Tempz affecting my balls poo
I had my ball in a 15 gal with a 75w and the temps were normal and it would poop little turds like a small dog. But when i put it in a larger 55 to 65 gal the temps now stay in the low 80's.Ever since it only poops the white yellow bird looking poo. I just want to know if the loewr temps are affecting its digestive system. it has been a month now of no turds is it just constipated how do i fix this or is it normal
Re: Tempz affecting my balls poo
Do you have an under tank heater? Ball pythons benefit from belly heat, it helps them to digest their meals. I'm not sure about the poop. My ball pythons poop once about every three to four weeks.
Re: Tempz affecting my balls poo
The bird looking stuff is urates. Yes, ball pythons do poop out turds.
Re: Tempz affecting my balls poo
Quote:
"I had my ball in a 15 gal with a 75w and the temps were normal and it would poop little turds like a small dog. But when i put it in a larger 55 to 65 gal the temps now stay in the low 80's.Ever since it only poops the white yellow bird looking poo."
"75w" is not a temperature.
That said, I would bet dollars to donuts that your issue is husbandry related (i.e. you aren't meeting your snakes living requirements).
Re: Tempz affecting my balls poo
It's not at all uncommon for a ball python to go several weeks without pooing. If anything, if he was pooing frequently (relatively speaking) in the smaller enclosure, I would guess the temps might have been warmer than optimal and caused his metabolism to be faster than normal.
If you're sure your temps are correct...then I suspect you have nothing to worry about. He'll go again when he's good and ready to. ;)
Re: Tempz affecting my balls poo
Quote:
Originally Posted by
emiebeth
You have a UTH and overhead bulbs? You really only need one or the other...and the UTH is the best method because they need the belly heat for digestion. So long as you're controlling it with a thermostat, you can get the perfect temperature with just that, and it also would drastically help with humidity. Overhead heating sucks the humidity from the enclosure =)
I'm afraid I have to disagree with a couple of points here. A UTH is frequently not enough to heat a whole enclosure. Especially a large glass one. Supplemental heat from overhead is usually required. In a shallow plastic tub surrounded on three sides by the walls of the rack, a UTH is usually sufficient. But in a 55 gal glass tank, no way that will work unless the OP keeps his house at 80 degrees all the time.
The second point is the insistence I see more and more often from folks that BP's have to have belly heat. They don't. So long as the heat source warms the substrate and keeps the overall ambient temps in the proper ranges, they don't care where the heat comes from.
It IS true that overhead lamps suck humidity from the air...and that is an issue that almost all glass-tank keepers must deal with and overcome. But in any typical house, SOME supplemental heat will be needed in a glass tank, even if you had UTH's on both sides.
Re: Tempz affecting my balls poo
I will agree with Judy on most points, which is just further reason why fish cages are not the optimal (or even close to optimal) environments for a ball python.
Sure they're cool to look at , but it's realyl not about you. It's about the snake being healthy, happy and healthy.
Did I say healthy twice?....
Re: Tempz affecting my balls poo
so how are you addressing the humidity issue?
Quote:
Originally Posted by
JLC
I'm afraid I have to disagree with a couple of points here. A UTH is frequently not enough to heat a whole enclosure. Especially a large glass one. Supplemental heat from overhead is usually required. In a shallow plastic tub surrounded on three sides by the walls of the rack, a UTH is usually sufficient. But in a 55 gal glass tank, no way that will work unless the OP keeps his house at 80 degrees all the time.
The second point is the insistence I see more and more often from folks that BP's have to have belly heat. They don't. So long as the heat source warms the substrate and keeps the overall ambient temps in the proper ranges, they don't care where the heat comes from.
It IS true that overhead lamps suck humidity from the air...and that is an issue that almost all glass-tank keepers must deal with and overcome. But in any typical house, SOME supplemental heat will be needed in a glass tank, even if you had UTH's on both sides.
Re: Tempz affecting my balls poo
Yes, the bulb is fine. I prefer the red ones because you can (and should) leave them on 24/7 and it won't bother the snake.
As for humidity...it can be quite a challenge in such a large, glass tank. Covering most of the screen top with something to hold moisture in will help. People have used everything from aluminum foil to plastic wrap to specially cut sheets of plastic. A big, wide waterbowl will help because more surface area allows more water to evaporate into the air. Some people will wet a towel and lay that over the screen...and I've used wet wads of paper towels inside the enclosure when struggling with particularly dry conditions. Just be sure to change daily with stuff like that.
