Tell me to stay away!!!

I have 4 BP's; three adults, one juvenile. I love them all dearly but I am such a worrier! I've been teaching myself extensively about BP husbandry over the last year and a half and consider myself relatively knowledgeable at this point. Problem is, I continue to worry, worry, worry! I find myself CONSTANTLY checking up on the herp room every day. I'll check on each of em as soon as I wake up, after breakfast, before work, after work, a couple hours from then and again before bed. I don't know, I guess I fear one day I'll open an enclosure to find a dead snake or some other herp horror story. I know that they are timid creatures and need privacy. I fear my constant checking is stressing them out and may be causing my newest female to not feed. I need reinforcement on how often I should check up on them and possibly some ideas of what everyone does as a "routine checkup" per say.

Lol! I guess it's good to check on them, but not if you're lifting their hides and touching them every time. Honestly I check on mine once every evening mostly to make sure all the heating's working. I'd say check in the morning, then when you get home from work.

Honestly, if you keep your snakes into ther elder years, there will be that sad day when you really do open the cage to a dead snake. :(

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Originally Posted by Capray

Honestly, if you keep your snakes into ther elder years, there will be that sad day when you really do open the cage to a dead snake. :(

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Or not even into elder years: otherwise healthy-looking snakes just drop dead sometimes. The chance you take when keeping animals: they may get sick and they'll eventually pass. :(

Oh god, I do the same thing. I only have one snake and I keep her in a glass enclosure in my room. Any time I walk in there I'll peak in to see what she's up to. 80% of the time, she's just sleeping under her hide....yet, I still check in on her constantly. I'm just obsessed. :rolleyes: My boyfriend jokes that I love her more than I love him. lol :P

Once in the morning and once in the evening is plenty.

I spend a fair amount of time in my snake room, but I don't open every tub and check every snake every day. I peek in to make sure they are there, and check their water but that is about it.

Once a week I will take them out so I can clean and what not, but other then that they just chill :P You don't need to check on them like 100 times a day, they will be fine!

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Originally Posted by Annarose15

Once in the morning and once in the evening is plenty.

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Exactly that. I do more of a "poop check" in the am and the pm. At that time, is when Id look for or notice anything going wrong or different. I do check my possibly gravid females more often tho....but just a peek in to look for eggs.

If I'm home, I check my three 2-3 times a day. Mostly to make sure they're still in there, I think. With 4 cats and 2 dogs, an escapee could very easily meet a swift end. I'm almost neurotic about pushing the tubs all the way to the back (they're in an enclosed CSerpents rack so there's no danger of the tub going out the other end). Also, with two in shed I'm checking humidity more often, though I don't lift hides if I can see scales inside a hide. Right now the air temp is fluctuating from day to day so I'm often in there turning on or off the space heater. I don't know what I'm going to do this week with my brother home... They're in his room so I can't check as often with him home. :P

At a minimum twice a day, more out interest than anything else. However daily checks on water, temp, humidity, and potential clean ups is habit at this point.

I've just got one, and she's in a glass enclosure in my bedroom too. I look every time I come in the room to see where she is, what she's doing, how's her water/temps/humidity, has she pooped... Sometimes I watch her through the glass even if all she's doing is hiding in her hide, and if I haven't seen her come out for a while I'll open the top and lift her hide enough to make sure she's breathing.

If she was in a rack and I couldn't see her easily, I'd go nuts.