have an appt. lined up for next week to take the snake in.....my boyfriend keeps saying we should get a bigger tank....he likes the critter cage...the one w/the sliding screen...is that what you have?

I don't know, it's a 40-gal glass tank with a sliding screen, don't know the brand name anymore. It's good that you're actually going to a vet, a lot of people don't even think that exotics need to go to a vet, for some reason. *shrug* Go figure people. :)

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Originally Posted by neithersparky

I don't know, it's a 40-gal glass tank with a sliding screen, don't know the brand name anymore. It's good that you're actually going to a vet, a lot of people don't even think that exotics need to go to a vet, for some reason. *shrug* Go figure people. :)

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Sounds like the critter cage...got the lock thing in the front???

Yeah...Adam recommended a vet for me to go to.....for me so not being a snake person and actually getting freaked out if I saw one at the store to this....wow....go figure.